-L. wrote:
mdsu wrote:
As some of you may know, I just adopted two cats from my local humane
society last week. They had their first appointment with my vet this
morning. She detected a heart murmur in the male, Charlie. My vet
recommended that I follow up with the animal cardiologist to the tune of
$500! My vet said the heart murmur could be nothing (I have a heart
murmur that's caused me no problems). On the other hand, it could be
something more involved.

My last cat, Al, died at the end of August. He had diabetes, asthma, and
hyperthyroidism. I spent thousands of dollars on his health care. But he
was fine up until he reached the age of 11 or so. Given my experience
with Al, I am more than a little reluctant to start incurring large
medical bills with a 1 year old cat I got a week ago.

It seems to me that the humane society's vet is incompetent. All he or
she had to do was listen to Charlie's chest to hear the murmur. If my
vet heard it, then their vet should have been able to hear it as well.

Not necessartily. If the exam was done while the cat was scared, the
rapid beating of the heart may have masked the murmur. Murmurs can
sometimes be hard to diagnose.


And to be honest, I would not have adopted Charlie had I known he had a
medical issue, at least not unless the humane society had certified that
the murmur was not serious. But they didn't do that.

I'm more than a little angry about this situation and have let the
humane society know about it. If their vet is not incompetent, then I'm
led to the conclusion that they purposely withheld information from me
about Charlie's medical condition.

Unlikely - the vet probably just missed it upon exam. Most Humane
Societies have a liberal return policy. If you are that upset about
this, take the cat back to the HS.

-L.

Please, I've heard enough of that from the Humane Society. There's a
difference between being frustrated and being mean. Charlie is not a
vacuum cleaner that I will return because something is wrong. I've
already become quite attached to him and vice versa. If it turns out
that he needs to be seen by a cardiologist, then I will see to it.

Rich