Sampson help with high blood pressure

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mccat2

mccat2

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Hi:

Some of you have written that I should have a cardio work up before I give Sampson the bp pill 1/4 of the pill? Now I am worried. Also he is so worked up from being at the vet today that he just ate a little bit of food and immediately had diarrhea (despite flagyl being given at 1:00 p.m.) Now he is hiding under the bed. I know that most of you said that I could possibly reverse the blindness or have a 50% chance if I do it now. I am really scared now that he has not had a cardio work up. As I said I have an appt with an eye specialist in the morning. 10:00 a.m. I am not sure he will come out for me, he is pretty upset with vet visits and being blind. He behaved much better on Sunday, now he is really, really stressed out.

Thanks,
 
i don't know that anyone said to have a cardio workup before starting the meds. i would think that the sooner meds are started, the better chances there are of vision recovery so personally i'd get going on the meds now and maybe plan a cardio workup in the near future just to make sure the heart is otherwise ok.

fwiw, i have a senior kitty who went blind suddenly in november i think it was. we got him in to the vet right away and did some tests to see if it was tied to anything like kidneys, etc.....and everything checked out fine except for his blood pressure so he was diagnosed with primary hypertension. he was started on the amlodipine, 1/4 pill SID, and has done fine on it.

he has not regained any of his vision though. perhaps we did not catch it in time. i will say that he has adapted amazingly well. so much so that i think he's going to kill me with stress and worry because the crazy old man has taken to running and climbing in the last month or so, despite a couple rough falls off the couch.

i have his notebook in the car if you want a history of his BP readings

at one point, soon after starting the meds, we went to 1/4 pill BID to see if we could get the readings a bit better but the vet told me to keep an eye on him for any signs that it was too much and within a couple days he was a bit lethargic, i called her, and she said to go back to SID immediately. we did and he's been fine since.
 
Hello there Sampson and mommy,
Gumpy had 3 seizures within 2 wks and the 3rd affected her right eye just a bit, meds were started after the first and according to the vet now, it is back attached and all is better. I think her problems are more neuro with the eyes than the retina detaching. But the er vet did say, the sooner the better. What was the BP reading? Gumpys was 290.
Hope this helps,
 
I would give the pill tonight. I am not a vet, but Dr. Lisa did post in your other thread that time was of the essence in starting treatment with amlodipine. My understanding is that amlodipine is quite safe when used as prescribed, and when the cat is rechecked periodically by the vet to monitor the BP. I would discuss with your vet the suggested time frame for getting a BP recheck. The potential huge benefit of starting treatment early outweighs, in my layperson opinion, the possible downside of using the med as your vet prescribed it.

I understood the post by the person in your other thread as suggesting that a cardio workup would be a good idea, but I didn't interpret her post as saying you should get that prior to starting treatment. A cat with a high reading and ocular signs is likely best to start treatment asap.

I used amlodipine on my cat who had high blood pressure due to renal disease. He did not suffer any side effects from the medication. My cat was blind, by the way, however he was blind from birth due to a birth defect.
 
Thank you. But what is SID & BID, sorry but I don't know what it is. Also they have given me a script for amlodipine bessylate 1/4 pill. How old is your kitty? My Sam is 17 and has a lot of issues. Now he is pretty much blind. What sould I watch out for? Also my regular vet didn't think that his blood pressure machine was very reliable. Hell of note huh? Although the ER vet said he couldn't get a reading either. I am just beside myself but the most important thing to me is that I don't hurt Sampson and cause him more distress than he is already in. I have an appt for an eye specialist in the morning, but I don't know what else can be revealed. Does your kitty have any vision at all. I think Sampson may see a little tiny bit but not sure. Sampsons bp was only at 170 today.

Thanks,
 
sorry, been doing this too long i guess :-) SID is once a day, BID is twice a day, TID is three times a day, and so on.

my LePew is 16, almost 17

as far as having any vision, the vet believes if he has any at all, it's very very little. every once in awhile he does something at home and we wonder if he doesn't see something. but, then again, their hearing is so sensitive we don't know if he's just hearing our hand wave past or actually seeing it. and we only notice this in really bright light. when the vet does her eye exam though, she sees very little reaction to the light she shines on him

i'll go get LePew's notebook and post his readings.
 
ok, here's LePew's readings. my vet always gets 3 readings at each check.

