Advice for a potential Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy diagnosis

[catsith073]

Hi. After a lot of frantic googling and feeling hopeless and alone, I found this site. Not necessarily looking for explanations or anything, just a bit of advice and support from people who may have gone through the same thing.

My 12 year old cat Rowan was just identified with a heart gallop today. They wanted to recheck his heart after his last checkup due to some abnormalities. Whilst it isn't confirmed yet, my vet highly suspects he has HCM. He's healthy for his age, still runs and jumps like a young cat, and I haven't noticed anything wrong with him. But I also read that HCM can sometimes only manifest symptoms when the cat is very close to heart failure, or not at all. I am utterly destroyed over the idea of Rowan suffering heart failure, saddle thrombus or dying suddenly. I've gone through a few of the HCM specific threads here and felt a bit more optimistic. So I am looking to have a bit of a conversation about it.

I am a student currently living on campus, although my home isn't far away and I can visit often. So the care of Rowan is currently by my mother. I also live in a really rural area where there isn't any specialist vets for miles and miles. Fortunately my vet does ultrasound so I am looking to get him booked in for one in the next few weeks. Unfortunately I cannot do earlier due to work. I have found out that there is a feline cardiologist who does come up here monthly but he is referral only. I'm also a bit concerned about cost... I will pay whatever it takes to make my baby comfortable but my entire family is also very poor so its a big point of anxiety as well.

At the moment I am just trying to enjoy the time I have with him. I will try and give an update when we get more info from my vets.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hello -
We're glad you're here.

Maybe there's something here;
No Money For Vet Care? How To Find Help And Save Your Cat’s Life – TheCatSite Articles

 

[fionasmom]

I have a much younger cat with HCM diagnosed at about 2. He is almost 6 now. Ideally you need the echocardiogram to see what is going on. In LA they run around $500 although your area may be different. Having your vet do it is okay but if the cardiologist could read it that would give more information. Jamie’s vet did the first ecg and prescribed two med which the cardiologist took him off of. Can your vet do some kind of coordination or communication with the cardiologist if you can’t see him personally? Your vet could also reach out to a teaching hospital for a second opinion.

 

[Arnecat]

Hi. After a lot of frantic googling and feeling hopeless and alone, I found this site. Not necessarily looking for explanations or anything, just a bit of advice and support from people who may have gone through the same thing.

My 12 year old cat Rowan was just identified with a heart gallop today. They wanted to recheck his heart after his last checkup due to some abnormalities. Whilst it isn't confirmed yet, my vet highly suspects he has HCM. He's healthy for his age, still runs and jumps like a young cat, and I haven't noticed anything wrong with him. But I also read that HCM can sometimes only manifest symptoms when the cat is very close to heart failure, or not at all. I am utterly destroyed over the idea of Rowan suffering heart failure, saddle thrombus or dying suddenly. I've gone through a few of the HCM specific threads here and felt a bit more optimistic. So I am looking to have a bit of a conversation about it.

I am a student currently living on campus, although my home isn't far away and I can visit often. So the care of Rowan is currently by my mother. I also live in a really rural area where there isn't any specialist vets for miles and miles. Fortunately my vet does ultrasound so I am looking to get him booked in for one in the next few weeks. Unfortunately I cannot do earlier due to work. I have found out that there is a feline cardiologist who does come up here monthly but he is referral only. I'm also a bit concerned about cost... I will pay whatever it takes to make my baby comfortable but my entire family is also very poor so its a big point of anxiety as well.

At the moment I am just trying to enjoy the time I have with him. I will try and give an update when we get more info from my vets.

I went through this many years ago with my 13 year old cat, Jasmine. She was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy at a very late stage, she had been losing weight and was not as active as usual but it took me awhile to figure out that she might be sick (my fault, I had a busy life and was not paying attention as I should). She was prescribed daily medication but she had a blood clot a few weeks later and we had to put her down.

However, this was in 2001 -- I assume treatment has improved since then -- and it sounds like you caught this at an early stage based on his behavior so I would be optimistic that your vet can do something to prolong his life. I used Good Rx to search for the cheapest place to buy pet meds (for another cat, different issue) and got a discount coupon that helps with the cost. Good luck to you and Rowan!