Timothy had his last annual in October 2022. No signs of a murmur then.
He had his first shot of solensia February 1st. I can't remember if they listened to his heart then, I don't think so, we were there to get his eyes looked at - he's got some colour changes that need to be monitored, I forget what it's called, but it doesn't look bad, we're going to continue to monitor for now.
Anyways, he had his second shot yesterday (March 1st). We're seeing some improvements with the solensia which is really nice.
The shot was with the vet tech, who listened to his heart, took his temp, gave him the once over. He listened to his heart, listened again, went out, came back in, listened again, and then said 'I hear a heart murmur, I believe grade 2, we have no prior history' (this July we will have had Timothy for 6 or 7 years I THINK, so there is fairly comprehensive history. He turns 15 in October). He got the doctor to come in and give a listen, and she concurred.
She said as grade 2, we can monitor, though of course that won't tell us WHY it's suddenly appearing. Timothy is a pretty calm cat, even at the vet.
She said if we want, we can consider an ultrasound, but I remember when our last dog to pass (we have three dogs currently, and Timothy and Cordelia the cats) had heart stuff them quoting around $700 for an ultrasound, and that was over 4 years ago (we ended up going to a specialist with him).
Anyways, we don't have the cash for that right now (I would expect with inflation etc. it to be significantly more expensive), and I'm not sure how helpful it would be at the moment anyways.
I'm not sure what I'm asking. Many of my cats have had murmurs, so I'm not panicking, but I'm wondering if there's anything we need to be aware of.
If it helps, he has arthritis (hence the solensia). Eats Hills oral care (but he'll eat ANYTHING - Cordelia is pickier; when we adopted him he ate various grain-free wet foods, and then different grain-free kibbles, mainly Acana, before switching to Pro Plan and now the oral care) and we're restarting fish oil. When we adopted him he weighed 23.4lbs (somewhere here there is a thread) and weighed 13lbs yesterday. He's at a 'healthy' weight but given his arthritis I wouldn't mind him losing a bit more.
He had his first shot of solensia February 1st. I can't remember if they listened to his heart then, I don't think so, we were there to get his eyes looked at - he's got some colour changes that need to be monitored, I forget what it's called, but it doesn't look bad, we're going to continue to monitor for now.
Anyways, he had his second shot yesterday (March 1st). We're seeing some improvements with the solensia which is really nice.
The shot was with the vet tech, who listened to his heart, took his temp, gave him the once over. He listened to his heart, listened again, went out, came back in, listened again, and then said 'I hear a heart murmur, I believe grade 2, we have no prior history' (this July we will have had Timothy for 6 or 7 years I THINK, so there is fairly comprehensive history. He turns 15 in October). He got the doctor to come in and give a listen, and she concurred.
She said as grade 2, we can monitor, though of course that won't tell us WHY it's suddenly appearing. Timothy is a pretty calm cat, even at the vet.
She said if we want, we can consider an ultrasound, but I remember when our last dog to pass (we have three dogs currently, and Timothy and Cordelia the cats) had heart stuff them quoting around $700 for an ultrasound, and that was over 4 years ago (we ended up going to a specialist with him).
Anyways, we don't have the cash for that right now (I would expect with inflation etc. it to be significantly more expensive), and I'm not sure how helpful it would be at the moment anyways.
I'm not sure what I'm asking. Many of my cats have had murmurs, so I'm not panicking, but I'm wondering if there's anything we need to be aware of.
If it helps, he has arthritis (hence the solensia). Eats Hills oral care (but he'll eat ANYTHING - Cordelia is pickier; when we adopted him he ate various grain-free wet foods, and then different grain-free kibbles, mainly Acana, before switching to Pro Plan and now the oral care) and we're restarting fish oil. When we adopted him he weighed 23.4lbs (somewhere here there is a thread) and weighed 13lbs yesterday. He's at a 'healthy' weight but given his arthritis I wouldn't mind him losing a bit more.
Our female hyperthyroid cat has always been a pound or two overweight. She should be about 9 pounds, but she's up to 11 now. I'm trying to get her to lose a little bit, but she keeps eating her brother's food. I am hopefully getting our third microchip feeder in the mail on Saturday to solve that problem!
