Any experiences with heart failure?

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Lacy

Lacy

Member Since 2020
Just left the vet and had xrays done. Saff has been doing much better with her numbers lately. She's eating good, she's active, and the litter box doesn't have the worst smell on earth anymore. She had been having some rapid breathing that concerned me though. No open mouth or coughing. Just breathing fast. Took her in and discovered alot of fluid (or mass) in her chest and belly area. They are sending off to a specialist to confirm. They didn't say it was heart failure, but gave it as a possibility. It doesn't seem like any possibility is promising right now. All of the potential options seem to end with "no cure, quality of life care."

I'm devastated. We've battled diabetes for nine months now and finally got into a good place with numbers. And now this. Does anyone have any insight?
 
My girl had heart failure. For her things were a little more complicated because she also had kidney disease and the treatment for kidneys wasn't good for the heart, and vice versa. Neko's first heart failure incident was brought on by giving her fluids for her kidneys. We stopped the fluids, got an echocardiogram by a cardiologist and based on his advice added some meds (Vetmedin and Plavix), and she recovered. The cardiologist was a little surprised how well she actually did. However, months later, her kidneys were going downhill so the IM vet though we could try a much reduced amount of fluids. Turns out not so much. The second heart failure incident we had to add Lasix at very small doses, cause it was damaging to the heart. It wasn't too long after that I had to let her go. She also had small cell lymphoma, so just way too many things at once.

So first recommendation, depending on what you find out the issue is, see a specialist like a cardiologist and get an echocardiogram if it's a heart issue. Many things can cause fluids so you do want to find out what it is. In the mean time, counting the RR or resting respiratory rate is a good thing to do. You count the number of in and out breaths per minute while they are resting. I used a timer on my phone. Normal is supposed to be 20-30 per minute, above 26 for Neko meant a call to the vet.
 
The had a specialist look over the xray and called me this morning. It's not good news. There is fluid in chest and abdominal cavities. It's most likely cancer. We are going to start with some pills to help eliminate the fluid, then we are going to look at draining it to make her more comfortable. We don't have much time left with her.
 
I'm not telling you this because it's sad but because little miracles do happen.
We adopted a pair straight out of a vet's clinic and were assured they were spayed & neutered. They were not and 18 months later out popped four males, we kept them all. All six were all diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. Noah was the oldest with had an enlarged heart so big it tore through his cardiac sac. He also needed to have all his teeth removed but would not have survived anesthesia so we made the choice to bring him home. Because we kept him calm and on transdermal BUPE he lived another three years pain free. He was our miracle cat.
We also had a dog diagnosed with untreatable cancer and Cushings and were told she would not make it to Christmas. The next summer she had gained all her weight back and no one could explain why.
It's not always a miracle but it might be your turn.
Keep posting and know that we have all been where you are now. :bighug:
 
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