The title may seem concerning to readers. It certainly concerned me which is why I am writing about it. The information comes from a scientific study so it is pretty sound. The researchers tested 1007 cats over the age of 6 months in shelters. They were all healthy on the face of it.
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| Tabby shelter cat keen to be adopted. Image in the public domain. |
Of the 1007 they obtained 'complete data' for 780. 40.8% had a heart murmur. Although I understand that this condition does not automatically mean that the cat has heart disease. That said the percentage is high.
The scientists concluded with the following words:
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is common in apparently healthy cats, in contrast with other cardiomyopathies. Heart murmurs are also common, and are often functional.
I am unsure what the phrase 'often functional' means in this context. Taking a common sense interpretation it means that the heart although diseased functioned.
Comment: 15% is a high percentage. It encourages me to believe that tests for HCM should be conducted on all shelter cats as a default procedure. The study might not represent the general shelter cat population.
If I was adopting a shelter cat I think I'd ask about HCM and whether they did tests.
Study details: Cardiomyopathy prevalence in 780 apparently healthy cats in rehoming centres (the CatScan study). Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvc.2015.03.008
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