Feline aortic thromboembolism : a case report

Feline aortic thromboembolism (ATE) is a disease, which is sudden in onset, extremely painful and has almost no signs prior to acute onset of paralysis and hind limb pain that can be detected by the veterinarian on routine physical exam. Cats that suffer from aortic thromboembolism may die acutely, weeks or months later from cardiac decompensation or re-embolization, or recover but remain paralyzed from the stifles distally. Most often the underlying cause of aortic thromboembolic disease is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; therefore, all cats that have a murmur detected on physical exam should have a full cardiology work-up. Aortic thromboembolism is still a disease of major importance in feline medicine due to a lack of good preventive medicine techniques and the failure to develop new drugs or treatment protocols