1. Art and Diseño

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© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All Rights Reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in anyway.
Edition 2241 FT | 02 Feb 2015
CHINA
Overborrowed and overbuilt
By Jamil Anderlini
The last time China was the
world’s largest economy Beijing was a city of about 700,000
people, and its Wangjing district was nothing but a jumble
of barren man-made hills built
to protect the capital from barbarian invaders to the north.
That was 1890. Today, Beijing’s
population is more than 21m
and Wangjing is an expanse of
half-empty or half-built offices
and residential towers inside the
city’s fifth ring road.
China has regained its title as
the world’s biggest economy,
overtaking the US in purchasing
power terms for the first time
in 125 years, but this growing
suburb provides a stark example
of the mounting problems the
country faces. The restoration of
its pre-eminent position comes
just as China steps into the socalled “middle-income trap”
and as serious stresses built up
over the past few years threaten
to come to a head.
With its mix of old apartment
blocks and gleaming but empty
futuristic office towers Wangjing is typical of the credit-fuelled property construction of
the past decade, which boosted
growth, but at a high price.
China’s official growth rate
of 7.4 per cent last year was the
slowest pace since 1990, when
the country still faced sanctions
in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The
International Monetary Fund
has lowered its growth forecast
for China this year from 7.1 per
cent to 6.8 per cent and predicts
the country’s gross domestic
product will grow slower than
India next year for the first time
in decades.
Places like Wangjing are representative of “the huge amount
of property stock, the potential
for local debt crises and the unfavorable demographic shifts
that will cause the real estate
downturn to last for at least another three years,” according to
Ai Jingwei, a property market
commentator.
Although growth of 7.4 per
cent (or even 6.8 per cent) remains the envy of slow-growing developed economies in
the west it is a far cry from the
double-digit average annual expansion China maintained for
three decades starting in the late
1970s.
As recently as the start of
2010, China’s economy was
expanding by about 12 per cent
in a surge of credit and construc-
tion unleashed by Beijing to
counter the effects of the 2008
global financial crisis.
One of the biggest problems
China faces now is that the
slowdown is happening even
as credit and construction, the
main drivers of growth, are continuing almost unabated.
While Beijing suburbs such as
Wangjing are representative of
this over-borrowing and overbuilding, the problem is even
more acute in smaller cities that
will never see the demand for
real estate that should eventually catch up with supply in the
capital.
When ancillary industries are
taken into account, real estate
construction makes up about a
quarter of China’s $10tn economy, a higher proportion than the
US, Ireland or Spain at the height
of their property bubbles last decade . Nearly a decade of frantic
building has created massive
overcapacity and left vast belts of
empty apartment blocks ringing
most Chinese cities.
Last year, the gravity-defying
rises of the previous decade,
which have seen prices quadruple in major cities, finally came
to a halt. Average nationwide
housing prices were down 4.3
per cent in December from 12
months earlier.
But total investment in the
sector still increased 10.5 per
cent for the year and unsold
floor space was up by more
than 26 per cent by the end of
December, according to official
figures.
The data suggests the correction in China’s real estate sector has not even really begun.
When the sector starts to con-
tract, which could be as early
as this year, the headline growth
rate could fall much faster and
the country could face a wave of
bankruptcies - as well as a possible debt crisis, economists warn.
The “slowdown in China could
turn into a disorderly unwinding
of financial vulnerabilities with
considerable implications for
the global economy,” the World
Bank warned this month.
The impact is already being
felt in global commodity prices,
including oil, and in the stuttering performance of economies
in Brazil, Germany, Australia
and much of Asia, which are
increasingly reliant on Chinese
demand.
Prices of commodities, such
as iron ore and copper - key
ingredients in any construction
boom, are trading close to levels last seen in the midst of the
global financial crisis, and that is
before the Chinese construction
correction has even properly
happened.
The financial vulnerabilities
are particularly concentrated
at the local government level,
where provincial officials have
ignored budget constraints and a
ban on borrowing to indulge in
a credit and construction binge.
By the middle of 2013, the last
time the government published
any data, outstanding local government debt stood at Rmb18tn,
up 80 per cent in just two years.
That increase happened even after Beijing forbid local officials
from raising excessive amounts
of money.
But even as the economy
slowed last year and officials
were tasked with propping up
growth with even more in-
frastructure investment, local
government borrowing appears to have surged again.
Partial statistics on local government fundraising shows
they sold Rmb1.66tn worth of
bonds in 2014, compared with
Rmb900bn in each of the two
previous years.
