Hello. My vet suspects my cat has one or more nasal polyps. I’ve been going …

Hello. My vet suspects my cat has one or more nasal polyps. I’ve been going through this process of getting towards his surgery for a while. The vet told us he has a heart murmur, but only a grade 1 out of 6, I brought him to a 2nd vet and they said his heart sounds great, I went back to the first vet and they looked at him again and the doctor said he has a murmur and even his vet tech looked over it and didn’t hear it the first time and the doctor had to tell her where to listen and she finally heard it. They said we would need some test on his heart before during surgery to make sure his heart doesn’t fail while under anesthesia. I got an x-ray done of his heart which came back fine and i also got blood test done which came back fine. The test he got were included in the basic wellness screen. I’m thinking he has a intermittent heart murmur because of his heart rate going up due to stress of being in the car and at the vet. The vet is still telling me i can have an echocardiogram done to be really sure his heart is really fine. That’s another $390 on top of the $500 i’ve already spent and i just can’t afford it. I believe if 2 vets could simply look over it, and it’s only a grade 1/6, and the test and x-rays came back fine so far, he should be good… right? Well another thing is they don’t know how many polyps he has or where exactly they’re located, we asked for a throat/head xray and they told us they can only do it if he’s under anesthesia first. They are adding on so much stuff i feel like he doesn’t even need and gave us a price estimate from $450-$1,500. We asked the other vet and they said they can do a head x-ray, but they don’t even know if the procedure of removing the polyps is even anything they can do, and he might have to go to a specialist. Can the polyps for sure be seen on the x-rays because i really don’t want to waste any more money on something that doesn’t even help get down to the problem. I’m thinking i can just skip over the echocardiogram because it doesn’t seem it’s really needed, i get an x-ray of his head, find the size, how many, and where the polyps are located, then get a real price estimate. Can someone please answer my questions or give any advice! Thanks:)

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Sarah
4 years ago

Good morning- sorry you are having such a time with all of this. I am thinking that an X-ray won’t show much because a polyp is soft tissue. It is my understanding that an X-ray will only show bone? I am guessing you would need something along the lines of a CT scan to check where and what size any soft tissue mass would be. I’m thinking you should sit down with your vet and have a frank discussion about budget and options and explain your thoughts. At the end of the day- you both want what is best for… Read more »