Spotlight on Vet Medicine
November 30, 2004
A Leopard Cat’s Broken Heart
National Zoo vets successfully treat a leopard cat’s heart disease with good food and healing drugs.
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| A leopard cat at the Zoo. |
Across this very large range, leopard cats vary greatly in size, from less than seven pounds on the island of Borneo to as much as 22 pounds in the Russian Far East, but in most of their range they weigh in at less than about 11 pounds—about the size of a domestic cat.
Primarily hunters of rodents and other small mammals, leopard cats also include fish in their diets, and they are known to be good swimmers. In fact, the species was given its scientific name, bengalensis, because the first one captured by Western scientists was swimming in the Bay of Bengal.
Despite their being fairly common, little is known about these beautiful spotted cats in the wild. National Zoo scientists have studied their reproductive biology in captivity and were the first to produce kittens of this species following artificial insemination.
A Big Heart
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| Vets perform an ultrasound exam on leopard cat Friday. |
A male leopard cat named Friday, now ten years old arrived at the National Zoo in 1997. Zoo veterinarians, in conjunction with consulting veterinary cardiologist Steven Rosenthal, diagnosed a heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy means “disease of the heart muscle” and signs visible on a radiograph include enlarged, stretched (or dilated) walls of the heart.
The enlarged heart muscles reduce the efficiency with which the heart pumps blood to the rest of the body. This means the heart must work harder—beat more frequently—to compensate for its reduced efficiency. Blood flow to the heart muscles is also reduced, so the heart isn’t receiving enough fuel to meet the higher demands on it.
In domestic cats, dilated cardiomyopathy is related to a deficiency of taurine in their diet, and can be reversed with appropriate treatment. Taurine is an amino acid that plays an important role in heart function, as well as in visual pathways and in the brain and nervous system. Cats must get the taurine they need from their food, and this amino acid is present in the animal tissues that make up cats’ natural diet. It is likely that this leopard cat's previous diet provided insufficient amounts of taurine.
Treating a Broken Heart
Friday's diet was supplemented with taurine and Zoo veterinarians prescribed oral medications to treat his heart disease. The goal of treatment is to reduce the burden on the heart and improve the efficiency of blood pumping. Vets used two medications to achieve this goal. One drug works to increase the force of each heart beat so the amount of blood flowing from the heart to the body increases. Because each beat is more efficient, fewer beats are needed. The other drug dilates blood vessels to decrease resistance to blood flow and, as a result, lowers blood pressure. This means that the heart doesn’t have to pump as hard to circulate blood.
Heart Healed?
Zoo vets and the consulting veterinary cardiologist regularly evaluated the status of Friday’s heart. Their exams consisted of radiographs to look at the size and shape of his heart and other internal organs, ultrasound of the heart to monitor function and look for changes in the valves and muscles, a general physical exam, and routine blood tests. His most recent evaluation revealed a normal heart that was functioning adequately and he was gradually weaned from his daily medications.
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| A radiograph taken at his most recent exam shows that Friday's heart is normal. |
Thanks to his keepers’ dedicated care and appropriate veterinary treatment, Friday’s prognosis is excellent. The vet staff will continue to monitor him, but it appears that Friday is no longer a “broken-hearted” leopard cat.
You can see Friday in the Small Mammal House.
Note to Media: If you would like more information about this project, or any of the Zoo's animal health programs, please contact the Zoo's Office of Public Affairs.
