When you go to the doctor, part of your regular checkup is a blood pressure check. Have you ever wondered how your vet checks a cat’s blood pressure?
Pierre had his blood pressure checked, so he’ll be able to demonstrate for us.
Why Check a Cat’s Blood Pressure?
Cats, like humans, can get high blood pressure, especially as they get older. Hypertension in cats can contribute to heart failure. It can also cause sudden blindness when the high blood pressure inside the eye causes the retina to detach.
Catching rising blood pressure early can prevent these health complications.
Measuring Human Blood Pressure
You’re probably familiar with the cuff that a nurse inflates on your arm during a blood pressure exam. When the cuff is pumped up, it temporarily cuts off circulation to your arm. The nurse uses a stethoscope to listen for the heartbeat at your inner elbow, where your brachial artery is close to the surface.
Checking human blood pressure. Photo credit: depositphotos/AndreyPopov
When the cuff starts to slowly deflate, the nurse records the pressure at which the heartbeat begins to be audible through the stethoscope (systolic blood pressure) and the pressure where your heartbeat is no longer audible (the diastolic blood pressure).
Measuring Cat Blood Pressure
The process in cats is similar. The biggest difference is that cats have much smaller blood vessels than we do, so a stethoscope won’t work when listening for a pulse during blood pressure measurement. Instead, vets usually use a doppler ultrasound machine.
A doppler ultrasound machine sends and receives sound waves that bounce off the blood cells inside a blood vessel. Moving blood cells cause the sound to change, so your vet tech can use it to hear a cat’s pulse.
Taking cat blood pressure with doppler machine – Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/Kalumet
Some vet techs put a specially-pet-sized blood pressure cuff on your cat’s leg, where they can listen to the pulse in the common digital artery. The techs at our vet use the cat’s tail, where they can monitor the coccygeal artery.
Some vet techs will clip a small spot of hair to give better access to the skin where they place the probe from the doppler machine against the skin, but they were able to part and wet Pierre’s short fur with rubbing alcohol instead so they could press the probe in the right spot to hear his pulse.
Then the vet tech inflates the cuff and listens as it deflates several times. There wasn’t really much to see when this is going on, other than Pierre getting increasingly annoyed with something pinching his tail.
A doppler machine doesn’t give a very good diastolic measurement, so instead of two numbers for his blood pressure, Pierre only got one number, the systolic measurement, which was 170. That value is a higher than the normal 80–140 mm Hg, but Pierre gets pretty scared at the vet.
Adjusted for “white coat syndrome,” his blood pressure is still a little high, so we’ll be watching it in the future.
What About Those Automated Testing Machines?
You may have seen automated blood pressure testing devices for humans and wonder why they don’t use those for cats, too. The answer is that they do! These are called oscillometric blood pressure measurement devices, and they use an electronic sensor with a digital readout of the pressure.
Wrist blood pressure testing monitor. Photo credit: flickr creative commons/spengler
These automated devices are not considered by most doctors and veterinarians to be as accurate as the old fashioned way of measuring blood pressure. They are also costly, so your vet is more likely to use the doppler method to check your cat’s blood pressure.
Research and further reading:
Cornell Feline Health Center, Hypertension
American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Guidelines for the Identification, Evaluation, and Management of Systemic Hypertension in Dogs and Cats
When Sparkle was sick and needed a blood pressure reading, the vet recommended that she find a vet who did home visits do it because she was so incredibly nervous at the clinic.
Yet another fantastic post with great information! The cat clinic where I used to work essentially always measured blood pressure with the tail. It wasn’t always the easiest task, but it was so incredibly important. Like PIerre, many of the cats had an elevated BP while there for their visit, but we always took that into consideration. It looks like you’re a fantastic patient, Pierre!
Wally has been having his blood pressure checked regularly now. I didn’t know exactly how they did it, but now I know! Thanks for this info. ~Island Cat Mom
Chey had her blood pressure taken when she was sick. They used her hind leg so she could hide in her carrier and pretend they weren’t messing with her.
One thing that told us how sick she was that was even with the Tapazol her blood pressure was going up each time she went to the vet-
that is so interesting. we have never even had a vet bring it up….
Chuck has had his blood pressure checked a few times, but I didn’t understand why they shaved that little area on his tail…now I do!
dood…..we canna blame ewe for bee in eye rate…..frank lee we wood bee two
N now that ya men shunz thiz….we gotte go bak N chex R last recordz….we due knot even noe if R’s waz checked ??? ~~~~~~~
♥♥
Pierre my mom gets ‘white coat syndrome’ when she has her BP tested at the doctor too
Hugs madi your bfff
Very interesting. I never thought about testing blood pressure in cats, but I can see the need for it. Pierre definitely doesn’t appear too happy about that contraption on his tail.
My Sasha had to have hers checked frequently, and I always found it fascinating. Now when Nicky sees the cardiologist I always ask to go in with him so I can see and hear the bp test, and the echocardiogram which is also pretty cool. Excellent article with descriptions. You hit it out of the park, as always!
Very interesting, great information ! Claire never saw any of her cats having testing blood pressure. Purrs
I have had mine checked before, good thing it wasn’t during the car ride!
Well, that isn’t that complicated. Wonder why more vets don’t utilize this.
The vet I interviewed for the article I wrote about the blindness Julie mentioned in this post said that many veterinarians don’t know how to do it — or do it improperly. (She was a feline opthalmologist)
Prior to that, I had no idea. Some of them also use neonatal cuffs (aren’t they the cutest?).
I would love the automatic kind for home, but I know it is out of my price range. Phoebe is on BP meds, but I worry she doesn’t need them because she gets so scared at the vet. I know they average a few reading, but I still wonder.
I had a home vet for Angel Sashi and she did a blood pressure test once. I couldn’t believe vets were able to test a cat’s BP and was so fascinated to watch it. Pawsome post!
Gosh, we never thought about that before. It’s possible that it’s been done to us but we kinda lump all unpleasantness at the fix-it place into the catchall category of torture. (Our mom didn’t know either.) Thanks for the info…we guess.
Whoa! That’s something I didn’t know. I knew we cats get high blood pressure but didn’t know how they tested us. I’d like to see Dr. D. try it. Another dare for her.
We dint know anny of that. We just sort of shut of our brains when the Vet grabs us…
Wow. Now that you shared this, it seems so obvious … but I’ve never thought about a cat’s blood pressure. I’m not entirely sure Bear’s ever had his taken (or Kitty before him). I will definitely ask next time I take him in. Due to a variety of health issues, I’ve had my BP taken frequently – and while some nurses prefer the automated machines because they are so much easier and quicker – mine always comes back high from them – when manually, I’m always low. Poor, Pierre … he’s so adorable – but also so obviously scared.
This is so interesting! I’ve never seen my vet take our cats blood pressure, but I know they have in the back before.
This is very interesting! We had no idea how kitties have their blood pressure taken. Luckily for us, we never had to have it taken. Paws crossed for Pierre.
Thanks for the informative post! The tail can be so sensitive, no wonder Pierre wasn’t liking the process.