Heart Disease

The heart itself needs nutrients and oxygen. One nutrient in particular: Taurine is crucial. If it is missing, the heart will undergo irreversible changes that impede its function, and eventually result in failure. Feeding you cat a high quality food can help to prevent this from happening.

Cardiac disease is often heralded by a heart murmur. This most often occurs when one or more of the heart valves is not working well, and creates turbulence in the blood flow of the heart. Your veterinarian can diagnose this during a physical examination and make recommendations for further diagnostics.

Most of the time, an ultrasound of the heart is recommended. This enables a cardiologist to determine which valve if any is at fault, and what changes the heart has undergone to make up for the lack of efficiency the valve has caused. Depending on the results, medication may be prescribed to help the heart function better, and halt or slow down further structural changes (the changes initially help the heart work better but eventually get in the way, just like a weight lifter initially gets stronger, but eventually can't lower his arms fully anymore).

A heart murmur can appear in the healthiest of animals, sometimes in just a few days time. Regular check ups, are crucial in catching a cardiac disease early in order to treat optimally.