bradycardic cat

Re: bradycardic cat

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:19:17 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"]

We had a cycling friend recently who at 69 can do 25 miles in less than an hour!! and has a resting HR of 54. He collapsed recently with a snapped patella (freak accident) he had to persuade the paramedics that his heart rate was in fact normal as they were reaching for those electric shocky things...OUCH!!

[/quote]

This made me chuckle because I had a similar situation a few years ago. I have suffered from palpitations all my life but they always disappeared as soon as I exercised. I was training hard for the London marathon and found I was still getting palpitations even running hard so I took myself off to the cardiologist and while I was waiting a doctor came in and felt my pulse which was in the mid 40's and looked at the colour of my hands which were purple because I also suffer from Reynaud's syndrome and almost drew the same conclusion. It took some persuading him that this was normal for me.

Re: bradycardic cat

Sarah Keir — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:18:58 GMT

I had the same panic when I scanned the heart of my dog on an ultrasonography course. Fractional Shortening of something like 18%!!! Must have DCM!!! No, just a very fit, healthy and super relaxed springer spaniel!

Sarah

Re: bradycardic cat

Lorna McHardy — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:32:01 GMT

I went into a panic about my own dog once... I was checking her over because she seemed unlike her usual self, and found what I was convinced was significant bradycardia. She's used to coming with me to work, and I'd simply never listened to a dog that relaxed in a veterinary surgery before, plus she was young and fit. Felt a complete fool when this was pointed out to me by the resident cardiologist!

Re: bradycardic cat

David Mills — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:17:15 GMT

Slightly off track, but one of the most elegant studies I've seen in the past couple of years was by a member on this forum, Mike Martin, who looked at heart rate variability of different sizes of dogs and found no significant correlation between size and HR. Bang goes decades of previous dogma.

Having said that, I'm with Mr Atkinson on cats' classification. I can see your point Mr Wheadon but I think the confounding environmental factors in animals' heart rates are likely the biggest difference for a 140 one year and a 160 the next so in isolation I find them limited.

Re: bradycardic cat

Neil Wheadon — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:08:32 GMT

I've started actively recording heart rates on clinical hstories

By recording heart rates you can compare changes with time. In a previous post you said that your HR used to be 45. Imagine you had a heart condition and were recorded at 80, it's a sign that maybe something is going wrong, but taken in isolation it would seem normal.

Re: bradycardic cat

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:46:15 GMT

I confess I rarely actually count heart rate unless there's a row of figures appearing in front of my eyes on an ECG or pulse monitor, I tend to group them into slow, medium or fast with bradycardic and tachycardic at the extremes but specifically listen/feel for a pulse deficit, after 35 years I have a feeling for what sounds normal for a healthy animal of a given size. Perhaps if I did I count it I might also think 120 was lower than average in a consult room situation for a cat but it still wouldn't bother me in a happy, healthy individual with no pulse deficit

Re: bradycardic cat

Christopher Saul — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:31:49 GMT

Going off on a tangent, cats can be relatively bradycardic when in hypovolaemic shock (i.e. having a normal heart rate when you'd expect them to be tachycardic), making it easier to miss hypovolaemia in cats.... that's a cat thing.

However I don't think your patient was hypovolaemic from the sounds of things and I would have to agree with Martin, Kate and Andy, in this case there's nothing that worries me about your initial post.

Chris

Re: bradycardic cat

CatherineThomas — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:21:35 GMT

Sorry, I meant to put a question mark after the title.

Re: bradycardic cat

CatherineThomas — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:09:32 GMT

I realise that 120 could be a normal heart rate. I was just worried because it seemed pretty low considering that the cat seemed to be terrified and the heart rate didn't even go up after being restrained for a blood sample. I don't think I've ever got a heart rate that low in conscious cat in a consulting room before.

Re: bradycardic cat

Kate Richardson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:05:10 GMT

Also agree with Martin, I wouldn't be concerned especially as ECG normal

Re: bradycardic cat

Andrew Kent — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:05:06 GMT

Would have to agree with Martin on this one don't think this would concern me. Andy

Re: bradycardic cat

Martin Atkinson — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:59:38 GMT

Unless I'm missing something here I fail to see what the problem is, normal cat range is 80-240 so the heart rate sounds perfectly acceptable to me, perhaps its just a fit cat. I had a resting heart rate of 45 when I was young and fit, does than make me bradycardic just because the average range for a human male is 60-90?