Sudden health issues (fluid in lungs, enlarged heart)

[shorin0723]

Completely new to this thread and forum however I wanted to drop in and say thank you for the insights and hope. We have a 10 year old Siamese and Ragdoll mix that exhibited the exact same symptoms that you posted about almost a year ago that started early this week.

He had pleural effusion and pleural edema and an enlarged left atrium. They drained over 200ccs of fluid from his chest and placed him on diuretics to combat the pleural edema. The cardiologist confirmed late Thursday that he indeed had an enlarged heart. He's on a combination of Furosemide, Clopidogrel, spironolactone, pimobendan, and enoxaparin to help with his heart and pleural edema.

His resting rate seems to be back down to 30 BPM and he's been affectionate as ever. We're following up with blood work this week to see how his body is handling the new medication and adjusting as needed.

Thinking about your cat and here's to a better week for the both of them.

 

[BluOnyx]

I meant to update this. His limp is gone and everything is stable. He was still showing heavy fluttering in his chest and while the vet said it would not make a difference, I opted to put added taurine back in his food. Sure enough, his fluttering is no where near as severe. Doctors can get things wrong I suppose.

I also switched him to 30 mg of CoQ10 over the ubiquinol as he doesn't want it in his food anymore. So I have to give it to him with his other vitamin wrapped in meat. He doesn't like it but he tolerates it fine.

His resting rate seems to be back down to 30 BPM and he's been affectionate as ever. We're following up with blood work this week to see how his body is handling the new medication and adjusting as needed.

Thinking about your cat and here's to a better week for the both of them.

I hope your kitty is doing better

 

[fionasmom]

Thank you so much for updating us and for letting us know that your kitty is doing so much better!

 

[shorin0723]

I meant to update this. His limp is gone and everything is stable. He was still showing heavy fluttering in his chest and while the vet said it would not make a difference, I opted to put added taurine back in his food. Sure enough, his fluttering is no where near as severe. Doctors can get things wrong I suppose.

I also switched him to 30 mg of CoQ10 over the ubiquinol as he doesn't want it in his food anymore. So I have to give it to him with his other vitamin wrapped in meat. He doesn't like it but he tolerates it fine.


I hope your kitty is doing better

Glad to see you post that your little one is doing better. We've noticed that the diuretics he doesn't seem to want to get up and go to the water bowls within the first hour or two but will drink a lot if water is placed in front of him. He also grazes food more versus just eating when he's hungry which seems odd given the preference behavior with the water.

Our boy is doing much better. Our cardiologist has him on Lasix, Plavix, Enoxaparin, Pimobendan and Spironolactone to help with his condition. We moved him onto kidney food 8 months prior to his CHF episode due to some higher values and the leading theory from the cardiologist is that it's related to the pea content in the food. There are some published studies showing possible correlations between DCM in dogs and pea content in their diet as well as a smaller subset with cats linked below:

Investigation of diets associated with dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs using foodomics analysis - Scientific Reports

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a disease of the heart muscle that affects both humans and dogs. Certain canine diets have been associated with DCM, but the diet-disease link is unexplained, and novel methods are needed to elucidate mechanisms. We conducted metabolomic profiling of 9 diets...

www.nature.com

Dilated cardiomyopathy in cats: survey of veterinary cardiologists and retrospective evaluation of a possible association with diet

The objectives were to conduct a survey of cardiologists on their recent experiences with cats that have dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and to retrospectively review individual cases of feline DCM.Part one: A survey was distributed to cardiologists with ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

We're continuing to try and isolate the variables but his kidney diet was one variable that is unique to him and was heavy in pea protein.

On his last check up, he was doing much better and the S3 and S4 was not present, his veins near the heart were no longer dilated, and his kidney values were in normal condition which is paradoxical to the amount of heart medication he's on. His heart however is still very much enlarged but the smoke swirl is much less due to the blood thinners. His percentiles for Fractal Shortening are still very much poor but the combination of medication seems to have the pleural effusion and pleural edema under control for the time being. Prior to the increase in medication we did supplement Taurine as we were told that while cat food does have taurine added, excess is not shown to be detrimental. He did seem to perk up quite a bit with the taurine supplement prior to the medication increase which has been noticeably helpful as well.

Cheers to your boy's recovery journey and much love to him!

 

[BluOnyx]

Glad to see you post that your little one is doing better. We've noticed that the diuretics he doesn't seem to want to get up and go to the water bowls within the first hour or two but will drink a lot if water is placed in front of him. He also grazes food more versus just eating when he's hungry which seems odd given the preference behavior with the water.

Our boy is doing much better. Our cardiologist has him on Lasix, Plavix, Enoxaparin, Pimobendan and Spironolactone to help with his condition. We moved him onto kidney food 8 months prior to his CHF episode due to some higher values and the leading theory from the cardiologist is that it's related to the pea content in the food. There are some published studies showing possible correlations between DCM in dogs and pea content in their diet as well as a smaller subset with cats linked below:

Investigation of diets associated with dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs using foodomics analysis - Scientific Reports

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a disease of the heart muscle that affects both humans and dogs. Certain canine diets have been associated with DCM, but the diet-disease link is unexplained, and novel methods are needed to elucidate mechanisms. We conducted metabolomic profiling of 9 diets...

www.nature.com

Dilated cardiomyopathy in cats: survey of veterinary cardiologists and retrospective evaluation of a possible association with diet

The objectives were to conduct a survey of cardiologists on their recent experiences with cats that have dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and to retrospectively review individual cases of feline DCM.Part one: A survey was distributed to cardiologists with ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

We're continuing to try and isolate the variables but his kidney diet was one variable that is unique to him and was heavy in pea protein.

On his last check up, he was doing much better and the S3 and S4 was not present, his veins near the heart were no longer dilated, and his kidney values were in normal condition which is paradoxical to the amount of heart medication he's on. His heart however is still very much enlarged but the smoke swirl is much less due to the blood thinners. His percentiles for Fractal Shortening are still very much poor but the combination of medication seems to have the pleural effusion and pleural edema under control for the time being. Prior to the increase in medication we did supplement Taurine as we were told that while cat food does have taurine added, excess is not shown to be detrimental. He did seem to perk up quite a bit with the taurine supplement prior to the medication increase which has been noticeably helpful as well.

Cheers to your boy's recovery journey and much love to him!

I read similar, grain-free not being healthy for cats or dogs because of the added filler. They replaced wheat and rice with things like peas and beans which are not good for cats. It is quite hard to find food without this stuff now, especially with dry food. I hope you continue to see improvements or at least he remains stable. I know how stressful this can all be.

Our boy has no issue with drinking water and drinks tons now since his meds were upgraded to something stronger. We give him spring water, the same that I drink. He will not drink tap. None of our cats like it. It is fine by me though as I will not drink it either, I can't expect them to enjoy it. Not sure if it makes any difference but I feel like spring is likely the "best" water for cats and dogs as it is closest to nature while being clean. If you don't already, maybe try offering him spring water and see if he enjoys it more?

 

[IzzysfureverMom]

It is genetic heart failure. He isn't in any pain and will have to be managed. He could have months left, or years. They don't know but it is far along. My heart is breaking. One of my cats is very close to him and like me, he hasn't wanted to eat. I don't know what to do with myself right now.

I ordered some ubiquinol and he has medications he will need to be on. I tried to find something with stem cells to help but I can't find anything in my area. I feel helpless.

So sorry you are both going through this.