As with the continued rise in
property investment, the government’s stated goal of deleveraging has not yet begun,
which means that when it does
the economy could slow much
more sharply.
The links between the two
biggest risks to China’s economy - the property sector and local government debt - make the
situation more alarming.
Local governments rely on
sales of land for 35 per cent of
their revenues, according to
research from Deutsche Bank,
and virtually all of their outstanding debt is collateralized
by government-owned land that
is often seriously overvalued.
In a recent study that raises
concerns about the sustainability of current growth rates,
Zhang Zhiwei, chief China
economist for Deutsche Bank,
found that local governments
have become the dominant buyers of land in the past few years.
To avoid a ban on running deficits local governments have set
up thousands of wholly-owned
“financing vehicles” that have
borrowed money on their behalf
from state banks, bond markets
and lightly regulated underground institutions.
This process is technically
illegal but has been tolerated
because it bolstered growth in
the wake of the global financial
crisis.
As real estate sales have
slumped and demand for land
from commercial developers
has evaporated, local officials
have started using these financing vehicles to purchase land
from themselves using credit from both state-owned and
shadow banks. Officials and
analysts worry that this is an
unsustainable attempt to boost
short-term growth and flagging
fiscal revenues.
“In 2015, China will probably
face the worst fiscal challenge
since 1981 [before growth accelerated],” Mr Zhang wrote in
his report. “We believe the fiscal
slide [the fall in revenues] is the
top risk for the Chinese economy and it is not well recognized
in the market.”
As well as the slowest growth
in a quarter of a century, 2014
marked the first time the ruling
Communist party had missed
its annual growth target since
the height of the Asian financial
crisis in 1998.
Officials and some analysts
argue that last year’s goal of
“around 7.5 per cent” growth
was not really missed because
the government, anticipating a
slower pace, had made it more
of a soft target by introducing
the word “around” for the first
time. The government is set to
announce a growth target of
“around 7 per cent” this year.
But even Lou Jiwei, China’s
finance minister, tells visiting
dignitaries that Beijing will be
happy with 6 per cent growth
in coming years. In private, he
warns that just to maintain that
growth will require very high
levels of government-led infrastructure investment.
Given the mounting problems at home it is little wonder
China’s leaders see the title of
world’s largest economy as a
burden that brings unwanted
attention. In fact, Beijing has
so far refused to even acknowledge the new estimates, which
attempt to adjust for the relative
value of non-tradable goods and
services in different economies.
“Recently there have been
some scholars and media who
estimated China’s GDP has already surpassed the US in purchasing power terms, but China and the National Bureau of
Statistics do not recognize these
opinions,” China’s genial statistician-in-chief said last week as
he revealed the country’s latest
growth figures.
“The problem comes from
not being able to include identi-
cal goods in the complex basket
of goods you compare [across
different economies] - in China’s consumer basket of goods
the main food items are steamed
buns and rice, while European
friends perhaps have a lot of
bread in their basket. You can’t
really compare them.”
Arguments over the relative
value of carbohydrates aside,
officials quite reasonably point
out that China ranks 89th in
the world in terms of per capita GDP, a better measure of the
wealth of a population, putting
it on a par with the Maldives or
Peru. They also argue the latest
estimates seriously overvalue
the quality of items available in
the Chinese market.
“China is only just entering
the ranks of middle-income
economies and is facing all of
these headwinds so it really
doesn’t want to accept the global responsibilities . . . of being
the world’s number one economy,” says one person who was
involved in the heated discussions over the new estimate.
Using the government’s current exchange rates China’s
slowing economy topped $10tn
for the first time last year, while
the US economy is accelerating
and is bigger than $17.5tn.
According to research by the
British economist Angus Maddison, China had the world’s
biggest economy for nearly
two millennia and in 1820 it
accounted for 33 per cent of the
world’s GDP, or about the same
proportion the US accounted for
in 2000. But by 1890, after decades of internal rebellion and
foreign incursions, China had
lost its number one spot to the
US in purchasing power terms.
Back then China’s exports
only accounted for 0.6 per cent
of GDP, there were virtually no
imports of machinery or other
modern inputs and opium still
accounted for more than a quarter of Chinese imports.
Today China is the world’s
biggest trader of goods and the
biggest consumer of everything
from iron ore to powdered milk.
So unlike the 1890s, when
its economy was still largely
self-sufficient and had little
impact globally, the rest of the
world now needs to pay close
attention to half-built office
towers in the suburbs of Beijing.
