Restrictive Cardiomyopathy - any experiences?

I apologize if this gets long. Its been a while since I've posted on here but I've searched around and can't find many personal experiences so I thought I'd ask here. My cat was diagnosed with Restrictive Cardiomyopathy last night and I was wondering if anyone has dealt with this before? I'm finding a lot of stuff on Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy but not Restrictive.

She's at least 11 years old, possibly older, so I know that old age is a factor here, but this really seemed to start a few months ago. Wendy started losing weight, so I took her in for a senior exam and blood panel. Her bloodwork came back absolutely fine, but initially the vet was concerned about her thyroid. She said that thyroid disease is the most common cause of weight loss, with kidney failure coming in a close second. But her thyroid and kidneys seemed fine.

Meanwhile, Wendy wasn't eating normally at home. She always comes running to the food when I put it out, but she wasn't doing that at all. Every day I had to find her and carry her to the food. She ate like a pig once she got there but it was really odd that she wasn't running to it. But the vet couldn't pinpoint anything that was wrong. Aside from her weight loss, and her lack of interest in running to food (even though she still ate normally in general) everything seemed fine, so we were told to keep a close eye on her.

Last night, around 11:00 I noticed that she was having problems breathing. She had been sitting on my lap on and off for the past 3 hours so I KNOW that nothing was wrong for those first two hours. Then suddenly I felt her breathing change. She didn't act differently, but I could feel it just from her sitting on me. She seemed to be taking short, but deep and sharp breaths. Knowing that something has seemed off about her for a couple months, I didn't bother waiting to monitor her a little more. I just took her straight to the emergency vet.

Once there they x-rayed her and found a lot of fluid build up around her lungs. They also did an ultrasound of the heart and the vet said it was barely beating, but that there was fluid around it which could be preventing it from beating. The vet drained the fluid and put her into an oxygen tank. She seemed to perk up immediately once on oxygen.

The vet determined that she was definitely in congestive heart failure but she wasn't sure of the exact type of heart failure or the exact cause of it. So she recommended keeping her there overnight for more tests and to keep her on the oxygen. She did tell us that the prognosis isn't good. My Wendy is definitely dying. But she asked my husband and I what we wanted to do. We talked it over and cried, but I didn't know if having her euthanized right now was the right choice. I've had other cats die before and I always felt like they were telling me that they were ready to die. I just knew that it was their time to go. I didn't get that feeling with Wendy so I asked the vet for her opinion. She said that she can't tell us what to do (I didn't expect her too - just wanted her opinion if this was her own cat) but that she didn't think it was Wendy's time to go yet. She was active enough and alert enough and didn't seem to be indicating that she was ready to die. We've had excellent experiences with the vets at this clinic so I absolutely trust her opinion, so we decided to wait it out a little longer.

So Wendy stayed overnight and this morning the vet called with more test results. She definitely does NOT have Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy but she does have Restrictive Cardiomyapothy. She's definitely dying and can't be cured, but she is still doing very well in the oxygen tank. She's eating, grooming herself and stomping around meowing at people who walk by. However, they took her off the oxygen a few times and her breathing problems started almost immediately again.

So the vet that called us was a different one from last night but she said that they had both agreed to start Wendy on some medicine to help drain the fluid around her heart and lungs. There are three medicines total and I honestly can't remember what the other two are for offhand. But they want to keep her on oxygen and start her on the medicine to see how she does. Obviously if she can't do well off the oxygen then we have to make the decision to put her to sleep, but if she does well off the oxygen while she on her medicine they said we could take her home in a day or two. But we were also told that her prognosis is that she'll probably only survive for a few more weeks or months if we're lucky.

So my question is - has anyone dealt with this before? From everything I have read on it today it seems like when she does die, that it will likely be from a kind of massive heart attack, and we might not be able to get her to the vet in time to euthanize her. I had another cat a few years ago die from HCM when he was 2 years old. I saw him collaspe and he made a horrible sound before he did. That image has never left my mind and when I think of that happening to Wendy I can't handle it. I don't want to put her down if she still has life left in her, but at the same time I've never believed in letting a cat suffer just so I can have some more time with her. I never thought that I would be told that my cat was dying, but that it wasn't quite time for her to die. I guess I've always assumed that if the prognosis is definite death, then keeping her alive any longer would be cruel. But if she's feeling ok, I think it might be cruel to have her euthanized right now. I agree with the vet that she doesn't seem like she's ready to die.