November 6, 2010. initial readings when we noticed his big unresponsive eyes.
189/146
190/143
189/140

Amlodipine was started at 1/4 pill once a day and we went for a recheck a week later, November 13, 2010
156/108
150/95
165/85

Rechecked on February 19, 2011
153/111
153/96
153/112

And the last check was on June 4, 2011
144/100
162/101
156/100

there probably should have been more checks between february and june but we got wrapped up in a perinephric cyst he developed, what to do about that, life, and in all honesty, i forgot about the bp recheck. oops. then a possible complication with the cyst was developing and vet wanted to re-run some bloodwork to check something there and i remembered the BP and asked if we needed to do it again and sure enough, it had been long enough the vet said yes.
 
Hi Cindy:
Thanks for your help. I can't get Sampson out from under the bed,as I said in one of my posts he ate a little and immediately had diarrhea do to his irritable bowel so I really don't want to pull him out. I don't think I can get him out anyway and I don't want to cause more stress. How is your kitty when he goes to the vet. He is older like mine. Does your's have any other issues? I heard someone in my Vets office today say the pressure is 183/106 today, but my vet came in and said that his bp was around 170. Looks like I should start to administer the meds based on your readings, but I really don't want to give it to him when he finally comes out and then not be able to watch for signs as I will probably be sleeping. At least I hope I can get some sleep. I sure don't like my vet saying his machine may or may not be reliable. Although I have been going to my vet for many years and like him a lot. They are very caring, but I am just unsure how much more Sampson can take. Now my poor little guy is blind. I will take him to the speciality vet for vision in the morning as planned and hope we can get a better reading. Do they take these readings for you 3 times every time due to reliabilty?

Thanks for the information.
 
actually my LePew is great at the vets, not even throwing a stress inflated glucose reading either. but then again, he's there at least once a month, if not twice lately. He's a bit of an oddball in that sense. his cyst that he has gets drained every 2-3 weeks and every time they comment on how calm he is when they do it and that he just lays there while one person pets him and another two i think it is does the draining of the cyst.

one dose of the bp medicine i don't think you have to worry about it having drastic effects.

my LePew takes his in a bit of pill pocket so he doesn't even know he's taking medicine.

he's early early stages of kidney disease and he's got this perinephric cyst we're living with but other than that he's in pretty good shape. he had another cyst appear on his hip last year which we had removed and he had a dental since the blood pressure problem appeared but all in all that's about all that's wrong with him.

and yes, they take it 3 times every time for reliability. if the little blood pressure cup moves or he moves his leg or he gets agitated, it can throw off the readings so by doing it several times, they can see if one is a flawed test if it is out of whack with the other two.

for that matter, i'm always there when they check his bp. they take us into an exam room and they leave us alone for awhile. i get him out of his carrier and we sit on the floor relaxing. he loves to get his ears rubbed, etc.....so i get him good and relaxed and then a tech comes in with the machine and she gets down on the floor and tests him right where he lays, usually in my lap. they figure we get a more accurate reading than them taking him in the back or doing it too quickly after arrival, etc.... then, once they have the bp readings, they do whatever else he's there for.
 
Thanks. Did your lepew ever get sad and depressed acting. Sampson seems so bummed out about his sight. Although Sunday I would swear he was getting it back. I just don't know. Guess I will have even more answers tomorrow at least I hope. I will try & give him the pill if he comes out of hiding. If not it will have to be tomorrow, I will push the bed over and he will continue to walk with it where I can't reach him. It's so hard to do this alone. I also need to get back to work some time this week. I am praying that he gets his sight back and that we can clear up this IBD.
 
initially he had his sad days, or at least it seemed like he was sad. i never could really tell if it was sadness from being blind or just old age really. to be honest, sometimes i wonder if he doesn't still have his sad days because he'll just lay there, eyes open, for quite some time. my problem is i'd swear he falls asleep with his eyes open sometimes. figure what difference is it to him since he can't see. but also, like i said, could it just be that he's old and that's what old people do sometimes?
 
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