Additional reporting
by Gu Yu
Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2015
02.02.2015
Syndicated articles from
F2
© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All Rights Reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in anyway.
By Maija Palmer
When
AirAsia
flight
QZ8501 disappeared on
a trip from Surabaya to
Singapore last month, the
company’s chief executive,
Tony Fernandes, took to
Twitter to express his sorrow, post updates and rally
his demoralized staff.
“I as your group CEO will
be there through these hard
times. We will go through
this terrible ordeal together,” Mr Fernandes tweeted.
“Keeping positive and staying strong. My heart bleeds
for all the relatives of my
crew and our passangers
(sic). Nothing is more
imp­o r­tant to us.” Mr Fernandes’s tweets, complete
with typos, came across as
authentic and heartfelt, and
won him praise in an otherwise bleak situation.
“It showed how powerful
this medium can be when a
CEO is dealing with a crisis,” says Leslie GainesRoss,
chief
reputation
strategist at PR firm Weber
Shandwick. “It is a way of
having a deeper, closer relationship with employees
and customers.”
Relatively few chief executives - especially at
large companies - have
joined Twitter. Only 14 per
cent of the chief executives
of the world’s largest listed companies are using the
social media platform as a
way to communicate.
Socialbro, a company
that helps companies market themselves on Twitter,
looked at the 223 companies listed on the FTSE
100, Nasdaq 100 and Dow
Jones 30, and found that
while more than 94 per cent
had a corporate Twitter account, only 31 had chief
executives who tweeted.
Of these, only 20 were actively using the social media site.
“The low numbers really
surprised me,” said Linda
Bolg, head of marketing at
Socialbro. “I would personally always advise being on
Twitter as it can raise the
company profile and give a
CEO the opportunity to set
the record straight if needed.”
Some business leaders
may fear that Twitter turns
out to be a passing fad or
superseded by some other
social media platform, although with 284m people
now using it each month,
such concerns are becoming harder to justify.
Ms Gaines-Ross says
many chief executives are
worried they will make a
mistake, accidentally leak
something about the company, or say something that
provokes a backlash.
It is not an unreasonable
BLOOMBERG
Chief executives spread their wings as fledgling tweeters
Tony Fernandes, chief executive officer of AirAsia Bhd., center, leaves the Bhayangkara hospital in Surabaya, Indonesia
fear. A number of people
have lost their jobs because of ill-judged words
on Twitter. Last November a Labour MP in the
UK was sacked for a tweet
that some thought sneered
at working class people.
Bluntly-worded
tweets
by leaders such as Rupert Murdoch and Donald
Trump regularly provoke
angry outcry.
But the power of being
able to communicate instantly with potentially
thousands of people has
persuaded some to overcome their concerns.
I realised that they wanted
to hear what I had to say.”
Indeed, the appetite for
Twitter messages from
leaders is immense. Warren
Buffett has only ever sent
five tweets on Twitter - the
last of them nearly a year
ago - but still has more
than 936,000 followers.
Now Ms Gold uses Twitter not only to talk to customers about the business
but runs a competition every Wednesday to highlight
up-and-coming
female
entrepreneurs. “I am passionate about empowering
women in the boardroom
Fernandes’s tweets,
complete with typos,
came across as authentic
and heartfelt, and won
him praise in an otherwise
bleak situation
“If I am honest, I was terrified at first. I set up the
account but I didn’t do anything with it at first. I just
sat there,” says Jacqueline
Gold, chief executive of
Ann Summers, the lingerie
chain, who is now known
for her active presence.
“Then I saw that, even
though I wasn’t saying
anything people were still
starting to follow me, and
and Twitter allows me to
mentor women, albeit with
only 140 characters, that I
would normally not have
been able to reach,” she
says.
A 2012 survey by Brandfog, a company that helps
CEOs manage online reputations, found that people were
much more likely to trust a
brand if the CEO actively engaged on social media.
A Twitter presence can
also be a useful recruitment
tool, particularly when hiring younger members of
staff.
“When young millennials
are looking for jobs they
will look at the company and the CEO on social
media to see what they
are like,” says Ms GainesRoss. Companies and executives with a social media
presence will seem more
forward thinking. Nafisa
Nathani, a communications
consultant and self-described “millennial”, puts
it succinctly in an interview
conducted over Twitter:
“No #millennial wants
to work for a faceless corporation. CEOs are face
to company. Social media
helps to connect.”
