Heart problems

Emma S

I took my cat Roger (Male, 10 yrs old, Moggy) to the vets on Tuesday because he hadn´t ate anything since Sunday and he was acting odd (not going outside, not moving much, and he had recently lost a lot of weight) So the first vet I saw listened to his heart and said he needed a X-ray to look at his heart because he may have heart disease. So I took him in this morning for his X-ray and a 2nd vet listened to his heart and said he has a irregular heart beat and his weight loss could be due to a hyper-thyroid, so Roger had some blood taken for tests. We are awaiting the blood test results but in the meantime the vet put him on tablets for his heart, which he has to take every day!
In the last few years Roger has had problems with urinary crystals and he is now on a strict diet (Royal Canin). The 2nd vet we saw implyed that Roger´s recently heart problems could be due to the high salt content in his food. Does anyone else have any experience with this or heart problems in cats?

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06. Cats

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30 Nov 2008 11:23

Emma S

Thanks Cat. Unfortunately Roger died last night due to blood clots which left him unable to move his back legs. The vet did say this was a common problem with heart problems in cats.

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28 Nov 2008 15:02

Cat the Vet

Hi Emma,

I would consider it unlikely that the Royal Canin diet has had any effect on your cats heart condition, the prescription diets are very carefully formulated to treat illnesses while not causing any detrimental effects. Royal Canin Urinary diet does have a slightly increased salt content, which encourages the cat to drink and produce more urine, but it is not overly high.

Heart problems are sadly common in older cats and are often secondary to hyperthyroidism. They also tend to be diagnosed fairly late on in the disease as cats are very good at hiding the signs of the illness.

I hope this answers your questions, Royal Canin do have a customer care line, the number will be on the bag of food, if you want to ask them any questions.

Cat