So I guess I'm just looking for experiences and opinions. I know its a decision that I'll have to make on my own, but I'm curious as to what other people would do in this situation. And if you have dealt with this before, have you been able to get your cat to the vet to have her euthanized as she goes farther downhill or did you have to witness a horrible death right in front of you?

Wendy was my first cat (I have 11 now) and the one who was my comfort when I was going through a very tough time in my life.I used to joke about how I was never going to let her die because she had to live forever, but this is the first time I have really had to face her impending death and I haven't stopped crying in almost 24 hours. I love all of my cats and I will be upset when I lose every single one of them, but Wendy's death is going to leave me inconsolable. I've always known this. I just didn't want to face that fact this soon :-(.

Any opinions or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I'm sorry to hear about Wendy and everything you're going through right now. Although I don't have any experience with restrictive cardiomyopathy, I was in a similar situation with our last cat, Jamie, who had HCM. It was under control with medications for a couple of years, but then he went through some severe bouts of congestive heart failure, sometimes requiring multiple vet visits in one day.

In February of 2012 he was literally at death's door due to CHF and a potassium deficiency, and my husband and I couldn't agree on whether to euthanize him. He absolutely refused to take his medications from us or the vets at that point and had very nearly stopped eating - I had to coax every bite into him. I feared precisely what you do. My husband wanted to let him go at his own pace. The vets felt he could throw a clot and have a massive heart attack at any time and that his life expectancy could be measured in days or weeks.

We took the "wait and see" approach, and Jamie managed to scrabble back from the edge. He held on for over a year, with months of appearing perfectly okay, being active and playful despite not taking his medications. He'd then have a couple of bad days that would necessitate forcing diuretics on him, followed by several good weeks. The gauge became how many good days he was having as opposed to bad, and the last few months it was about 3 to 1. He showed an interest in normal activities, managed to move around without difficulty, even jump and play, wanted to go outside for a leisurely walk around the yard wearing his harness and leash, but definitely was less active. We made things as easy as possible for him, setting up "stairs" (hassocks and small tables) to the higher places he liked, putting an extra litter box in the living room, where he spent most of his time, and giving him anything he wanted to eat.

It meant constant worry that he would die in pain when nobody was there for him, although most of the time he didn't have to stay alone for more than two or three hours a day because of our different work schedules. Those days when he absolutely had to be left for longer were horrid, with me fearing the worst all day and often giving in and calling a neighbor to go check on him. It also meant never sleeping through the night, because I would wake up numerous times to check on him. In retrospect, it was worth it to me.

Knowing he was dying was extremely tough emotionally, but we cherished those good days. He was still enjoying life, but we always wondered when and how it would end. Every night before going to sleep I told him to call me if he needed me. He did. His last day, March 1, 2013, he yowled at about 5 a.m.. I ran down to the living room, where he was crouched on the floor, too weak to move too far from the litter box he'd just used. He didn't seem to be in acute pain, just upset that he couldn't walk away from the box, and his gums and tongue were blue from lack of oxygen. I picked him up, sat him on my lap and asked him whether he was ready to go. His look said yes, and even convinced my husband that he had no more fight in him. We kissed and cuddled him, and then had the vet release him. We chanced a very bad end to Jamie's life, but were lucky.

Obviously every situation is different. An awful lot depends on how much Wendy is still enjoying life, as well as how much worry or fear you can tolerate - the emotional toll will be very high. Another consideration is how long it will take to get to the vet's office. The ER vet is over a half hour's drive away, but our regular vet is close by and available nights and weekends for emergencies should one of her regular patients require her services.

I'm afraid all of the above won't be very helpful, but at least you'll know that there are others who've gone through what you are experiencing right now and are here when you need to talk.

ETA: Jamie was not quite 14 when he died.

Brooklet425, my heart goes out to you.  Heart disease in cats is a heartbreaking disease.    

My personal experience involves the unexpected death of one 8 year cat that had no warning signs of heart disease and an another, older cat years later whose kidney function was destroyed by very necessary treatment of congestive heart failure.  (She died of kidney failure as a result.)

If you have any time left to treat, I would like to recommend a combined traditional and holistic approach. 

Some years ago I knew someone who had five cats and was very happy with this particular holistic vet, so I'd like to mention him to you for a possible phone consult even if his office is not within driving distance to you.  His name is Dr. Shawn Messonnier and he's practicing in Plano TX.  (At the time he also had a message board at iVillage and encouraged people to get in touch with his office for additional help even if not in TX.)  He knows a lot about treating heart disease with every available resource, traditional and holistic. 

PS:

by traditional I mean conventional. Treating with medications .  Not the same thing they mean by talking about traditional Chinese medicine for example.