Heart Murmur In Cats Grade 2
Cats Protection will only refer a cat to a specialist if classed as grade 5 or 6.
Heart murmur in cats grade 2. Heart murmurs are caused by turbulence in the blood flow through the heart. She immediately said we needed to do an echo because HCM is common but would talk with the cardiologist first. The grade of murmur does not necessarily mean heart disease is more or less severe or even present.
A heart murmur may be heard by your vet when he or she listens to your cats heart. Heart murmurs are graded on a scale of 1 to 6. There are usually no external symptoms clinical signs of a heart murmur in itself.
For example a dynamic grade IIIIVI murmur describes a murmur that has an intensity that varies throughout the auscultation period from difficult to hear grade I to immediately identifiable grade III. Birth defects and feline cardiomyopathy cause serious murmurs and hyperthyroidism can also cause heart murmurs. Murmur intensity or grade is defined below.
Heart murmurs A heart murmur means that in addition to normal lub-dub heart sounds the vet can also hear extra sounds when listening with a stethoscope. Some normal adult cats may have an intermittent heart murmur that shows up. This results in an abnormal noise which can be heard by your vet when listening with a stethoscope.
Your veterinarian will grade the heart murmur out of 6 with 66 being the loudest murmur. She can feel it by placing her hand over the cats heart. On the other hand Grades 56 indicate that the heart murmur in cats is extremely loud and intense.
How are heart murmurs assessed. What is a heart murmur. A murmur can occur because of another disease such as hyperthyroidism high blood pressure or anaemia.