Heyi I'm new, my name is Maddie.

Does anyone know of any UK breeders that scan for HCM?

I had the most wonderful bengal called Queenie. It's with very a heavy heart that I have to type that I lost my darling at only 3.5 years to HCM. I've noticed various other posts about this awful disease and it's just so heartbreakingl. I've done lots of research and I've come to knowledge that this is a genic disease and one that reputable breeders do scan for in the breeding animals annually. I'm currently torn between the utter heartbreak of loosing my best friend, never wanting to put myself in that situation again and then flipping to I can't imagine my life without a feline friend. I'm undecided on which route to take.
However what I do know is if I decide to give my heart again to another fur baby I can only do this with a breeder I know scans for HCM, I cannot ever experience the horrendously tramatic situation of watching your beloved fur baby go through that pain of blood clots and die. I know the scanning isn't 100% however I have to know in my heart that I have taken the possible steps to try prevent it.

Thank you xx

Hi Maddie. Welcome to our forum. I am sorry to hear about your Queenie. HCM is a problem with the bengal breed. You will simply have to do your research. There are many UK bengal breeders. Some of their websites will state they do HCM testing and even provide the documents on their website. Others don't mention it at all. You will need to decide how far you are willing to travel for your bengal and research the breeders within that range. Then ask them. They all have a contact link. Once they tell you, you can go to bengal-data.com and research the breeder as they are putting the HCM information with the cats if they have it.

Thank you Sherry. I've found an amazing breeder who is actually a vet and works at GCCF. She only breeds to a very low volume focusing purely on ensuring they are healthy and happy fur babies. I feel confident I've found a decent breeder now. Just got to decide if I can put my heart out there again x

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Matt

One thing I can say about HCM testing is that while it's genetic there is no genetic test for HCM. All responsible breeders can do is to test their cats regularly for HCM and if they produce any cats with HCM to work with their breeding cats to weed out those cats that produce those cats.

Please tell your breeder about your cat with HCM so they can choose to improve their breeding program.

Thanks everyone for your kind messages. Lovely idea about the plants. Yes my mum is going to contact the previous breeder as I'm not strong enough to talk about it just yet.

Its sounds like you've selected TobysDen.