15 year old cat with heart failure-- best environment?

Hello.. new to the site here.  

I just recently this past wednesday (2/25) decided to bring Bella, a small female cat that has lived at my parents house for about 14 years now.  She is mostly an outdoor cat, but now that she is older they had been keeping her inside during winter months.  Out of concern for the fact that they never take her to the vet and that she is lately almost always confined to a small room, I decided it was best that I bring her to my apt about 30 miles away so that I could take her for regular vet visits (since she was getting old).  I, however, live in a larger town and it's not safe to let her outside.  P I have two cats that I thought would keep her company, though.  I honestly thought I was doing the best thing for her.

Maybe it was all too much for her, because about a day or two into her stay with us, I started noticing she was having rapid breathing while resting.  It progressed to get worse, and I finally took her into the emergency vet when I became increasingly concerned for her at 2:30 am the night before last.  I think the vet office stressed her even worse, because she was open mouth panting when they (rather roughly) took her to the back to get on oxygen.

They performed several tests and concluded that she has went into Congestive Heart Failure.  She has been in the hospital for 2 days now, and I'm going to pick her up after work.  They say she is doing much better now, and have prescribed her three different medications. 

Now I feel somewhat guilty for bringing her up here and causing her to be so stressed that she went into heart failure. Honestly, I've been really beating myself up for it.  I am now faced with a dilemma- should I: 

1)  keep her with me while she recovers, where she is still not fully acclimated and not used to our other 2 cats, but I can keep a close eye on her and trust that she is medicated; or 

2)  take her back to my parents house where she is at least comfortable and not so stressed?  While she won't be as stressed here, there are a few drawbacks. I'm not 100% confident they will give her medication on a proper schedule. Also, when they start letting her back outside, if she disappears for a day she may miss a dose of her medicine.  There are several dogs at my parents house, but she has never seemed to mind them much at all, and they do little to bother her.

I'm starting to wonder if it's best to just let her be where she is most comfortable and at home-- my parents house.  Even if something bad happens, at least she lives out her remainder of life where she has always known to be.

I guess I just need some cat-owner advice for what would be the best life for her, for what she has left. Thoughts?

If she was ok at your parents house, why can't you pay for her to see a vet and let her spend her last days where she's always known? A compromise?

Who has she bonded with? I would want to keep her close as long as this is not stressing her out too much so you can go day by day and see how she does. If it starts to get bad or she really bonded with someone else and she misses them then it may be better to return her. I would just care for her and spend as much time as you can with her and see how she does and if she seems to be slipping then think about taking her back. She is an old cat and her time may have been coming in any case so take it day by day and monitor her and see how it goes.

You can't beat yourself up for anything you did because you did not know she was sick and things like this don't happen overnight so you very well may have saved her life. If it were my cat or the cat had bonded with me or I had any fears for her well being then I would have done the same thing as you without question. You did what was the best for her in this situation and moving can cause stress but I think this issue was there before. The last move I did was when both of my cats were 17 and both were stressed but no issues directly related to that. What I did not know was one was littered with cancer and only lived a few months and the other was starting IBD and renal failure and he lived another 3 years.

I wish you the best and hopefully this all works out for the better because i think she is under better care now.

I get what you're looking at.  And while it's a tough call, I think I would continue on the path you already started, caring for her at your place where you can watch her closely.  But I can see how it would be a close decision, and I'm not 100% certain what I would do in your case.  There is something to be said for the familiarity, sure.  Is the familiarity of surroundings more important than the close observation and meds in this case?  I don't know.  It's not an irrevocable decision though.  Let's say you decide to have her stay at your place for now; you can always change your mind in the coming days or weeks if you find that she just doesn't seem to adjust well or whatever.



Mainly I want to say, YOU didn't CAUSE her condition, not at all.  You have DISCOVERED that she has CHF.  It is not something that comes on quickly; it is a progressive disease that she's had for a while, and it just so happens that in your care she had a specific crash type of episode that finally caused a human to notice she was sick.  I have cared for a cat with CHF (unfortunately at the time I treated it as a secondary thing to her kidney disease, and the balance of giving fluids for kidney vs not giving them for CHF was probably off), and I have watched my father's CHF progression over a number of years since he was first diagnosed.  Most of the time, you don't see anything wrong, especially earlier stages.



Okay, so is it possible that she was more stressed and this sent her into the breathing episode that put her in the ER?  Well, it's not impossible I suppose.  But it's probably just as likely that would have happened around that time if she was still in her old home.  If that were the case, she could well be dead now it sounds like.  But instead you have a chance to give her some close care and meds and potentially give her some additional quality of life for however long she has left.



Regardless of which route you take, Bella is lucky to have someone like you around who will do everything possible to make the best decision for her care and comfort. :-)

Thank you guys so much for your thoughtful responses.  I brought Bella home to my apartment last night.  We so far have her in the spare bedroom, with plenty of places to hide, and a window.  She seems to be doing great right now, and is even wanting to come out of the room to explore the house.  Her breathing is at a much more normal rate, she is affectionate, and she is just seeming more like herself. I've read enough online to know that this is most likely only a temporary fix, but for now we are happy that she's happy.

After speaking with two vets and several vet techs, they all seem to think it is best to keep her at my place and slowly introduce her to everything.  I'm sure they are a little biased because their primary concern is keeping her medicated.  I went through the ritual of giving her the 4 medications for the first time this morning.  It took me about 30 minutes in all to crush it, give 2 to her with a little food, and then 2 more with the rest (to ensure she eats the pills).  I'm not confident my parents would be timely and reliable at all times.

As for who she is most bonded with, while she loves people, I wouldn't say that she is super bonded with my family at home.  She was kept in a room or outside at all times, and the only interaction she really ever had was during feeding time (which was 1x per day, 2 servings).  Idk, maybe this could still mean she was bonded to her feeder, though?  In any case, I have given her a ton of attention and I think at this point I would say I'm who she is most bonded with.

I guess at this point I am leaning towards keeping her with me. 

I was asking about the bonding because some cats create a strong bond with one person and may be hard to break them up. My last cat was like that with me, he tolerated other people at best and it would be hard for him to be without me. Bonds are not built by feeding for the most part so I don't think bring her to a new home where she gets much more love and attention as well as food would be hard on her. Cats live outdoors when they want to or have to but when they get older they seem to enjoy the security of an inside life as well. I had no problems turning my inside/outside cats into inside only cats when they were older so you may find the same thing. I think if she wants to get out then let her out and let her check things out. I typically carry them when I introduce them to a different or new area so I can keep them under control and they have the security of you holding them. If she seems good and you don't get bad reactions from your other cats bring her back into the room and let her explore while you watch.

It sounds like she is rebounding well and I still think you did the right thing by moving her in with you. Living indoors will definitely reduce her stress level which will help her health in the long run. Good to hear things are looking better now and hopefully she can keep it up without remissions.