I'm sitting here looking at my boy, and it occurred to me that I don't really know what to expect in his future.
He has RCM with a 3rd degree AV block, not diagnosed until he was in heart failure. He's on lasix, vitamin K (for his anaemia) and steroids (for a tongue ulcer that just won't heal). His kidneys were okay a month ago when he had bloods done.
The last couple of days I've been having to give him half a lasix tablet instead of a quarter because of his breathing, but our vet just had me go to 3/4 for a couple of doses because he's still filling up with fluid. If that doesn't work I don't know what the next step will be.
He seems very tired but doesn't really sleep much - any sound or movement near him and he opens his eyes. He was eating vast amounts of food a few days ago but his appetite has dropped down to about what a cat would normally eat, maybe slightly less. Last night he had dinner in bed because even though he was hungry he wouldn't get up and go to the bowl.
The vet has suggested extra blood tests to find out why he's anaemic, but I question the value of doing it from his point of view. If we had found his anaemia earlier we might have been able to prevent his HF, but fixing his anaemia now isn't going to make him better. Even the full blood count the specialist recommended seems pointless if it's not going to lead to a cure. He growls at the vet now when she touches his arm because he's so sick of getting stuck with needles (though he forgives her straight away).
What's the usual progression of this sort of thing? Can I expect him to go up and down for a while, or is he likely to just get gradually worse? I worry about waiting too long before making a decision about euthanasia and having him suffer, especially when we're heading into the weekend and the after-hours vet is a half hour drive away instead of the 3 minutes to our usual vet.
He has RCM with a 3rd degree AV block, not diagnosed until he was in heart failure. He's on lasix, vitamin K (for his anaemia) and steroids (for a tongue ulcer that just won't heal). His kidneys were okay a month ago when he had bloods done.
The last couple of days I've been having to give him half a lasix tablet instead of a quarter because of his breathing, but our vet just had me go to 3/4 for a couple of doses because he's still filling up with fluid. If that doesn't work I don't know what the next step will be.
He seems very tired but doesn't really sleep much - any sound or movement near him and he opens his eyes. He was eating vast amounts of food a few days ago but his appetite has dropped down to about what a cat would normally eat, maybe slightly less. Last night he had dinner in bed because even though he was hungry he wouldn't get up and go to the bowl.
The vet has suggested extra blood tests to find out why he's anaemic, but I question the value of doing it from his point of view. If we had found his anaemia earlier we might have been able to prevent his HF, but fixing his anaemia now isn't going to make him better. Even the full blood count the specialist recommended seems pointless if it's not going to lead to a cure. He growls at the vet now when she touches his arm because he's so sick of getting stuck with needles (though he forgives her straight away).
What's the usual progression of this sort of thing? Can I expect him to go up and down for a while, or is he likely to just get gradually worse? I worry about waiting too long before making a decision about euthanasia and having him suffer, especially when we're heading into the weekend and the after-hours vet is a half hour drive away instead of the 3 minutes to our usual vet.