Will Critchlow, chief
executive of Distilled, an
online marketing agency,
actively uses Twitter. “I’ve
made client relationships,
hired people I got to know
here, and more,” he says,
adding that such connections can turn into sales.
The prospect of facing
complaints directly from
customers on Twitter may
seem daunting. But they
will be airing complaints
on Twitter in any case
and it is better to be there
to hear and acknowledge
them, says Ms Gold.
“If someone is really aggressive or a prolific complainer I would just ignore
it, like you would a heavy
breather phone call. But if
it is a genuine complaint I
will face it head on. It is
really important to show
customers that the CEO
cares,” she says.
For a guide on CEO
tweeting it is worth looking at the accounts of Tim
Cook, CEO of Apple, and
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
Motors, two of the most
popular CEOs on Twitter.
Mr Musk has the most followers - more than 1.51m
- but Mr Cook gets more
engagement, with more
followers retweeting or
marking his messages as
favourites.
“Tim Cook tends to share
inspirational and behind
the scenes content from
Apple, while Elon Musk
is slightly different - more
hip, young and trendy,
with a very human tone of
voice,” says Ms Bolg.
Mr Musk’s recent tweet
following a failed rocket
flight displayed his wry
style: “Next rocket landing on drone ship in 2 to 3
weeks w way more hydraulic fluid. At least it shd explode for a diff reason.”
Many tweeting CEOs
sprinkle in liberal references to their favourite sports
teams - Mr Cook tweets
about the Auburn college
football team that he passionately supports, Mr
Fernandes’s feed is littered
with pictures of Queens
Park Rangers, the football club he owns, and Ms
Gold publishes opinionated
tweets about Celebrity Big
Brother.
For those who are not
ready to share this much,
tweeting about company
events and interesting articles is a safe place to start,
says Ms Gaines-Ross. If
executives are concerned
about compliance issues
she suggests getting a the
company lawyer to check
over the tweets in the first
few weeks “until you get
the hang of it”.
Tweeting too much about
your own company and
products is a no-no.
“If you are only talking
about your own products or
retweeting PR headlines,
your Twitter followers will
tune out,” says Ms Bolg.
It is also advisable, if possible, to write your own
tweets.
“I think you can tell if
tweets are ghostwritten,”
says Ms Gold. “It has to be
in your own voice or customers will disengage.”
It is not an issue that CEOs
can ignore, says Ms GainesRoss. Gradually, she says, it
is becoming a common practice. “It is from a low base,
but it is not going away, it
is growing,” she says. “By
2020 it is going to be ubiquitous.”
Copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2015
mon 02.02.2015
特刊
FEATURE
F3
By Kana Nishizawa
T
HE divide in Hong
Kong’s stock market
between the city’s
own companies and
those that make most of their
money in China will only get
bigger. That’s the verdict of
investors and brokerages from
JPMorgan Asset Management
to UOB-Kay Hian Holdings
Ltd. who watched the MSCI
Hong Kong Index rise 2 percent last year as the Hang
Seng China Enterprises Index
jumped 11 percent. Monetary policy that favored Hong
Kong since 2010 - stimulus
from the U.S. Federal Reserve and restraint from China’s
central bank - is reversing
course, dimming the outlook
for everything from casinos to
developers and retailers.
“There will be much more
downside for pure Hong
Kong plays because people
are buying China on a potential rate cut and a more stable
economic outlook,” said Steven Leung, director of institutional sales at UOB. “We don’t
see positive factors for Hong
Kong. Toward the middle of
this year there will be the risk
of a U.S. interest-rate hike,
so people will continue to underweight pure Hong Kong
plays.”
The city’s USD4.3 trillion
stock market houses local
companies, which make sales and borrow money in a
currency that’s pegged to the
U.S. dollar, and hundreds of
Chinese equities influenced
by policy across the border.
Last year, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index outperformed the MSCI Hong Kong
Index by the most since 2007.
The city’s equities remain
more expensive, trading at
15.6 times estimated earnings,
compared with 8 times on the
H-share gauge, data compiled
by Bloomberg show.
“If I look at the valuations, if
I look at growth momentum,
Chinese names do offer more
interesting prospects,” said
Tai Hui, chief Asia market
strategist at JPMorgan Asset,
which oversees about $1.7
trillion.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and
China International Capital
Corp. are among those expecting more cuts to mainland interest rates and reserve requirements after the economy expanded 7.4 percent last year,
the slowest pace since 1990.
Gains in the H-share index
accelerated after the People’s
Bank of China delivered a sur-
AP PHOTO
China returns at 5 times Hong Kong
easy choice for investors
prise rate reduction on Nov.
