Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM)

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is the most common heart disease of cats, whether they are random bred or pedigreed.  It is a heart muscle disease in which the papillary muscles (the muscles in the left ventricle that anchor the mitral valve) and the walls of the left ventricle become abnormally thickened.  HCM is often a progressive disease, and a proportion of affected cats develop heart failure if the muscle hypertrophy and subsequent scarring of the heart muscle significantly affects heart function.

Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)

Polycystic Kidney Disease is a slowly progressive disease.  It clinically shows up later in life (late onset), with enlarged kidneys and kidney dysfunction on average at seven years of age.  The condition is inherited and cysts are present from birth.  The size of cysts can vary from less than one millimeter to several centimeters, with older animals having larger and more numerous cysts. Problems occur when these cysts start to grow and progressively enlarge the kidney, reducing the kidneys' ability to function properly.  The ultimate end is kidney failure.

Chronic Interstitial Nephritis (CIN)

A different naming for shrivel kidney. The kidney pulls together and can’t function normally.

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)
Feline immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that affects domesticated housecats worldwide and is the causative agent of feline AIDS. Approximately 11% of cats worldwide, and about 2.5% of cats in the USA, are infected with FIV. FIV is the only non-primate lentivirus to cause an AIDS-like syndrome, but FIV is not always a death sentence for cats, as they can live relatively healthily as carriers and transmitters of the disease for many years. A vaccine is available although its efficacy remains uncertain, and cats will test positive for FIV antibodies after vaccination.  

Feline leukemia virus (FeLV)
Feline leukemia virus is a retrovirus that infects cats. As a retrovirus, the genetic information of FeLV is carried by RNA instead of DNA. FeLV is usually transmitted between infected cats when the transfer of saliva or nasal secretions is involved, for example when sharing a feeding dish. If not defeated by the animal’s immune system, the virus can be lethal. The disease is a virus, not a cancer. The name stems from the fact that the first disease associated with the virus was a form of leukemia. By the time it was discovered that the virus was not the same as leukemia, the misnomer had already found its way into the vocabulary of pet owners.