[lexijors]

Hello, unfortunately I am in a sticky spot with a male kitten we adopted from a rescue almost 2 months ago. We were made aware of a heart murmur at the time we adopted him and told murmurs in kittens are usually innocent and disappeared when they are older. He around 5 and a half months right now. He was the runt of the litter and very malnourished we got him, he is currently 4 pounds and change and hasn't gotten significantly bigger. The heart murmur was initially a grade 3/4 murmur at his check up a month ago. He had an echocardiogram of his heart which did not reveal any extreme congenital defect except for maybe some enlargement of his heart.

We really wanted to get him neutered as we also have a 3 year old neutered male cat. At his check up today the vet said his murmur is becoming more pronounced if anything and that she does not feel comfortable neutering him possibly EVER due to the risks of anesthesia. She referred him to see a cardiologist as well. Has anyone ever had experience with cats with heart murmurs, or consequentially living with an unneutered cat? My partner is quite firm that he wants to get him neutered as he has had bad experiences with intact cats. I am afraid of killing our poor little bean

 

[Mosi]

You need to go with the advice of the vet on this. Putting an animal with a heart murmur under anesthesia is a huge risk, and often the cat (or dog) will die on the table because the heart is just not strong enough. I wouldn't do it.

Your partner wants him neutered, and I fully understand that. But you cannot neuter this cat without risking some pretty poor odds of his dying in the process, even if you could find a vet who would do it, which is unlikely because it would be irresponsible of a vet to do that.

Basically, you have two choices. Keep this cat, and see if the heart murmur gets any better, which it could, or it might get worse, you don't know. If it got better with age you could possible have him neutered then. If not, you have to keep him intact.
The only other choice is return this cat to the rescue and let someone else adopt him who is willing to live with the murmur and his staying intact as a result.

If the murmur is getting worse and continues to do that instead of getting better, the little guy will not have a long life in all probability. There are, however, medications you can use that may prolong his life by making the murmur not get worse than it already is.

I don't have experience with a cat with a murmur but I do have a dog with one so I am speaking from that experience and all the talks I have had with my vet about it and the research I have done. It's the same for cats as for dogs.