Enlarged heart

I recently lost a cat to suspected undiagnosed HCM, and now the disease terrifies me.

I have another cat who has been coughing a lot lately, so I took him in to the vet a few days ago. He had x-rays done and they were sent to a radiologist. The vet said that she thought she saw signs of asthma, and his heart sounded good to her (no murmur or irregular heartbeat). (I posted a few weeks ago about 2 other cats I had that might be related to the HCM cat, but this cat is NOT one of those. There's definitely no relation.)

I just got a call back from the vet, but of course I didn't notice that I had a voice mail until after the vet had closed. And since its Labor Day weekend, they won't be open again until Tuesday. Apparently the radiologist confirmed asthma, but he also noticed that his heart was slightly enlarged. The vet said she could refer me to a cardiologist for further tests which I am going to do.

However, since I can't even talk to the vet for a few days, I'm now a nervous wreck. Having just lost a cat to undiagnosed heart disease, I'm now so scared that I am going to lose this one too. His asthma symptoms seem to have disappeared for the time being, so otherwise he seems perfectly healthy, so I'm guessing I don't need to rush him to an emergency vet, otherwise my vet would have said that in her voice mail.

Does anyone know what an enlarged heart can possibly mean? Or has anyone had a cat with this? I guess I'm just looking for personal experiences until I can see and talk to a vet again.

I'm so sorry you got such terrible news after losing one so recently.

I don't have personal experience with this, though do fear it with my current situation.

That the vet said his heart did sound good is good news, though. I suspect if you can get the asthma under good control it will help a lot because all that coughing is a terrible strain on the heart. He should be ok for the weekend. Do get with the cardiologist. You need answers. Ask about his blood pressure, too. Just tell yourself (over the weekend) that it's just "slightly enlarged", your kitty will be ok.

I'm sorry you have a coughing kitty at home, I know how incredibly stressful it is to hear that and know you can't do anything (at the time) to help. It breaks your heart a bit to have to watch it.

Thanks. I do keep telling myself that its just "slightly" enlarged, at least for the time being. I just hate waiting around to get more answers right now .

I'm a person who googles everything and then ends up scaring myself about what can be wrong, but this time googling is making me feel a little better. I know this can still be the worst thing possible, but I guess I'm now in a mindset of "expect the worst, hope for the best". From my hours of reading stuff online it looks like an enlarged heart can be caused by the asthma, and isn't necessarily "real" heart disease, although obviously its still bad. Then of course, there's real heart disease (i.e. HCM or the other forms of cardiomyopathy). Unfortunately, it seems like the most common cause of an enlarged heart is HCM, but I'm still holding out some hope. I'm hoping that you're right and if I can get his asthma under control, then the heart issue might also get better. Although, I did read a lot about how asthma and heart disease can often go hand in hand.

Ugh - sorry for just rambling right now. Moe is my little "bottle baby". I fostered him as a kitten when he and his litter mates were orphaned. I got them all when they were about 2 weeks old from my vet who needed someone who could bottle feed them around the clock. When they were old enough to be adopted out, they went back to the vet and found homes instantly. I kept Moe for the time being because I had been babysitting a friend's cat, and that cat fell in love with Moe. They were the best of friends, so when she got back to pick up her cat, she also adopted Moe.

Now for reasons unforeseen, she can't keep Moe (and I'm not someone who thinks its ok to just give up animals, so thats a whole different story), so instead of sticking him in a cage in the vet's waiting room, hoping someone will adopt a fully grown cat, I took him back here. I was so sad to see the foster kittens get adopted, even though I knew that would happen from the very beginning, so I was actually happy when I realized that I now have a place in my house for Moe. Ironically, I have that extra space because of losing a cat to HCM. I just keep looking at him and thinking that he's my little bottle baby. He used to follow me around like I was his mother, and I just hate that there might be something seriously wrong with him .

I'm hopeful though, so any good vibes sent my way would be greatly appreciated!