Hello and welcome to PF. So sorry Presley is poorly. Sending a big hug and healing vibes. Good luck for Wednesday xx

Hi there!

Sorry to hear about your kitten but until you know for sure what the exact nature of the heart condition is and the treatment options available, it's impossible to say what the prognosis is-so your first vet is only guessing at this stage.

The good news is that lots of cats with the correct meds go on to live for years though I doubt your first vet has had the opportunity to see many of these given his grim prognosis!

Hopefully the vet on Wednesday will have a more proactive approach and provide you with the necessary tests to arrive at a correct diagnosis-though I would certainly recommend a referral to a veterinary cardiologist to ensure the best outcome here!

Good luck and keep us posted!

Thank you so much for all your kind words and helpful advice, we have just got back from the vets, i was told presleys heart mumur is at level 5, i asked all the questions about heart specialist and medication and he basically explained that nothing will be done untill he starts acting lethargic, starts coughing or has high temp etc, due to the fact that he has known cats to live long lives without any problems and have a serius heart murmur, and also cats with no heart murmur have been ill thro some sort of heart disease! he was surprised that the vet i saw last friday was so negative but did explain that because presley had some kind of virus his heart could of sounded worse! i have been told to have a serious think about Presley being neutered as having it done can impose a risk to heart attack, but he also added that he would be a lot less stressed after having it! so am a bit confused.com, do i? dont i?
back there again for a check up in 3 weeks!!
x

Was this vet aware of the initial reason for vet visit ie dragging back legs? Or was his comments based solely on the heart murmur? I agree heart murmurs can 'fluctuate' and in some cases virtually disappear but this combined with the back leg weakness presents a different picture. At any rate they need to get to the bottom of why this happened.....

Either way I don't agree that further investigations should be left until he in effect deteriorates further. Apart from wanting to avoid a repeat of the problem with his back legs or worse, the earlier conditions ( and this applies to all but most especially in the case of heart ones for obvious reasons ) are identified and treated the better.

I do think you need to request a scan as soon as possible.

In view of the risk, having the heart condition identified and under control would be my first priority in these circumstances and only then go ahead with the neutering!

Echo this completely.

I really cannot stress enough the importance of a heart scan. I really don't understand both vet's wanting to wait for him to get worse? Imagine if that was your child and the doctor said he's got a really bad heart murmur, but we don't want to find out the cause, or treat it until he collapses.
When your kitten is ill and does collapse, his heart will be at it's limit, and it may be too late to do anything.
If you get a scan done now you can find out the cause of the murmur (it could be a valve defect, a thickened heart, infection, a hole in the heart - anything!!), and potentially treat it, and potentially increase his lifespan by quite a bit.
Only after the heart scan can you consider if he is a safe candidate to be anaesthetised to be castrated.

I presume your vets don't have their own ultrasound machine? that's the only reason I can imagine for them not scanning him/or if they're not confident looking at hearts...and if that's the case they should be referring you to someone who does.
Is he insured?

This is ridiculous! If Presley was a person and I refused to treat him until he got worse, I would be struck off the medical register! You really need to find out what is causing the murmur. I don't understand how the vets can be prepared for him to get worse, if they don't even know exactly what's wrong with him. A murmur can be caused by so many different things. There are many different types of murmurs too.

I don't want to freak you out. My Persie went in for a neutering op at 5 months and he nearly died from the anaesthesia. They hadn't started the op at that point. When they assessed him afterwards, they realised there was a problem with his heart (a murmur). I was angry that they didn't listen to Persie's heart before surgery!! So i went to a new vet, had tests and he has a small hole in the top. My new vet advised against trying to neuter him again. Each case is entirely different, and you need to be 100% sure. I now have a smelly tom cat who loves to do a pee in naughty places. But I rather a smelly tom cat, than a dead tom cat! My friend is a newly qualified vet and she suggested that I give Persie hormone injections, or some hormone chip to decrease testosterone. I don't know if there is enough research out there for me to agree to this. But maybe your vet will be more knowledgeable.