Severely Enlarged Heart in 1 yr old kitty

1 year ago we adopted 2 kittens from the Humane Society. Two beautifully loving munchkins named Zoey & Cody.  Some may remember Zoey's story on previous blogs. She was 3 months old with pneumonia, strep and a staph infection. She had 2 collapsed lung lobes and spent several weeks on oxygen and on a nebulizer. Great News is Zoe Zoe just celebrated her 1st birthday and is doing well!! She's a feisty 10 lb little munchkin. She's developed such a personality and to look at her you would never know she was so sick. Cody had bronchitis and was treated with doxicyclin and seemed to recover fairly quickly. Cody has always had a little wheezing noise (like nasal congestion) every now and then when he breathes, but nothing that we thought was alarming. 

Fast forward to yesterday...I came home from work to find that my precious boy Cody threw up several times. The first 2 were very clear hairballs and the others were just bile. After those episodes we noticed that he wasn't eating or drinking as much but assumed it was because of the vomiting. Initially we didn't think much about it since there were obvious hairballs, which Cody does get periodically being a long hair kitty.  All other symptoms were normal...played with his fuzzy ball, followed me around as I got ready for work and played with his sister Zoey like usual. Then this morning about 1.5 hours after he ate breakfast he threw up a mixture of food and bile. That's when we decided to take him to the vet. 

We were hoping he just had large hairball and we would be able to give him some laxatone and be on our way. Sadly the vet took some X-rays, only to bring us devastating news. Our baby boy has a severely enlarged heart!  


Below is Cody's x-ray from today...


This is Zoey's X-ray from last year...

This is certainly terrible news for a lovely little boy kitty. Comparing the two x-rays, it does look like his heart is enlarged, but I am not a cat doc. I can't give any advice about whether he will make it through the weekend - can you call that specialty clinic and ask their opinion?

Such heartbreaking news for you and your handsome little boy. 

So I've spent the entire day researching HCM...I think I've literally made myself narcotic with the information I've read. One site saying Cody's diagnosis is a death sentence, another saying it's possible to have a normal life like any other kitty. I guess the take away is every experience will be unique. 

I've been watching Cody like a hawk all day! Checking his respiratory rate. Making sure he doesn't get to excited. Checking to make sure he's still breathing when he sleeps. Good news is he's been eating and drinking like normal today. He "looks" like he wants to chase his ball, but when we roll it to him her just stares at it (playing fetch is one of his favorite things to do). That definitely has me a little worried. We're suppose to take him to get an echo in 2 weeks, however I'm petrified that the stress from the vet appointment might put him in shock and do more harm than good. Cody literally shivers in my arms when he goes to the vet. It breaks my heart. Knowing that additional stress could be detrimental to his life, I'm torn as to what to do. I've been praying all day that this is just a horrible dream and that he will be ok. I'm shocked just how quickly Cody's life changed from being a spunky playful kitten on Thursday to being on death's door on Friday.  

I've read a lot about supplements that may help with HCM and would be curious if anyone has experience using them with their kitties with HCM.  Specifically CoQ10, Taurine, L-carnitine. From what I read I feel like I should start something immediately. Any feedback/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!