Heart and kidney failure

Hi,

I am so sorry for the loss of your companion.

Heart disease in cats can indeed remain silent for a long time. Cats compensate for heart conditions very well and may not show any visible signs until an advanced stage. An echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) is the gold standard for characterising cardiomyopathy, but it isn't usually performed as a matter of course for a cat showing no suggestive clinical signs.

Furthermore, some feline cardiomyopathies can be present without an audible murmur, making them impossible to detect simply by listening with a stethoscope.

In your case, the fact that he had regular check-ups is important, but unfortunately, this doesn't guarantee that a silent heart condition would have been detected before complications arose.

Feline heart disease can sadly develop silently and only become apparent when the cat decompensates.

I wish you all the best and lots of strength during this difficult time,

Inès

I am so sorry for what you have been through with Roudoudou. What must be particularly hard is only finding out at the time of his euthanasia that he was also suffering from heart failure.

To answer your question, unfortunately, heart disease in cats can be present for a long time without showing any obvious signs. Some cats even remain completely asymptomatic at the start, and a stethoscope check-up won't detect every type of heart condition.

This is precisely why cardiomyopathy is sometimes only discovered when the cat begins to show signs of decompensation: lethargy, faster or laboured breathing, loss of appetite, etc. In some cases, the progression can unfortunately be very subtle before becoming sudden and severe.

The procedure that truly allows the structure and function of the heart to be examined is an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound). This is the gold standard for diagnosing cardiomyopathies in cats.

So, regarding your vet, it is difficult to say with any certainty whether the condition could have been detected earlier without knowing exactly what tests were performed at each visit. The fact that Roudoudou had regular check-ups doesn't unfortunately mean that a silent heart condition would have definitely been spotted.

And regarding his very large kidneys, I wouldn't draw any conclusions from that alone: you would need to know his test results and what the vets had found.

In any case, please don't feel guilty. You adopted him, you made sure he was looked after all these years, and you did the right thing when his health declined. ❤️

Chatzen 🐾