Dilated Cardiomyopathy :( Rare in cats but my Bella has it.

[emilysmom97]

Hi everyone!  This is my first post to this forum. My wonderful six year old cat Bella has been diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy.  It happened suddenly. One day she was running and playing and then she slowed down and stopped eating. Then I noticed she was breathing heavily.  I took her to the vet right away and they did a chest x-ray. She had fluid in her chest cavity and her heart was enlarged. Bella needed to be put on oxygen immediately.  They sedated her and did an ultrasound and the diagnosis came back. I've read up on this type of heart disease and the prognosis in not good. The vet put Bella on Pimobendan, a medication approved for dogs but not for cats, and the pill is huge. Pimobendan has shown positive results in cats. Bella is also on a diuretic, lysine liquid and low dose aspirin. The low dose aspirin is every three days, the others are twice a day.  Bella is doing well but she's so angry and us!  Giving her the medications, especially the liquid lysine, upsets her so much. We try to reward her, llove her, pay attention to her but she retreats off to be by herself. We didn't give her her meds one day and she was playful and happy.  Once the meds come in to play, she's ticked off. We were told to give her quality of life vs. quantity. What kind of life is it for her if she hates it? Bella was so fun and playful and now, she avoids us.  It's breaking my heart. 

 

[jdollprincess]

Wedgewood pet pharmacy offers all different kinds of compounded meds including treats, transdermals, tiny tabs(my favorite), and flavored liquids. It may be a little expensive but maybe you can find something that makes her a little less upset. I was just on their site and pimobendan comes in all the different forms and some of the liquids they offer also have the diuretics mixed in with them too. I'm so sorry your going through this with her, my aunts dog had dilated cardio. and after seeing a vet cardiologist and getting her on the right meds she lived for a pretty long time. Please keep us updated.

 

[di and bob]

I, too, have a terrible time pilling a cat. I got those 'pill pockets' tear a little piece off, wrap the pill up in it and 'cement it to the back of a cat treat. He gobbles them up and I put in the 'fused' treat every so often until they are gone.  It has fooled him for months now. They must be bitter, because he spits them out once in a while, but I just 'fuse' it to a new treat. You will have to find out if you can break that large one into parts first, the human pharmacy even gives away those pill cutters. The main thing is to find something your cat really likes, I've even wrapped the pill pocket/pill in a piece of sliced turkey and he ate it. I got Lysine 'treats' on Amazon and my cat loves them, there was no way I could give the liquid without most of it on me or the floor! Good luck I hope you find something that works!

 

[maurene]

hugs!  I have one of my cats on multiple medications right now.  Hiding it in treats only worked for about a week.  She doesn't like  the medication being forced on her, but I think it helps to give her a treat or meal right after the medication -- so at least she doesn't go off and hide before I give her the medicine --because she knows she gets a treat after.  If your kitty can't be bribed with food, you might try extra affection or playtime right after medication.

I can also sympathize with feeling like the medication is making them worse.  At one point I stopped one of the meds for a few days with my kitty because her condition had gotten so dire.  Then I got a lecture from the vet.  So far restarting the meds has been OK but I still half expect the worse everyday.  And I dread having to make the decision to stop the medication again because I feel there would be nothing left to try. But certainly bring your concerns about the medication hurting her quality of life to your vet.  Often, they can be surprisingly sympathetic.    My kitty also has a heart condition and it is sad that when you know that the medication is only postponing the inevitable.  I'm just hoping that when the time is right, I'll know it.

 

[emilysmom97]

Thanks everyone for your kind words and advice. I'll have to check into compounding the medications. I do remember my vet saying that one of the meds would become unstable if compounded into a liquid but I forget which one.  Hopefully the Pimobendan can be compounded. It's a huge pill for a cats. Notice the bite on my thumb.  That was a bad one!  Poor Bella.

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• emilysmom97
• Nov 20, 2014

 

[cocheezie]

http://www.wedgewoodpetrx.com/items/pimobendan-tiny-tabs.html

Looks like it can be done. However, a lot of oral suspensions have a very short life.

