My little guy Poison who is 3 years old was just diagnosed with HCM this last monday.
Saying I'm shocked is an understatement... I'm lucky because he's absolutly fine right now, if you look at him he looks perfectly healthy, happy and his normal Poison self. Which make me say it's such a vicious condition.
As I explained in another thread, Poison has had a juvenil heart mumur we discovered when he was 6 weeks old (he was an ophan kitten along with his brother and we were supposed to "just" foster them and nurse them until they were old enough to be adopted out, but we ended up falling in love with this little terror that he was at the time). This slight heart mumur disappeared as he grew up and we were re-assured. I can't remember when I first noticed it, but it feels that if it was since the beginning, Poison has always been quickly tired. Not that he slept more than my other cats, but he couldn't play for long before he started to pant like a dog, letting him fall on his side. But he also always recovered from that state very quickly. He had had several vet checks (vaccines, neutering, boosters....) and he always passed with flying colors. We blamed his high heart rate to stress since he absolutly hate the car and the vet. It turns out this is just is normal heart rate because of HCM...
Anyway, he just started medication (Benazepril once a day and diltiazem twice a day), and we will have to wait to see if it improves anything. We planned another heart ultrasound in 3 months along with x-rays (to check his lungs) and blood test (to check his kidneys as the vet told me the medecines could affect them. It's just so frustrating that treating a condition can bring another one...Like if having HCM wasn't enough already!).
I am wishing so bad that Poison won't go throught the same thing as your cat @lindagata, even though it is so hard to wish for him to die any other way. I don't want him to die period. But we don't get to choose anyway. I guess I just have the right to hope he'll live as long as possible without pain. And I hope, if it has to come to it, that I'll know when to say "stop".
I'm so thankful I have found this place right here, because I'm having great comfort and advices back on the thread I started when I didn't know yet what my little guy had. I guess beeing understood is very important in such times and sometimes people around me don't even begin to understant how I can be so messed up about a "stupid insignificant cat"
Saying I'm shocked is an understatement... I'm lucky because he's absolutly fine right now, if you look at him he looks perfectly healthy, happy and his normal Poison self. Which make me say it's such a vicious condition.
As I explained in another thread, Poison has had a juvenil heart mumur we discovered when he was 6 weeks old (he was an ophan kitten along with his brother and we were supposed to "just" foster them and nurse them until they were old enough to be adopted out, but we ended up falling in love with this little terror that he was at the time). This slight heart mumur disappeared as he grew up and we were re-assured. I can't remember when I first noticed it, but it feels that if it was since the beginning, Poison has always been quickly tired. Not that he slept more than my other cats, but he couldn't play for long before he started to pant like a dog, letting him fall on his side. But he also always recovered from that state very quickly. He had had several vet checks (vaccines, neutering, boosters....) and he always passed with flying colors. We blamed his high heart rate to stress since he absolutly hate the car and the vet. It turns out this is just is normal heart rate because of HCM...
Anyway, he just started medication (Benazepril once a day and diltiazem twice a day), and we will have to wait to see if it improves anything. We planned another heart ultrasound in 3 months along with x-rays (to check his lungs) and blood test (to check his kidneys as the vet told me the medecines could affect them. It's just so frustrating that treating a condition can bring another one...Like if having HCM wasn't enough already!).
I am wishing so bad that Poison won't go throught the same thing as your cat @lindagata, even though it is so hard to wish for him to die any other way. I don't want him to die period. But we don't get to choose anyway. I guess I just have the right to hope he'll live as long as possible without pain. And I hope, if it has to come to it, that I'll know when to say "stop".
I'm so thankful I have found this place right here, because I'm having great comfort and advices back on the thread I started when I didn't know yet what my little guy had. I guess beeing understood is very important in such times and sometimes people around me don't even begin to understant how I can be so messed up about a "stupid insignificant cat"
