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HCM heart disease (subltle symptoms.)

post #1 of 7
9/4/10 at 10:12am
Thread Starter 
I had to put my baby down this morning due to saddle thrombosis(?) as a result of undiagnosed hcm. He did show slight symptoms which I did not recognize as unusual, because I had never heard of this disease, and was unaware of its symptoms till now, when I read about it. He did open mouth pant once in a while, but it has been really hot, and it was after tumbling around with his brothers. and the other thing was he did not run down the steps all the time with me as he used to, but he did still go into the basement. I wish I had know I was looking at symptoms, but they were so far and few between, and all of his other behavior was totally normal. Perhaps I could have saved his life. I did post on the bridge site, but I wanted to put this here in case someone else notices these subtle changes in their cat, they might want to get it checked out.
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post #2 of 7
9/4/10 at 12:15pm
I'm so sorry for your loss . I'll read up on the condition so I can keep an eye out for it.
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post #3 of 7
9/4/10 at 7:49pm
I'm so sorry for your loss. HCM is a horrible disease that I unfortunately had to deal with a few months ago. I also lost my cat very suddenly. He showed no symptoms at all until 2 weeks before he died. And even then, the symptoms weren't severe enough for the ER vet to worry too much. He was checked a week later by my regular vet who saw and heard absolutely nothing wrong with his heart. A week later he was gone. Please don't beat yourself up over not noticing the symptoms. I did the same thing, but there was just no way to know. I've been an avid reader about HCM since then, and sadly, it seems like its hit or miss as to which cats even do well on medicine and which don't. I guess all of my research has made me realize that I can't feel guilty for not knowing. I hope you're able to find some peace in the coming days. I am so sorry that you had to go through this, but your kitty is now playing with mine at the Rainbow Bridge .
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post #4 of 7
9/5/10 at 4:12am
Sorry for the loss of your kitty. but definitely don't blame yourself.

The only reliable way to know for sure if your cat has HCM, is to do regular echocardiogram screenings. You would have to do them yearly and at roughly $400 per screening, that's a hard financial pill to swallow.
Unless your vet hears a murmur, they normally won't even recommend having the echo done.

Since we breed bengals, all our cats are screened yearly. This is something a breeder has to do, if the breed is known to have HCM in the lines.

With a non-breed cat, I don't think anyone would even think to do an echo if there was no heart murmur present.
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post #5 of 7
9/5/10 at 11:24am
My Stinkpot sometimes open mouth pants after very rough play, and also sometimes coughs soon after drinking, and I mentioned these things at his annual exam just last month, because I got paranoid after googling these symptoms, and now I'm paranoid again . Dr. Christina couldn't find anything wrong with him at all, just said to keep an eye out to make sure he doesn't pant any other time other than either after rough play or when he's extremely stressed (like when we put him in his carrier). He's a very active boy, only 18 months old, and runs around like crazy, so I truly hope the panting is normal. He only does one or two pants and then stops, but I still have never seen this is any other of my cats.

My heart bleeds for you two who have lost cats to this disease.
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post #6 of 7
9/7/10 at 5:40am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsgreenjeens View Post
My Stinkpot sometimes open mouth pants after very rough play, and also sometimes coughs soon after drinking, and I mentioned these things at his annual exam just last month, because I got paranoid after googling these symptoms, and now I'm paranoid again . Dr. Christina couldn't find anything wrong with him at all, just said to keep an eye out to make sure he doesn't pant any other time other than either after rough play or when he's extremely stressed (like when we put him in his carrier). He's a very active boy, only 18 months old, and runs around like crazy, so I truly hope the panting is normal. He only does one or two pants and then stops, but I still have never seen this is any other of my cats.

My heart bleeds for you two who have lost cats to this disease.
thank you. I don't want to alarm you, but if I were you, I would ask the doctor to do whatever the next step is to checking his heart, other than listening with a stethoscope. If it is not ridiculously expensive, I would have it done for peace of mind. The vet still didn't hear anything wrong with Fang, even though he had just had what is equivalent to a stroke and was paralyzed and screaming in pain.
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post #7 of 7
9/7/10 at 8:30am
I'm so sorry about your loss. Heart disease can come on suddenly and it's not always detected by any test. I lost 2 cats to it - one went lame one day from a thrombosis (we thought he sprained a leg) and the vet couldn't detect a murmur until the day he lost all use of his back legs. The other was playing one moment when he fell over and died instantly. They were both in the prime age for cardiac issues in male cats - 8-9 years old.

Please don't beat yourself up over this, and don't play the should-have could-have game. It is obvious how much you love your cats and gave them the best care possible.



Rest peacefully Fang.
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