anyone know anything about High Blood Presure in Cats

The vet said Coco ha high bp and migh need meds.

I've heard that high blood pressure can be a silent killer, so it might be worth considering the meds if Coco does have high blood pressure.

She goes again on Weds and if its high again she will get pills.
Her bun is 79 also.

Coco does have high bp and we are still waiting for the meds.
How long does it take to be compounded?
Her bp is 170/160.

Dillon had very very high bp due to his kidneys. I didnt even know he had it, he was sleeping all the time. They put him on some tablets for humans, I had to cut them in quarters. The first ones I gave him, he slumped on the food tray and I thought he was dying, then I realized his blood pressure must have come down fast. I decided to continue the tablets on one eighth a day instead of the quarter, he was fine on this for the rest of his life.

I am not sure what med she is getting but it is a human blood presure med.
The vet said the high bp is from the kidneys.
I am afraid she will get like your cat when I give it to her.
How old was your cat when he had high bp?

Coco is most likely getting Norvasc, which is a human drug. I don't know why it took so long to get the pills, since all your vet had to do was call in the prescription to the pharmacy of your choice. It should only have taken a few hours.

My kitty is also on Norvasc, and was started on the pill form too. Remember that it's *very important* to have Coco's blood pressure measured *again* soon after you start the med in order to make sure it's the correct dosage for her. NEVER give her a smaller or higher dose without first consulting your vet!!!

Since my cat would have needed 3/8 of a 2.5mg tab, it was easier to have the med compounded into a flavored liquid form. Compounding takes 24 hours, so you need to keep track of how much you have if you use this form of Norvasc. Once it starts getting low, call the pharmacy for a refill so Coco will not be without it. I'm lucky that the pharmacy I go to specializes in meds for pets, and offers several flavors for the med.

Since the vet has told you the high bp is from the kidneys, he should be addressing that issue as well. Coco needs treatment for that, which may include additional meds and fluid therapy. Please speak with him about this, since untreated kidney disease is dangerous.

Please keep us updated. Best of luck to you and Coco.

I do not know where he sent to get the meds but it is some place vet that compounds the meds.
If it was not being compounded I would have had the med the same day.
He wants to see if the urine infection is causing the high kidney number.
He said she has to come to get a blood presure test 4-5 days after starti ng the med to make sure the dose is right.
He is not saying Crf yet.
My Stripe they think had a stroke and went in a coma from high bo.
she had Crf and my old vet never gave bp pills to her.
I wonder why he did that.
She got procrit shots and winstrol shots and sub q's.

Originally Posted by mews2much

I do not know where he sent to get the meds but it is some place vet that compounds the meds.
If it was not being compounded I would have had the med the same day.
He wants to see if the urine infection is causing the high kidney number.
He said she has to come to get a blood presure test 4-5 days after starti ng the med to make sure the dose is right.
He is not saying Crf yet.
My Stripe they think had a stroke and went in a coma from high bo.
she had Crf and my old vet never gave bp pills to her.
I wonder why he did that.
She got procrit shots and winstrol shots and sub q's.

Click to expand...

It seemed from the dates on your posts that it was taking days, as opposed to 24 hours, to get the compounded med. Maybe I'm just lucky that my pharmacy can do it in a relatively short time.

Find out Coco's other kidney values. Besides the BUN, the creatinine is very important, as well as potassium and phophorus levels. Your vet should also have been able to feel Coco's kidneys during the physical exam - diseased kidneys are small.

I wasn't aware that Coco had a UTI. From what I know, UTI's don't cause high bp (but maybe I'm wrong about that). I have read though, that 30% of cats with kidney disease experience UTIs. Since she has a suspected UTI, I guess the vet took a urine sample and is culturing it to see if there's an infection.

I don't know why your vet would not have prescribed bp meds for your kitty who had CRF, unless he tested for it and her bp was fine. That's why it's so important to do blood pressure screenings on a regular basis to make sure the bp remains normal.

Sierra takes compounded Norvasc, .65 mls, once a day. It has effectively controlled her high BP for several years now.

Thanks to both of you.
He did feel her kidneys and they are small.
He did do the blood test for that also but it was not that bad.
The high bp is not from the Uti.
She is on Baytril for the Uti.
It is a Ecoli infection.
It was cultered and was pos.

Originally Posted by mews2much

The vet said Coco ha high bp and migh need meds.

Click to expand...

Chynna has high blood pressure.

At the end of February she was throwing up and had diarrhea. I rushed her to the vet. Her blood pressure was really high and the vet said that it's likely the cause of her vomiting.

