High blood pressure despite treatment

Has anyone dealt with high blood pressure problems? My senior cat Sneakers was diagnosed with high blood pressure in November and has been on meds since then with no real improvement. First it was Amlodipine, then my vet gave us Benazepril too when there was no improvement on just Amlodipine. Then she has us increase the Benazepril to 2x a day, but there was no improvement after about a month so she has us decrease that again and increase the Amlodipine to 2x a day. Yesterday we went back in to recheck and her blood pressure was still off the scale. Sneakers was also recently diagnosed with CRF (which the vet thinks the high BP probably contributed to) so she's on a lot of other meds now too. Her kidney values have improved steadily since her diagnosis (they were REALLY high when she was diagnosed) but the blood pressure is still the same...

Hmm, could it be she has "white coat syndrome"? (meaning that her B/P is actually ok until she gets to the Vet, and then she gets upset and it rises)

Whenever we take Sven to have his checked, they check it before doing anything else to him, so he (hopefully) hasn't had a chance to get too upset at being poked and prodded (he has CRF too). We did notice that if his BP is done at the end of the visit, it's higher than when done at the beginning. I'm guessing they take several readings? I know with Sven they take about 10 readings because it's so difficult to do in cats. And within those 10 the results can be all over the place, but usually higher as they go along.

BTW, I have no answer to your questions about meds. It seems like they should be doing some good! But glad her kidney values are going in the right direction!

I have no experience with this at all, but wanted to send vibes. I hope you're able to get it sorted out.

Actually, mrsgreenjeens post is really interesting. If it's high blood pressure from being at the vet, then meds wouldn't help at all.

Originally Posted by mrsgreenjeens

Hmm, could it be she has "white coat syndrome"? (meaning that her B/P is actually ok until she gets to the Vet, and then she gets upset and it rises)

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It is possible, and she often gets really upset when they try to take the blood pressure so we thought that might be part of the problem. I don't think she gets upset so much about being there but she does when they start messing with her. They do usually take it before doing anything else (except weighing her) so she won't be as upset, and they always try several times. Previously I've even had the tech do it and then the vet come in and do it again, with the same results.
The last time they did it (yesterday), we were able to do it without her getting upset. I kept her still by rubbing her face and she was actually purring, and she acted a lot calmer than previous times when they did it.
Yet, the bp reading was too high to measure, same as the last time. She was also checked several times on different days when she was staying at the vet (she was hospitalized after she was first diagnosed with the CRF in June, and then at the beginning of July we did a medical boarding at the vet for a week when we were out of town.)

My vet consulted with the cardiologist again, and she wants me to increase the Amlodipine to 1 1/4 pill twice a day, and then recheck Sneakers' blood pressure in 2 weeks...

Sneakers ended up at the vet again earlier this week... I am out of town and the person watching her said she didn't seem to be eating much. So she went in and the vet decided to keep her for a few days to make sure everything was ok. The vet said she was eating great for them, though... Her blood pressure was still high but slightly lower than it had been (at least it was measurable this time...) So she went home on Sat. I was supposed to come home on Monday but I might be changing that due to Irene.