Homevet

Blood pressure measurement in cats often needs to be done as they get older, to look for kidney related hypertension. Chronic renal failure is fairly common in senior cats, and hypertension often goes hand in hand with this condition.

 Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a relatively common and potentially severe threat to pets health. It can be related to the kidneys, or other conditions. If the kidneys are failing, this increases the pressure as the blood needs to work/push harder to flow through the kidneys. The condition can be dangerous, responsible for problems affecting eyesight, kidney activity, or heart function. It can cause the retina to detach and even cause blindness. It can also indicate the presence of a potentially very serious systemic disease. If the pressure is measured at home, then the pressure reading is very accurate- because in a clinic it could be artificially raised due to stress.

We inflate a cuff around the dog or cat’s fore-leg, and then use a Doppler ultrasonic probe on a small blood vessel in the ‘wrist’ area to help take the measurements. It’s a delicate process and difficult to do if the pets are scared or wriggling. This test then is an ideal thing to be measured at home.

Please contact Homevet to learn more about this test, or to schedule a measurement appointment. We never do the measurement on sedated pets, they are usually just calm relaxed and comfortable.