Senior Cat diagnosed w HCM, high BP and seizures

[Michaleto’sMom]

Hello,

it’s been a long year for Michaleto, my 11 yr old male cat.
Last April, out of the blue, I came home one day to find him jump out of his cat tower , run around in circles chasing his tail, stop, let out a howl, then take a few steps and fall over to his size and have what we assumed was a seizure.
took him to ER vet and they discovered a heart murmur and high blood pressure.
Followed up w our regular vet and they confirmed murmur and high BP. Said the seizure was likely from high BP but he needed to follow up with a cardiologist. Cardiologist confirmed murmur, high BP and HCM (heart disease). All vets concluded that seizure was most likely due to that.
He had another small seizure 3 weeks later and since has had nothing.
This past Wednesday, he started being silly and playing, then went to his cat door, howled, and his back legs buckled. I shut his cat door and he jumped onto the couch and had a long seizure. Howling constantly, drooling, nose running, lost his bowels. When seizure lasted over 2 min I took him to vet. By the time we got there his respiration was very high, his mouth open, tongue out.
vet got him on oxygen and checked BP assuming it would be high and it was fine. By the time they went to give him recovery meds he came out of it.
vet now says that seizure is not due to high BP and HCM but I must assume I have an epileptic cat (at 11 yrs old which is not typical). She said she didn’t think it was a brain tumor because of thr slow progression of seizure/symptoms.
Started him on Phenobarbital 2x day for 3 days then down to once a day continued.
he seems very groggy and I know that can happen with pheno.
I’m a ball of nerves now, terrified he’ll have another big seizure, scared of what could have caused it, and how to deal with it and live a normal life and be away from home when needed. Help, my anxiety is just crushing me with worry over him.
Also, I don’t accept epilepsy at 11yr old and still think it could be from his heart disease.
anyone deal with anything even remotely similar, and does anyone have advice, soothing words, etc
Thank y oh!!!!!

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. I am so sorry you are going through this. And of course feel horrible for your cat.
ER vets are great for emergency life saving things but in my experience, their internal medicine skills, not so good. With cats it’s even worse. That’s just what I have experienced. Still it was absolutely and will be absolutely the right thing to do in that situation.

Your cat has some serious things going on and really needs to be seen by a specialist. Did you see the cardiologist after the second seizure?

Cats with HCM can throw a blood clot and that can cause many of the things you saw. Losing control of hind legs, yowling, open mouth breathing. Usually the clot will remain and the outlook isn’t good. I wonder if somehow your cat dislodged the clot. I don’t know. Snd that wouldn’t account for the seizures.

Getting him in to a specialist asap is your best bet. I agree with you thinking epilepsy sounds kind of not right.

Please keep us posted.

 

[Michaleto’sMom]

Hello and thank you for your response.
I talked to the ER vet which is at his normal vet hospital but she wasn’t his normal vet and asked if she thought a clot or saddle thrombus was a possibility. ER vet said saddle thrombus is a life-threatening clot that doesn’t resolve and ends in death.
originally at the very beginning there was concern of a possible clot (back in April) but after multiple seizures (3 now that we know of) they said a clot is less likely. His cardiologist said yes of course his blood pressure and heart disease could cause seizures, but I haven’t talked to them again since this last episode.
Unfortunately the cardiologist can take months to get in to see.
I’m hoping with the anti-seizure meds we can eliminate seizures or at least minimize risk and severity. But all of it seems like a math equation that doesn’t really add up.
it’s all very frustrating and hard to watch your cat go through knowing you’re really helpless. (Especially for a control freak like me!)
It’s really disheartening. And awful since I travel a lot for work and have to leave him with a petsitter who can only check in a few times a day, give food, meds etc

 

[silent meowlook]

Can you get cameras put up like Arlos so you can monitor him?

 

[Michaleto’sMom]

I do have a nanny cam in the living room where he spends a lot of time and one on the patio that monitors movement (he sleeps on the patio in a chair often)

 

[Kflowers]

Since he has fallen over with his seizures, I would suggest that you put his cat tree somewhere he can't get to. The idea is to keep him from climbing on things and having a longish fall. I would also put cushions under the edges of any table (like the dining room table) to cushion a fall from it. The same for any furniture he climbs that is high. This won't solve his problem but might help if he falls.