A New, Easy-to-Learn, Fear-Free Method to Stop Purring During Cardiac Auscultation in Cats

Background: Purring in cats can interfere with cardiac auscultation. If the produced noise is loud enough, purring makes it impossible to perform a meaningful auscultation as it is much louder than heart sounds and murmurs. Our study introduced and tested a new, simple, fear-free, cat-friendly method to stop purring during auscultation. Methods: The technique involves grasping the cat’s larynx from ventral with one hand, while simultaneously holding the stethoscope in the other hand to perform the auscultation. Results: The incidence of purring was evaluated in 582 cats, in a veterinary teaching hospital and in a cat-friendly private practice. Fifty-one (8.8%) cats were purring during their physical examination. The tested method had a success rate of 89% in terminating purring. A comparison between investigators (a veterinary student versus an experienced veterinary cardiology specialist) showed no significant difference in the effectiveness of the method (p = 0.57). The incidence of purring was not significantly different between the teaching hospital and the cat-friendly practice (p = 1.00). Sick and older cats purred more often than healthy and younger cats. Conclusions: This new, simple, easy-to-master method is an improvement over previously reported techniques and supports the need for stress-free, cat-friendly handling in veterinary practice.