- Joined
- Mar 25, 2016
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Hi everyone,
We are so stressed out right now. Our Toby was recently diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and was placed on three meds, Lasix, Benazepril and Plavix. We first found out about his condition when he failed to eat one morning and we called our mobile vet who said there was some fluid in lungs and detected a low grade murmur. We were referred to a cardiologist where HCM was confirmed and meds were started.
At first he seemed to be responding well for about a week or so. Then in the last 24-48 hours has really gone down hill fast.
He can't survive for more than 1-2 hours outside of oxygen before he goes into respiratory distress and full open-mouth breathing.
Yesterday his appetite was gone again and he couldn't seem to find a comfortable spot and was panting pretty heavily. When he started open-mouth breathing we rushed him to the Emergency Vet who placed him in oxygen box. He responded beautiful and xrays were pulled revealing no fluid. We took him home and he was 90% back to normal. He even regained his appetite and ate some of his food. Then again, 1 hour later full distress and within 5 minutes he went from being fairly normal to full open-mouth breathing. We again rushed him to the Emergency Vet and this time he stayed for a few hours in oxygen. We went and get him and brought him back to his cardiologist. After just 2-3 hours after he left oxygen while at the cardiologist he again went into full distress over the course of about 5 minutes. We're talking purring, jumping up and down on us and then 5 minutes later he can't breath and full open-mouth breathing.
The cardiologist does NOT think what is happening with his breathing is related to the HCM. She will be hooking him up to heart recorder to check for arrhythmia thinking maybe that could be it but she didn't sound confident that was it but wanted to rule it out. She also suggested that we may try going to a neurologist for evaluation. He was sort of growling still even though he appeared to be in respiratory distress (she said that didn't seem right) and he was also doing something vet's call "fly snapping/biting or air biting" which again could point to seizure or neurological.
The poor thing can't breath without aid from the oxygen chamber. We are not even sure we could make it to the neurologist since he's over 2 hours away. He is now at the cardiologist's vet's office which has a full ER and other docs on staff. He is in oxygen and will be staying overnight again in oxygen. Our little guy looked so bad this last time when we left him. Markedly worse than even the last overnight event. He was just laying there and didn't really respond much to us, a quick glance at us and a low tone growl. His temperature was dropping when we left which was also bad but they have not called us with any drastic changes as of yet. It was so heartbreaking. He doesn't appear to be in much pain though but I think he's very good at masking it.
Does anyone recognize these symptoms? Any potential guesses that we can run by the now team of vets that are overseeing him? We are so lost on what to do and even if we could get him to a neurologist and they can actually determine something what direction could that take us in?
Could this possibly be symptoms of FIP or Toxoplasmosis? Or?
Please please help us.
We are so stressed out right now. Our Toby was recently diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and was placed on three meds, Lasix, Benazepril and Plavix. We first found out about his condition when he failed to eat one morning and we called our mobile vet who said there was some fluid in lungs and detected a low grade murmur. We were referred to a cardiologist where HCM was confirmed and meds were started.
At first he seemed to be responding well for about a week or so. Then in the last 24-48 hours has really gone down hill fast.
He can't survive for more than 1-2 hours outside of oxygen before he goes into respiratory distress and full open-mouth breathing.
Yesterday his appetite was gone again and he couldn't seem to find a comfortable spot and was panting pretty heavily. When he started open-mouth breathing we rushed him to the Emergency Vet who placed him in oxygen box. He responded beautiful and xrays were pulled revealing no fluid. We took him home and he was 90% back to normal. He even regained his appetite and ate some of his food. Then again, 1 hour later full distress and within 5 minutes he went from being fairly normal to full open-mouth breathing. We again rushed him to the Emergency Vet and this time he stayed for a few hours in oxygen. We went and get him and brought him back to his cardiologist. After just 2-3 hours after he left oxygen while at the cardiologist he again went into full distress over the course of about 5 minutes. We're talking purring, jumping up and down on us and then 5 minutes later he can't breath and full open-mouth breathing.
The cardiologist does NOT think what is happening with his breathing is related to the HCM. She will be hooking him up to heart recorder to check for arrhythmia thinking maybe that could be it but she didn't sound confident that was it but wanted to rule it out. She also suggested that we may try going to a neurologist for evaluation. He was sort of growling still even though he appeared to be in respiratory distress (she said that didn't seem right) and he was also doing something vet's call "fly snapping/biting or air biting" which again could point to seizure or neurological.
The poor thing can't breath without aid from the oxygen chamber. We are not even sure we could make it to the neurologist since he's over 2 hours away. He is now at the cardiologist's vet's office which has a full ER and other docs on staff. He is in oxygen and will be staying overnight again in oxygen. Our little guy looked so bad this last time when we left him. Markedly worse than even the last overnight event. He was just laying there and didn't really respond much to us, a quick glance at us and a low tone growl. His temperature was dropping when we left which was also bad but they have not called us with any drastic changes as of yet. It was so heartbreaking. He doesn't appear to be in much pain though but I think he's very good at masking it.
Does anyone recognize these symptoms? Any potential guesses that we can run by the now team of vets that are overseeing him? We are so lost on what to do and even if we could get him to a neurologist and they can actually determine something what direction could that take us in?
Could this possibly be symptoms of FIP or Toxoplasmosis? Or?
Please please help us.