High blood pressure is very dangerous for any living thing. It can cause strokes, damage blood vessels, cause blindness and death.

I have to give Chynna 1.25 mg of Norvasc (Amlodipine) every day. Since I started giving her that she feels so much better. She used to vomit usually 3 times per day and had been doing that for months. Since she's been on high blood pressure pills, she often goes days without vomiting. And when she does vomit it's usually really late at night while I'm in bed, about 4 hours or so before she's due for her next pill. It's possible that she needs 2 does per day.

I buy her medication at Safeway Pharmacy when I go and get my own. The pills are 5 mg and I cut them into 4 pieces.

A 6 month supply is $47.00 including taxes. But I haven't been able to afford to spend that amount all at once, so I am just getting a months supply each time and that runs just under $21.00 per month, because I have to pay a pharmacy dispensing fee each time.

Giving the pill is very easy with Chynna. I don't shove a pill down her throat. The pill is so small because it's only 1/4 of a pill, that I put it on a plate, add 1 teaspoon of warm water to dissolve it, then add about 1 teaspoon of wet food to it and mash it up really well. She eats it and when the plate has been licked clean I give her more wet food for her actual breakfast.

That sounds like the amount Coco will get.
I could have gone to Safeway or any pharmacy here but I thought compounding would be easier.
I hope its easy to give to Coco like it is to your cat.

Dillon was around 18 when he got the high blood pressure, he may have had it a while before this. We only knew when he pulled his front leg upwards and fell sideways and we took him to the vet (we dont know if that was a mini stroke or something) We were then told that he had lost some of his sight.(I always feel a bit guilty about this as we didnt know and his blood pressure was very very high). Once on the tablets he seemed happy, ate, washed, got up and down to his food bowl and enjoyed a fuss. The tablets worked well and if that had been his only problem he would have kept going on them a lot longer. I got a pill cutter as trying to get an eighth out of these tablets was not easy, sometimes they crumbled.

How long was he on them ?
I am afraid Coco will slump because your cat did.

He was on them for just under 2 years until he was nearly 20. If he had been younger I am sure the blood pressure tablets would have helped him for a lot longer, but he was getting other problems. I was not told about the slump by the vet, that is why I mentioned it to you. It is always scary when our cats act out of character. I worked it out because it was soon after the first blood pressure tablets. He walked over to his food bowl and his front legs just slid out in front of him and he went down on the food. His blood pressure had been 300 or something awful I remember so I realized it had come down fast, just picked him up and put him on his cushion to sleep. He soon recovered.

Cocos is 170/160.
I am glad you told me about it.
How many days after he was on meds did they check his bp?

He went back to the vets after about a week, but they didnt bother checking his bp, they said he was looking and acting well so that was that. To be honest, I am not sure they had a bp monitor in the surgery, that was local. When he had the funny turn it was out of hours and we had to take him 20 miles to another surgery where they kept him in for the weekend. They had taken the blood pressure there.

He wants Coco to come back in 4 or 5 days after she starts the Med.
What else was your cat sick from?
We also have another problem with Coco.
She is on urinary food but she should be on Kidney Food.
The vet is trying to decide what to put her on because if she goes off the urinary food she gets bladder problems.
She also has Lax Aire for Constipation and a inhaler for her Asthma.

Dillons kidney disease started at around 12. He had been diagnosed with failing kidneys twice before that, when he was 7 and again a while later, the numbers both came back to normal after a week of antibiotics so it was a kidney infection the first two times. He was put on the kidney food which he ate half his diet of and the rest of the time, tuna, pork pie, anything he wanted to keep him eating and happy.

He has lost a lot of his eyesight, he was very thin, he suffered bad constipation for a few years (I used to put physillium husk power in his food and liquid paraffin in his tuna) and sometimes have to massage him at the back to help him go. His back legs were giving way towards the end. I had to clean his ears out with olive oil, wash him with a warm flannel and blow dry him with the hairdryer (he liked that). His nails got too long and were hooking in things and we had to cut them (in the end we got the vet to do it as they were quicker). He kept going off his food then picking up again. The last time he was in the vet he was on a drip. He finally got ill again and my vet friend said he would need to go into the vets again for a couple of days on a drip again, he was thin and leaning against the wall and not eating. He used to gaze around the room like he couldnt see. I knew he would not survive the trauma of going in the vet again for two days. I put him on my lap and just said "you have had enough havent you". I had realized that it was me keeping him going with a quality of life that was no good anymore.
Wont go on, will upset myself and you. Hopefully coco will have a good few years yet.