Problems with Louie (in tx) **cardiomyopathy**

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all4stvoyager

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I am not sure how much Oh Bell hasposted about louie since late last week, so I will update as I can...

Last thursday night I took him into er vet because I could hear him breathing from across the room. They did an xray, and his heart is 2x the size it should be. :cry: I took him into one of my regular vets first thing Fri morning. They had a radiologist look at it. He has cardiomyopathy. Today he is at the vet to get a cardiac echo done to determine which kind of myopathy it is. We tested his thyroid when we tested for diabetes, and it is fine...so hopefully it isn't hypotropic cm, cause that is the worse of the two common myopathies...

I am thinking perhaps this underlying condition is why it has been so hard to understand his numbers as they relate to insulin doses...I am so scared for him because so far I haven't seen any good news while researching it...please pray for him if you pray! He is my heart...I can't lose him!
 
Re: Problems with Louie (in tx)

I am so sorry to hear this. We have lots of members with cats with cardiomyopathy. You might add it to your subject line to get their attention.
 
I'm sorry to hear this .. we lost our boy cheddar (main coon) to hypotrophic(SP) cm a few years back .. he was just over a year old and it was sudden with no warnings .. I will keep louie in my thoughts and prayers ...
 
I am also sorry that Louie is facing this diagnosis, but it can be treated with meds and manage just fine for a long time.

Beau was dx with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, specifically, left ventricular HCM, when he was 3 and given a max of 5 yrs prognosis. He just turned 13 a few months ago. He has been on diltiazem since diagnosis. It is a calcium channel blocker and helps his heart to not have to beat as hard (it relaxes the blood vessels). Calcium channel blockers also help to treat high blood pressure which is something you want to do with any heart disease. He gets a tiny maintenance dose once a day.

Beau also had severe pancreatitis when he was diagnosed and a lot of fluid in his chest and abdomen. The fluid in his chest added to his breathing difficulties and the vet aspirated some of it using ultrasound guidance (I took him to a specialist that my regular vet referred me to). He was put on lasix (diuretic) and prednisone to fight the inflammation as well as the diltiazem. He was on pred for over 2 years, a very small dose that I phased out after 2-1/2 years. The lasix was discontinued after a few weeks.

He seems to be fine these days. At first, if he played he would get out of breath, but he plays now and is OK. He only pants when he is stressed (car rides). He will run around a bit with the two younger cats, but I try to not let him get to rambunctious.

I spent the first 5 years (he was given 2-5 years) waiting for the end. After he turned 8, I heaved a sign of relief and just don't worry anymore.
 
Sheila, thank you so much for giving me some hope!

The er vet took xray, and there didn't appear to be any fluid build up. However, my reg vet gave him a dose of Furosamide Friday morning since it would only help...and I think it did. I cannot hear him breathing anymore. He also detected a gallop rythmn...
 
There is hypertrophic, dilated and restrictive cardiomyopathy. Hope has been dealing with restrictive (RCM) for close to 5 years and doing great.
 
Just talked to vet. His atrias are very enlarged. His heart doesn't relax properly. They are calling it early restrictive/unclassified cm. Because it is unclassified it can progress very quickly. He will be given an ace inhibitor called Benazapril to lower blood pressure. Vet wants me to monitor his resp/heart rate from home over the next week and then we will determine if he also needs to be given atenolol (sp?).

His heart rate after minor sedation was 217. She said that wasn't good...but I'm assuming it is very much related to his stress level. A combo of heart disease and diabetes if one doesn't get better, then the other gets worse and vice versa. Luckily it doesn't sound like the treatment for one causes the other...which would really suck.

I kinda feel like we didn't get anything resolved...I guess other than ruling out hypertropic cm....did not at all relieve my anxiety!
 
step mommabean leaving pretty soon to go toward Louie Lou....step mamma will text you from the vetbeans pad.
 
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