Cat heart murmur and incompetent humane society vet

"mdsu" wrote in message
...
I'll clean Charlie's teeth 2-3 times/week. For the time being, I am not
going to take Charlie to the cardiologist. $500 is a lot of money to
spend for a "maybe." I'll watch him and get him the care if and when he
needs it.

I would rethink that decision if I were you. If you wait for him to become
symptomatic, the problem will be harder to treat. Most heart problems in
cats respond to treatment better in the early stages. Getting an accurate
diagnosis and treatment now might delay progression or even reverse certain
types of conditions so that he doesn't become symptomatic.

Also, how do you know your vet made the right call? He could have mistaken
a heart sound or lung sound for a murmur- especially if he used an adult
stethoscope.

Think it over.

Suddenly, without warning, mdsu exclaimed (05-Oct-06 12:21 AM):
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.
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.

Rich

My cat has an intermittent heart murmur. Same vet hears it sometimes,
sometimes not. So there may have *been* no murmur for the humane
society vet to hear.

So, it's likely the vet is neither incompetent, or withholding information.

Incidentally, murmurs are not terribly uncommon in young cats, and often
clear up as they get older. You can find information on this on the
'net, with a bit of googling.


jmc