My cat was just diagnosed with chf. He is only 5.

[Dendi]

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to see if anyone could share any of their experience that they have/had with dealing with chf, and how long your cat survived after diagnosis. My baby is only 5 years old, and I got the news two weeks ago. I took him in because I noticed he was breathing hard. He is on 3 different medications enalapril, furosemide, and clopidogrel. He has been on his meds for two weeks, and has a follow up appt with his vet tomorrow. He is acting normal still eating drinking, and playing. I noticed that he still has noticeable movement with his abdomen, and chest when he is breathing. Is this something that the medicine should alleviate? or should I just expect this to be how his breathing will look from now on? This has been the worst two weeks of my life, and I'm having a harder time dealing with this than the suicide of my dad. I love my baby so much, and its tearing me apart.

 

[Bird]

Please go join the Facebook group called “Special Hearts: Cats with Heart Defects or Diseases”. Lots of cat parents dealing with CHF are in that group and can provide feedback. If he has labored breathing, he may need a higher or more frequent dose of furosemide, but you should consult with your vet on this first. You need to monitor his respiratory (breathing) rate every day. Ideally, it would be below 30 breaths per minute when he is soundly sleeping. Are you seeing a cardiac vet—a heart specialist? They should have told you to monitor his breathing rate.

 

[Dendi]

Thank you. I haven't been able to get him in with a cardiac vet yet because they are booked until August (that's what my vert told me) we are trying to get a specialist to come to his vets office so he can get an echocardiogram done, but no luck yet. I have been checking his breathing rate several times a day. I have an app to save the results, and he is always at 30 breaths per min. His vet did not tell me anything about monitoring his heart rate, or to make sure to check the color of his gums to make sure they are not turning blue, or gray. I had to learn all of this by reading everything I could find online. The vets office has not been very helpful which is just making this even more stressful

 

[Dendi]

Meant to say his breathing rate not heart rate.