21. The MSCI Hong Kong Index and the Hang Seng China
Enterprises Index both retreated 0.1 percent on Friday.
On the opposite end of the
policy spectrum, some 45 percent of economists surveyed
by Bloomberg said the Fed
will raise the benchmark lending rate in June. Higher borrowing costs would weigh on
Hong Kong property stocks,
which account for more than
a quarter of the city’s MSCI
gauge, and are already facing
government efforts to cool the
real-estate market by increasing the amount of available
housing.
“For the big constituents in
the Hong Kong market like
property, policy now is that
we want to have more supply
because that’s what’s good for
If I look at the
valuations, if I
look at growth
momentum,
Chinese names
do offer more
interesting
prospects
TAI HUI
the general population,” said
Joshua Crabb, head of Asian
equities at Old Mutual Global
Investors (UK) Ltd., whose
parent oversees about $123.2
billion.
The price target set by
analysts on Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. was nearly in line
with the shares’ closing price
on Thursday, data compiled
by Bloomberg show. For Link
REIT Ltd., analysts expect a 4
percent drop.
The earnings outlook for
gambling and retail shares is
also weak as China’s slower
growth and crackdown on graft continue to discourage extravagant spending. Casinos
led declines on the MSCI Hong
Kong Index last year amid
the first-ever annual drop in
Macau gaming revenue, with
SJM Holdings Ltd. plunging
52 percent and Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. sliding
37 percent.
Investment banks don’t see
a recovery any time soon, and
have cut forecasts for Macau
casino receipts this year. Nomura Holdings Inc. expects
gross-gaming receipts to plunge 19.6 percent after earlier
estimating an 8 percent drop,
while HSBC Holdings Plc’s
projection swung to a 7 percent decline from a 6 percent
gain. SJM fell 7.4 percent this
year, with Galaxy declining
6.3 percent.
Hong Kong’s retail sales
growth by value at the end
of November was less than
a third of what it was at the
start of last year, according to
the most recent data available. Jewellery chain Luk Fook
Holdings (International) Ltd.
said same-store sales in Hong
Kong and Macau dropped 6
percent last quarter because of pro-democracy protests. The city’s peg to the U.S.
dollar may also push visitors
to cheaper destinations, said
JPMorgan Asset’s Hui. Luk
Fook fell 1 percent this year.
“Some Hong Kong retailers
are struggling with a weaker
consumer market here on
lower spending by mainland
tourists because of curbs on
corruption and China’s economic slowdown,” said Louis
Wong, director of Phillip Asset
Management (HK) Ltd., which
oversees about $200 million.
Leon Goldfeld, investment
director at Amundi Ltd., sees
a bright spot for Hong Kong’s
market in Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. and Hutchison
Whampoa Ltd., among the
biggest advancers this year
on the city’s MSCI equity gauge. The stocks both jumped
17 percent through Thursday
since billionaire Li Ka- shing
on Jan. 9 announced a $24
billion proposal to merge and
spin off the real-estate assets
of his two main companies.
The MSCI Hong Kong index
posted a 5.5 percent advance
this month, compared with
a 2.2 percent drop for the
H-share index.
Chinese shares sank last week
after the Xinhua News Agency
reported a mainland regulator
was planning a new round of
checks into the margin-lending businesses of brokerages.
More scrutiny will create volatility, although it’s ultimately
good for capital markets, said
Steven Rees, global head of
equity strategy at JPMorgan
Private Bank, which oversees
about $1.1 trillion. The Shanghai Composite Index plunged
the most since 2008 on Jan.
19 after regulators suspended
China’s three biggest brokerages from adding margin accounts.
There is further upside for
H shares, which are trading
near the biggest discount to
their mainland counterparts
since October 2011. This will
prompt investors to sell local stocks and pick up cheaper China shares available in
Hong Kong, said Dickie Wong,
an executive director of research at Kingston Financial
Group.
“The real interest is still on
the China market rather than
Hong Kong,” said UOB’s Leung. “We will see more policy
from the government on the
economy and there is still a
chance for China to provide
more liquidity through RRR or
interest rate cuts.” Bloomberg
F4
NATURE
02.02.2015 mon
自然
By Gerald Herbert, Grand Isle
N
AP PHOTO
Cold-stunned turtles rehabilitated
in New Orleans, released
EARLY
two
dozen
turtles that were stranded by cold weather last year
in Massachusetts have successfully undergone rehab and
have been returned to waters
off Louisiana’s coast.
