Hi fellow cat lovers…
I’m driving myself crazy on google so I thought I’d check with you all. I had a bonded pair that were littermates also. Age 2. One of my boys suddenly passed this weekend…suspected heart failure. Today I took my other boy (his brother) to the vet for a check up just to be safe and the vet thinks he heard a murmur . Now prior to this nothing has been said or documented in either chart about a possible murmur. However, given the recent events it’s better to be safe than sorry and the vet suggested I take him to the cardiologist. I’m waiting to hear back to schedule…in the interim my vet said to continue as normal and try to just keep as low stress as possible. He didn’t want to prescribe blood pressure medicine yet in case it’s not needed, but did say if there was a long wait to get into the cardiologist he would start him on a low dose.
So of course I google and come up with HCM….and I’m freaking out. It sounds exactly like his brother, who just passed but had sudden onset heart failure. This one acts/appears fine…but I’m still so worried. I did read that if a cat has HCM and isn’t in heart failure they can live several years with medication…but if in active heart failure the average is 6-18 months . What are your alls experience with this??? Am I getting worked up over something that may not be an issue? How do you know if they are in heart failure vs early HCM??? Any suggestions to help him…again he seems fine, but so did his brother.
this weekend has been horrible…I was really hoping for some peace of mind from the vet but definitely the opposite. Although I appreciate the honesty, I’d rather be cautious than not…but it’s still hard and I’m worried sick.
Thanks!
W
I’m driving myself crazy on google so I thought I’d check with you all. I had a bonded pair that were littermates also. Age 2. One of my boys suddenly passed this weekend…suspected heart failure. Today I took my other boy (his brother) to the vet for a check up just to be safe and the vet thinks he heard a murmur . Now prior to this nothing has been said or documented in either chart about a possible murmur. However, given the recent events it’s better to be safe than sorry and the vet suggested I take him to the cardiologist. I’m waiting to hear back to schedule…in the interim my vet said to continue as normal and try to just keep as low stress as possible. He didn’t want to prescribe blood pressure medicine yet in case it’s not needed, but did say if there was a long wait to get into the cardiologist he would start him on a low dose.
So of course I google and come up with HCM….and I’m freaking out. It sounds exactly like his brother, who just passed but had sudden onset heart failure. This one acts/appears fine…but I’m still so worried. I did read that if a cat has HCM and isn’t in heart failure they can live several years with medication…but if in active heart failure the average is 6-18 months . What are your alls experience with this??? Am I getting worked up over something that may not be an issue? How do you know if they are in heart failure vs early HCM??? Any suggestions to help him…again he seems fine, but so did his brother.
this weekend has been horrible…I was really hoping for some peace of mind from the vet but definitely the opposite. Although I appreciate the honesty, I’d rather be cautious than not…but it’s still hard and I’m worried sick.
Thanks!
W