No more fainting spells: Cat gets pacemaker implant in milestone for Thai animal healthcare
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The procedure on a shorthair named Pepsi (left), was performed by a Chulalongkorn University team.
PHOTOS: THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
BANGKOK – Veterinarians at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Veterinary Science have performed Thailand’s first successful pacemaker implantation in a cat, marking a significant milestone in the country’s advanced animal healthcare capabilities.
The patient, an eight-year-old female domestic shorthair named Pepsi, had been collapsing as many as three to four times a day before the procedure. She has since made a full recovery, regaining her strength and playful personality, and now leads a normal, healthy life.
The operation was led by Associate Professor Anusak Kijtawornrat of the Department of Physiology, who described it as both a technical challenge and a turning point for veterinary cardiology in Thailand.
From fainting spells to a life-saving diagnosis
Pepsi’s owner first brought her to the Chulalongkorn Small Animal Hospital after noticing symptoms of lethargy, weakness, and sudden collapse accompanied by muscle stiffness and occasional vocalisation.
Initial tests pointed to possible neurological or cardiac causes, but medication failed to produce any improvement.
Further examination at Chulalongkorn identified the true culprit: a severe cardiac arrhythmia caused by a blockage of electrical signals between the atria and ventricles.
The condition prevented the lower chambers of the heart from pumping sufficient blood to the brain, triggering the repeated fainting episodes.
“Normally, a cat’s heart beats around 140 to 220 times per minute, regulated by natural electrical impulses,” Dr Anusak explained.
“When the signal is blocked, the heart stops contracting effectively, causing syncope. Such cases are uncommon – accounting for around 10 per cent of feline cardiac cases – but are more prevalent in older cats.”
Accurate diagnosis was made possible through Holter monitoring, a 24-hour electrocardiogram device considerably more precise than the standard one-to-five-minute ECG test.
A complex and delicate operation
Implanting a pacemaker in a cat presented considerable surgical obstacles. Unlike dogs, whose larger veins allow the pacemaker lead to be threaded through the neck, cats have significantly smaller veins and thinner heart muscle walls – measuring just two millimetres – making the conventional approach too risky, as the lead could puncture the heart.
The surgical team instead opened the chest cavity between the ribs to access the heart directly, attaching the pacing lead to the heart’s surface and implanting the small generator unit beneath the abdominal muscles.
“This method is more complex but safer for small animals,” Dr Anusak said. “It was an improved technique from our previous feline case just two weeks earlier. Switching from a diaphragmatic approach to a thoracic one made the implantation easier and more accurate.”
The hour-long procedure involved a multidisciplinary team of cardiologists, surgeons, anaesthesiologists, and cardiovascular intervention specialists working in close coordination. THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