More than 1,200 young,
“cold-­stunned” Kemp’s ridley
sea turtles were stranded in
November and December.
According to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “cold-stunning”
occurs when the circulatory
systems of sea turtles exposed
to frigid water temperatures
for several days slow down to
a point where the turtles cannot function.
Various sea-turtle rehabilitation facilities along the east
and Gulf coasts joined in the
effort to care for the stunned
turtles.
Suzanne Smith, stranding-­
and-rescue coordinator for
the Audubon Nature Institute for Marine Mammals and
Sea Turtles, said 21 of the 27
turtles she and her colleagues
received were released into
the Gulf of Mexico, 38 kilome- Suzanne Smith, Stranding & Rescue Coordinator of Marine Mammals & Sea Turtles for the Audubon Nature Institute, releases
ters off the coast of Grand Isle an endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle
last week. “It was a beautiful
day,” she said. “We couldn’t
have asked for a more beautiful day.”
The turtles were placed in
open produce boxes and carefully transported for about
100 miles from the institute’s
aquatic center before being
loaded onto the back of two
boats, one provided by Audubon and the other by the state
Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries. Carefully shielded
from the sun, they were then
transported out to sea, where
the boats’ engines were shut
off to ensure the turtles’ safe
re-entry into the wild.
Each turtle was released by
hand on a cloudless, sunny day
with temperatures in the low
70s and calm seas — a sharp
contrast to the conditions that
existed when they were stranded in New England.
The turtles immediately
swam from the boats, disappearing into the sun-warmed
water as Smith and Audubon
Nature Institute veterinarian
Dr. Tres Clarke exchanged a
triumphant high-five.
One of the 27 turtles the Audubon institute received did
not survive, Smith said. The
other five, which had suffered
from pneumonia or problems
with their shells and flippers,
will remain in the rescuers’
care for about a month to receive antibiotics and nutrition.
“Their prognosis, though, is
good,” she said. AP
ASK THE VET
by Dr Ruan Du Toit Bester
10 Causes of Canine and
Feline Heart Murmurs
H
EART murmurs are unusual sounds
the blood makes when leaving or moving through the heart. A cat or dog heart
murmur is rated from Grade 1 through
Grade 6, with Grade 6 being the most severe. There are a number of causes resulting in canine and feline heart murmurs.
Some conditions may be resolved with
surgery. 1) Sometimes a heart has some abnormality or defect with the heart wall itself
or the valves within the heart due to genetics (hereditary). Often a puppy or kitten
is born with a heart murmur that he will
grow out of in several months. This condition is not unusual and does not impair the
heart. Often surgery can repair deformities
in the heart valves.
2) Severe anaemia resulting from flea
and/or tick infestations can affect the
heart. Nutritional supplements can treat
the heart murmur.
3) The narrowing of the outflow area of
the pulmonary artery at the exit from the
right ventricle of the heart is called pulmonic stenosis. Here the murmur is the result
of the abnormal turbulence of outgoing
blood meeting resistance.
4) The same condition as above except
occurring in the aorta outflow area is called aortic stenosis. 5) Tetralogy of Fallot is a complex defect
affecting emerging arteries of the heart and
more than one segment of the heart. Pulmonic stenosis causes the heart murmur.
6) A hole in the interior wall of the pumping chambers is called ventricular septal
defect (VSD) and if the hole is very large
may not even result in a murmur since little to no turbulence occurs.
7) One of the more common causes is mitral valve dysplasia, which is a defect resulting in a leaky valve causing the murmur
from the turbulence of blood reflux.
8) Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) results
when the duct in the fetal heart does not
close after birth. This produces a shunting of blood, which may result in a heart
murmur only if the shunting of the blood
occurs from left-to-right side of the heart.
9) Hyperthyroid disease is the leading
cause of heart murmurs in cats. This disease can be treated using a combination
of medication therapies and/or surgery.
For the most part, heart murmurs are not
life threatening. Cats can outgrow them or
surgery and/or medications can correct
them.
10) The heart disease canine or feline
cardiomyopathy can also contribute to
heart murmurs. This disease causes the
heart muscles to change shape, stretch or
thicken making it difficult for the heart
to work properly. Often medications will
improve the efficiency of the heart by reducing the workload on the heart and increasing the elasticity of the heart muscles
themselves.
Till next week
Hope this helps
Dr Ruan Ask the Vet:
Royal Veterinary Centre
Tel: +853 28501099, +853 28523678
Emergency: +853 62662268
Email: [email protected]