A very small cat and a very good question.
Freya is a two-month-old calico kitten in foster care, and she has a heart murmur. A murmur on its own is not a diagnosis. It is a sound, and the only way to find out what is making it is to look.
So the cardiology team at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital took a very close look at her heart. And now we know what is making the sound.
Gifts for feline heart care go to Willow’s Fund.
The echocardiogram found a ventricular septal defect, a VSD, a rare congenital heart condition: a hole in the wall between the two pumping chambers of her heart. Hers is on the larger side, which is not the news we were hoping for. We first suspected the same vessel problem Hex was born with. It is not that. It is its own thing, and her cardiology team walked us through exactly what it means.
Here is the part that surprised us: they are not recommending surgery, and they are not recommending medication, at least not right now. Freya is a kitten, and her heart is going to grow. There is real hope that as it does, the hole becomes smaller relative to the heart around it. Nobody can promise that. So the plan is the honest one: watch her closely, recheck her heart as she grows, and act if that changes. Surgery or medication may be able to help her down the road; it is too soon to know.
Her first cardiology appointment at CSU cost $320, before anybody knew anything at all. Hex’s repair ran to about $7,000.
A longtime supporter offered, unprompted, to cover Freya’s echocardiogram and her first visits. We are grateful beyond words. We are telling you the numbers anyway, because this is what the work actually costs, and because there is always a next one.
If you want your gift to go to exactly this kind of care, Willow’s Fund exists for feline heart cases and is where it should go.
