There are lots of causes of heart murmurs in cats, which can range from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, valvular endocardiosis (rare in cats though), physiologic murmurs (anemia, hyperthyroidism), endocarditis (serious infection of heart), etc. Finding out the cause of the murmur allows better specific treatment. Most regular vets, myself included, are not that great with the high-tech echocardiogram interpretation, or EKG, or even radiographs. So using a cardiologist is a good idea, at least to get the diagnosis. Most vets are pretty good at managing heart cases once they are diagnosed. Having a veterinary cardiologist available at your regular vet is a real luxury- most people have to travel several hours for such specialty services.

there was a very famious cat- a cornish rex that had a heart issue, not sure the kind, but it proved fate in the end.

My 12 year-old calico has a 'soft' heart murmur (grade 1 in April '08, grade 2 in October '08). Vet performed an X-ray and did not see any signs of an enlarged heart. She also had blood work for her thyroid (came back within normal range). Vet performed a special blood work (Cardiopet proBNP-sent out to lab) to evaluate the cardiovascular condition (I think the test was about $75-would have to check the bill). It came back fine. So no cardiologist for the time being--plus we would have to drive a couple of hours for that!
Hope this gives you some options before going the cardiologist route. Hope your cat is OK.
Anne-Marie

hmmmmmmmm, this is not the answers I wanted to hear. Besides the vet having one stop in, I'm close to 2 major animal hospitals, one which did a large study on cat murmurs,so finding a cardiologist won't be the issue. I'm really surprised she thought the murmur was louder, although, this cat only goes to the vet for annual shots, and the mumur was never an issue. (I have 2 other cats with health issues who go all the time)

I think I'll check out the major hospital and see what an estimate will be. Thank-you all.

Just out of curiosity, I checked my bill. The cardioPet blood test was $120 (not $75 as I mentioned). So, all together, that was a lot, but, at least, there was no invasive procedure, and my mind is more at peace. I would ask the vet to specify what he means by a 'louder' murmur (grade? apparently a murmur is graded from 1 to 5). My vet did not push the cardiologist at all.
Good luck, Anne-Marie

It's not necessary to spend all that money on a cardiologist. Any good vet can diagnose and treat a heart murmur. Most regular vets have ultrasound and EKG equipment. The ultrasound will show the most information.

An echocardiogram is definitely something I would refer, even though I have an ultrasound machine in my office, it does not have many features that are required for a good echo. I don't have color flow doppler (shows directional flow of blood), a way to measure thickness of the heart muscle (can't diagnose DCM or HCM without that feature). Plus I have not had the opportunity to learn how to do a proper echo yet (I may spend some CE time on this once I am in a clinic where I can use that skill). OTOH, some hospitals have better ultrasound machines and the vet has been trained to do echos- it depends. I am a whizz at abdominal ultrasound though- had lots of training and our equipment is more than adequate for that. Cardiopet is great and well worth the money IMHO; I've used them many times. However Cardiopet is NOT a blood test. It is an ECG done over the phone, and then a veterinary cardiologist reads and reports the results to your rDVM. Not all vets have Cardiopet equipment, but they most likely have their own ECG equipment for monitoring anesthetized patients and such. Just not all vets are comfortable reading ECGs.

Meghane, you got me confused...You wrote: However Cardiopet is NOT a blood test. Well, my vet did not explain much about the test itself, but I do know that he did draw blood (jugular AND leg) as he also needed blood for the WBC. A tech called me with the results (10 days later with little explanation) and sent me a copy on my request. I just did a search on the internet (see link below) and they do need a blood draw. I have to say you lost me. Are we talking about the same thing? I wished my vet had given me better explanations, but he is always on the run!
Anne-Marie

Here is a link that might be useful: Cardiopet

I have used Cardiopet quite often and can assure you that the BNP (the blood test) is not required. I use the ECG services only, never the BNP.

BNP is not useful in differentiating mild cardiomyopathy from normal cats in recent studies. It does show severe cardiomyopathy, but anyone (myself included) can figure that out, blood test is not needed. Also a normal BNP does not rule out significant disease. It can't rule in or rule out those annoying cases of coughing cats, helping the clinician differentiate between a heart problem or a lung problem, which was its intended purpose. An echocardiogram is more useful for diagnosing mild cardiomyopathy than the BNP. In other words, the BNP is a waste of money (sorry). The CBC is often useful in finding evidence of infection, chronic disease, etc. in cats so at least your kitty didn't donate blood for no reason.

However Cardiopet ECG services are excellent, especially for someone like me who takes FOREVER to interpret the results of an ECG, and never has the time between patients to even eat lunch, never mind sit down uninterrupted for 20 minutes to interpret results.

Wow.. Meghane! So this BNP test was a waste of money (and unnecessary stress on our cat)? Thank you so much for this explanation. This is a new vet for us, and I had not been comfortable with him (always on the run as I said). Well, I guess it is time for a change...
Thank you so much for your reply,
Anne-Marie

good idea