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- Nov 25, 2013
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I took my cat to the vet today for further work-up on his heart & liver. If you've been following this, you know he had an elevated cardio-BNP and sky-high liver enzymes. Unfortunately the vet couldn't do the echocardiogram, but here are the results of what he could do...
- blood pressure - normal (again), no murmur
- EKG - normal
- x-ray - shows some inflammation of the heart, no significant enlargement; no fluid in the chest or lungs; his liver is small, compatible with that of an older cat - and he's only 3.5 years old; some arthritis near base of tail (probably from his weight. (This time he weighed 15.9, so somebody's scale is off because a week ago he only weighed like 14.3.)
-ultrasound of liver - no masses seen
The vet didn't seem too concerned about the little bit of inflammation surrounding his heart. He said if I wanted to pursue this I could follow up with a cardiologist and an echocardiogram could be done at that visit. I should've asked him what he would do if it were his cat - maybe next time. But again, he thought everything there looked pretty good overall.
I also showed him my lonnng list of supplements for Willow's heart and liver, current and intended in the future, and he was fine with most of it. In fact, he said to continue these supplements even though his heart looked pretty good. He said that you can't really give too much taurine or CoQ10 to a cat - any excess just passes through. He said he actually started taking CoQ10 after seeing a dog in complete and total heart failure, treated with CoQ10 by his owner, come into his office one day full of life, jumping, and bouncing and with no heart disease - it was gone. He said it was a miracle. He also said he would research that one added ingredient in the CoQ10 capsules I'd purchased and posted about earlier, just to make sure it was safe. I'm so used to vets just saying 'I don't know' that this was a welcome relief.
As far as Krill oil, he recommended I give him 250mg daily (half of a 500mg gel cap), but to watch for diarrhea. And he told me to continue the Denamarin forever because of how high Willow's liver enzymes have been. We're going to recheck his liver enzymes in 2 weeks. I'm still at a loss whether I should schedule with a cardiologist or not though? - He did pant a little on his way home?
So now I'm worried more about Willow's liver. The vet said that doubling his daily dose of Denamarin to 2 pills a day wouldn't make any difference, to just continue with one. So now I'm thinking of trying activated charcoal. Anybody use this on a cat? I have to be careful though because I don't want it soaking up nutrients or any of the Denamarin I'm giving him. Any ideas on how to space this out since both Denamarin and charcoal must be given on an empty stomach? He usually eats breakfast between 5:00am and 6:00am, has dinner between 5:00pm and 6:00pm. I've been giving him his Denamarin around lunchtime. I know I could probably give the Denamarin an hour before breakfast or dinner and give him the charcoal midday, but how long does Denamarin remain 'active' in the system? If it's active in the system for a full 24 hours, I'll be defeating its purpose. Also, how many mgs of charcoal would I give a cat?
- blood pressure - normal (again), no murmur
- EKG - normal
- x-ray - shows some inflammation of the heart, no significant enlargement; no fluid in the chest or lungs; his liver is small, compatible with that of an older cat - and he's only 3.5 years old; some arthritis near base of tail (probably from his weight. (This time he weighed 15.9, so somebody's scale is off because a week ago he only weighed like 14.3.)
-ultrasound of liver - no masses seen
The vet didn't seem too concerned about the little bit of inflammation surrounding his heart. He said if I wanted to pursue this I could follow up with a cardiologist and an echocardiogram could be done at that visit. I should've asked him what he would do if it were his cat - maybe next time. But again, he thought everything there looked pretty good overall.
I also showed him my lonnng list of supplements for Willow's heart and liver, current and intended in the future, and he was fine with most of it. In fact, he said to continue these supplements even though his heart looked pretty good. He said that you can't really give too much taurine or CoQ10 to a cat - any excess just passes through. He said he actually started taking CoQ10 after seeing a dog in complete and total heart failure, treated with CoQ10 by his owner, come into his office one day full of life, jumping, and bouncing and with no heart disease - it was gone. He said it was a miracle. He also said he would research that one added ingredient in the CoQ10 capsules I'd purchased and posted about earlier, just to make sure it was safe. I'm so used to vets just saying 'I don't know' that this was a welcome relief.
As far as Krill oil, he recommended I give him 250mg daily (half of a 500mg gel cap), but to watch for diarrhea. And he told me to continue the Denamarin forever because of how high Willow's liver enzymes have been. We're going to recheck his liver enzymes in 2 weeks. I'm still at a loss whether I should schedule with a cardiologist or not though? - He did pant a little on his way home?
So now I'm worried more about Willow's liver. The vet said that doubling his daily dose of Denamarin to 2 pills a day wouldn't make any difference, to just continue with one. So now I'm thinking of trying activated charcoal. Anybody use this on a cat? I have to be careful though because I don't want it soaking up nutrients or any of the Denamarin I'm giving him. Any ideas on how to space this out since both Denamarin and charcoal must be given on an empty stomach? He usually eats breakfast between 5:00am and 6:00am, has dinner between 5:00pm and 6:00pm. I've been giving him his Denamarin around lunchtime. I know I could probably give the Denamarin an hour before breakfast or dinner and give him the charcoal midday, but how long does Denamarin remain 'active' in the system? If it's active in the system for a full 24 hours, I'll be defeating its purpose. Also, how many mgs of charcoal would I give a cat?
