Hypertension or HTN is known as a disorder of blood pressure, namely high blood pressure. Hypertension is not easily detected and only realized after complications occur.Â
This is considered a disease in cats. Especially in cats, this will make it even harder for you to detect or know any symptoms of hypertension in your cat. But no need to worry, because we will help you understand all about hypertension so that you can prevent as well as cure your own cat.
General Definition of Hypertension
A person can be categorized as having hypertension when the blood pressure reaches around 140/90 mmHg (systolic and distolic pressure) respectively. This disease can affect anyone regardless of age, both young and adult, especially in people who are elderly.
For people who are old, hypertension seems to be very normal and often found. This is probably due to the age.
Hypertension or high blood pressure is very dangerous especially for animals. This has seen to be a cause of long term health problem and even deaths. If not treated immediately, hypertension can lead to serious life-threatening diseases, such as heart failure, kidney disease and stroke.
And if you are still wondering whether a cat can get heart failure, well the answer is yes. The human body works similarly to any other animals as long as they are living mammals.
Blood pressure is divided into systolic pressure and diastolic pressure. Systolic pressure is the pressure when the heart pumps blood around the body, while diastolic pressure is the pressure when the heart relaxes before pumping blood again.
Causes and Symptoms of Hypertension
Hypertension is divided into primary hypertension and secondary hypertension. Primary hypertension has no known cause with certainty, while secondary hypertension can occur due to, among others, kidney disease, sleep apnea, and alcoholism.
Hypertension has the term silent killer or a disease that kills in secret. This is because people with hypertension generally do not experience any symptoms, until their blood pressure is too high and life threatening. Therefore, it is important to have regular blood pressure checks, either independently or by visiting a doctor.
Causes of Hypertension
- Genetics and Hereditary
Family history of hypertension is also one of the causes. It is not surprising that children from families with a history of hypertension are relatively more likely to develop hypertension.
However, these risk factors can be controlled so they do not arise. This is applicable to animals such as cats and dogs. Any type of mammals can easily pass through genes that might have hypertension related health problems.
- Obesity in Cats
Take care of your cat’s diet. Because it turns out that being overweight or overweight is one of the causes of hypertension. This condition of obesity can affect the renin system angiotensin aldosterone.
This tissue functions as a control of blood volume in the body of the cat. The fatter the cat gets, then the more likely it is to face hypertension. There are however a good side in maintaining weight which is to prevent heat stroke in cats. So be sure that you also feed your cat well.
This system will be damaged if any cat is obese. So that the blood that comes out will be increasingly out of control. So that the potential for hypertension becomes very high. One way to prevent this is to make sure you do not overfeed your cats. This is like the main basic thing to keep in mind.
- Too Much Salty Diet for Cats
Consuming excessive amounts of salt can easily build up in the blood vessels. So that the walls of blood vessels experience thickening, and this is what makes the blood vessels narrower and causes blood pressure to get higher. At this stage, your cat will be in a lot of trouble as well as harm.
Be sure that you take good care in order to prevent this from happening. You do not want your cat to keep consuming over salty food as this might harm them. So read more about tips to get your cat to eat healthy and nutritious diets.
Symptoms of Hypertension in Cats:
- Damage to the Heart
One of the main organs that is affected by hypertension in itself is the heart. When the heart is affected, cats will have trouble breathing. One major indicator is that there will be rapid breathing in cats.
All of the respiration system gets affected and that the cat will have a hard time to move. In most often cases, they will face signs of stroke while having to carry their own body. Such as dragging their legs, limbs, and so much more.
- Difference in Behaviour
A cat will behave differently when it is facing a lot of pain. One of the indicators that you cat is facing hypertension is by its behaviour. Cats will often meow or even howl more. This can also be seen on how hyper active a cat may be when there are no one around it.
- Increase in Urinating
Cats will urinate way much more because it will drink a lot more too. As a result, you will see a lot of urine clumps in their litter box. Do not forget to change this more often to keep hygiene as healthy as usual. Cat owners also often see what they might call as puke or vomit.
- Cat Becomes Blind
Temporary blindness and runny eyes on cats also be a symptoms but this one is rarely the case. Cats that has hypertension might suddenly be blind when they are walking around or even jumping.
You can also relate this with their behaviour and see by yourself. If you cat are missing jumps and are falling more often, then this might be an indicator. Eyes (retinas): Sudden blindness including bumping into furniture, missing jumps, walking along walls for direction
- Weight Loss in Cats
Cats will also face a lot of weight loss. This is due to them losing their apetite to eat food in general. When this happens, then you might want to change its diet and make sure that it keeps on being fed.
- Over Production of Thyroid
The thyroid glands is located below the neck. This part of the body plays an important role in metabolic rate. So if the metabolic rate of the thyroid increases, you might find a slight behavior change in your cats. One of which is when they would be more active instead of resting.
We hope this article might help your cat get better. Also watch out for other harms such as Feline Immunodeficiency Virus in Cats and Tachycardia on Cats.