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Treatment

Treatment and therapeutic approaches will be determined by the underlying disease for the SB, the ventricular rate, and the severity of clinical signs.  However, many cats exhibit no clinical signs and require no treatment.

If your cat is in critical condition, it may be treated as an inpatient, where intravenous fluid therapy can be administered. Restrictions on activity will not be recommended unless your cat has symptomatic SB that is related to structural heart disease; then exercise restriction will be recommended until medical and/or surgical intervention can resolve the problem.

Living and Management

Your physician will order further monitoring depending on the final diagnosis. Signs, if present, should resolve with correction of the causative underlying condition. However, the overall long term prognosis varies with the nature of the structural heart disease, if there is one present. For example, treatment of symptomatic SB with a permanent pacemaker generally offers a good prognosis for rhythm control.