Ask your vet about compounding in an oil suspension rather than a water suspension.

 

[emilysmom97]

Great news!  My vet agreed to order the Pimobendan from Wedgewood Pharmacy and it will be in on Monday! Thank you everyone and especially cocheezie and JDollPrincess for recommending Wedgewood.  Yes, cocheezie, the vet did say that in the liquid form is too unstable. Now I can give her the pills in some ground beef or turkey, if Bella will allow it. Either way, she's great at taking the small pills. Also, no more liquid Taurine (my mistake, I called it Lysine by mistake in the original post).  Bella spits it out anyway and it upsets her. The vet said it's just in case she has a Taurine deficiency, which is rare. The Pimobendan and Lasix are the most important.

Feeling so much better!  Hopefully Bella will not be so upset from now on.

Thanks again!

 

[emilysmom97]

If all goes well, no more vet visits for three months, God willing!

 

[stephenq]

 
If all goes well, no more vet visits for three months, God willing!

A couple more thoughts as someone who had a cat with HCM (a variant of your cat's illness) you can get some injectable Lasix for an emergency (like after hours she has trouble breathing), its very easy to give Sub Q, much easier than a pill, your vet can show you how plus you can find videos on youtube.

And as helpful as Lasix is, over time cats can react poorly to it and go into kidney failure so keep an eye on that as well, hopefully you will have a nice long time with her!

 

[emilysmom97]

Hi. Today we lost our dear Bella!  I've been crying all day. It has only been one month since her first symptoms and diagnosis.  Her breathing got worse as the days went on. It was only 4 years this month that we adopted her from the shelter.

We just got the "tiny pills" from Wedgewood Pharmacy today, of all days. Even though dilated cardiomyopathy is rare in cats, the vet I go to had another cat diagnosed the same day as Bella. I'll donate the pills to that cat so it doesn't have to go through what Bella did with that huge pill.

Again, I so appreciate your kind thoughts and ideas!  ((((hugs)))  Bella was a true joy. Always happy, even when she was giving us love bites. She would fetch her toys when she wanted to play. In the mornings, her favorite activity was licking the water off our legs after we got out of the shower! Of course we could never leave a glass of water on our nightstand or end table because Bella thought it was for her. We have two cats that are very quiet. Without my Bella Beans, it seems like we don't have any cats.   We already miss here dearly!!

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• emilysmom97
• Dec 3, 2014

 

[stephenq]

 
Hi. Today we lost our dear Bella!  I've been crying all day. It has only been one month since her first symptoms and diagnosis.  Her breathing got worse as the days went on. It was only 4 years this month that we adopted her from the shelter.

We just got the "tiny pills" from Wedgewood Pharmacy today, of all days. Even though dilated cardiomyopathy is rare in cats, the vet I go to had another cat diagnosed the same day as Bella. I'll donate the pills to that cat so it doesn't have to go through what Bella did with that huge pill.

Again, I so appreciate your kind thoughts and ideas!  ((((hugs)))  Bella was a true joy. Always happy, even when she was giving us love bites. She would fetch her toys when she wanted to play. In the mornings, her favorite activity was licking the water off our legs after we got out of the shower! Of course we could never leave a glass of water on our nightstand or end table because Bella thought it was for her. We have two cats that are very quiet. Without my Bella Beans, it seems like we don't have any cats.   We already miss here dearly!!

What a beautiful girl!

I'm so sorry for your terrible loss.  You did all you could.  I lost my cat  to the more common form, HCM after only 5 weeks and despite having a great hospital in NYC, cardiologists, the whole thing.  Sometimes it jusy doesn't work out.  I'm so sorry.

 

[betsygee]

The TCS team would like you to know that we are so very sorry for your loss. Threads are locked after someone has suffered such a loss, as a sign of respect. We invite you to place a tribute at http://www.thecatsite.com/f/19/crossing-the-bridge  as an enduring testimony to your friend.