Enlarged heart?

[Nicaboli]

Hi there. I have a 19 week old F1 male savannah. His name is Mango. We take him to a cat only vet and he has been there 3 times this month so far. He has had respiratory issues and giarda since day 1. Long story short, the vet took x-rays of his lungs on Friday. She told me his lungs look great but she is concerned with his heart looking enlarged. This is her first time having a savannah as a patient, so I asked her if maybe Mango's heart looks enlarged because he is a larger cat due to his breed. Has anyone had any experience with this? Mango is 19 weeks old and 6.7lbs. Thanks for any help!

 

[Carykd7kau]

I cannot speak to this as I do not know, but I did want to welcome you to the forum, Nicaboli, and send my love and energy to Mango. ( and to you too, If you need some.) Hope that all goes well.

 

[Tort518]

I cannot speak to this as I do not know, but I did want to welcome you to the forum, Nicaboli, and send my love and energy to Mango. ( and to you too, If you need some.) Hope that all goes well.

I want to echo what Cary said. Welcome and best wishes for Mango. Any pictures you can post?

 

[Nicaboli]

Thank you both so much! I am so glad that Savannah Cat Chat is here. What a great place for like-minded cat lovers

 

[Patti]

I have heard some vets say that Savannah hearts seem larger but here is the bottom line - a heart should take up a certain amount of space in the chest. For instance, in a human if you look at a chest x-ray and measure it out you will see that the heart takes up about 1/2 the total chest space. A Savannah's heart should not be larger than any other domestic cat's heart. It may look larger than normal because an F1 is typically larger than a domestic cat at the same age, but it should have the same heart-to-chest ratio as any other cat.

If Mango's heart is enlarged then my question would be, did the vet hear any kind of heart murmur when she listened to him? What did she recommend as follow-up to further evaluate the heart? If she has recommended an echocardiogram I would agree with that, but would personally try to wait until he is at least six months old, since it will be easier to get an echo when he is a bit older. If there is a murmur or other signs/symptoms of heart problems then I would get it sooner rather than later.

 

[Nicaboli]

Patti, thank you. That is helpful information to know. She said his heart sounds good. Mango has seen two of the vets there and they both said his heart sounds normal. They checked again when I mentioned he pants when he plays around...they seemed concerned about that. An echo was recommended as the next step. The vet said she is going to do some research on savannahs and will let me know what she comes up with when he goes back to see her in 2 weeks. I will take your advice on waiting until at least 6 months for the echo unless the vet seems to think its something that needs to be done sooner. Thanks again

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

I agree with Patti, it may be that a cat that is large has a large heart but it should still be proportional in the chest. I had a cardiologist note this with my larger SV boy Baz once.

I don't know where you are located, but if you are anywhere near Los Angeles, CA there is a fabulous vet cardiologist (Dr Sarah Miller) that has screened probably the most SVs of any cardiologist.

I've had a lot of Savannahs screened over the past 11 years, Baz is the only one that had the anecdotal "large heart" comment, and given it was the cardiologist that sees a lot of Savannahs...I do not believe that an enlarged heart is a Savannah trait.

I might though suspect that a large growing kitten might put some stress on a heart hence if there was anything slighty awry it might be magnified and the heart enlargement be due to this. Definitely wait until 6 months if possible to do the ultrasound.

Baz, the cat mentioned earlier, had a significant heart murmur at 12 weeks of age. We did do an ultrasound then to see if anything could be determined even though he was so young. All we could really see was a huge amount of turbulence in the chambers. The most likely cause was a hole between two chambers. By 16 weeks his murmur had dissipated to a 1 and by six months was gone unless you knew of the issue. An ultrasound at 6 months showed a normal healthy heart. And then at 2 years of age I took him to Dr Miller and she said she wanted to keep his exam as an example of the epitome of normal. It seems that there was a break between two chambers of the heart that as he grew repaired itself. It can happen and likely is the cause of when we hear a bad murmur in a young kitten that disappears. Still... I was always going to check it out via ultrasound for my own peace of mind!

I hope you get the respiratory issues and giardia cleared up soon and Mango does well! What are they treating him with at present?

 

[Nicaboli]

Hi, Brigitte and thank you for your information. Mango was on a 5 day liquid treatment of a medication (I forgot the name of it...began with a P), and then when he still tested positive for giardia, he was put on metronidazole, which he is currently on. For the respiratory symptoms, he was put on 10 days of doxycycline. When the vet saw him on Friday and he still had a weepy right eye and congestion, she said to keep him on it for 10 more days. Poor guy....so much medication at such a young age! I thought savannahs were supposed to be a really healthy breed? At least that's what I heard on Animal Planet. But we are plugging along and he really takes his meds very well...he's my boy! Other than that, he is playful and loving and he has our hearts

 

[Patti]

It doesn't matter how healthy a breed is, if they are exposed to an infection they are likely to get it, just like humans catch a cold or flu from each other. Giardia is very easy to pass from kitten to kitten because it is shed in the stool so they pick it up in the litterbox - and considering giardia is in the drinking water of most, if not all cities, not surprising that a kitten can be exposed and get sick from it.

Similarly, upper respiratory infections are as easy to spread amongst cats and kittens as the common cold, and on top of that the stress of moving to a new (your) home taxes their immune system so they are even more susceptible... which is one of the reasons why breeders stress that a new kitten be put in quarantine for at least two weeks, so that if they end up getting sick at least it is contained.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

It's possible that the first med for the giardia was Panacur (fenbendazole)? I usually recommend that but sometimes the treatment needs to be repeated. Generally the course is 5 days then repeat two weeks later. Another thing to pay attention to is what has been mentioned by Patti...that many town or city water supplies may contain giardia. It only has to be reported &/or treated if the levels rise above a stated concentration. Given all the meds he is on, has your vet mentioned the need for a probiotic to help your kitten repopulate his gut with GOOD bacteria? This will also help him throw out the bad bacteria/parasites... something like Proviable or Probios is what I would recommend although I think vets often have Fortiflora (made by Purina) in their clinics for such things.

As to the respiratory issues, was a PCR panel done to determine if doxycycline was the most appropriate medication? It's not often the first line medication unless there is reason to believe that Mycoplasma is the cause.

You mention that these issues are from "day 1"... did you pick up the kitten or was it shipped to you and arrived sick? What did the breeder respond to when you told her the kitten arrived sick? As you mention, the Savannah IS a healthy breed and so it should not be expected that a newly arrived kitten has two separate infections going on.