poor Baldur

[cellio]

Yesterday Baldur suddenly became lethargic and uninterested in food (but was and is drinking water). He'd been fine Saturday, jumping into my lap and gobbling up food. Then, Sunday, nothing, and when I picked him up to put him in my lap he jumped right back down. I wondered if he'd had a stroke or heart attack; Dr. Google didn't seem to think so so I didn't go to an emergency vet last night, but today I took him to my vet's office. My vet wasn't in, but I saw another one in the practice who has seen Baldur before.

They took his blood pressure and the readings were astonishing; this high-blood-pressure kitty had below-average readings today. A chest X-ray showed pulmonary edema and pleural effusion -- fluid in the tissue of his lungs and in the chest cavity. (There was actually enough fluid that we couldn't see his heart.) The good news is that there are no tumors; the bad news is that, well, he's got fluid where it shouldn't be. Heart disease is a possible effect of hyperthyroidism (and old age). The tentative diagnosis is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Blood tests should tell us more tomorrow, including how his kidneys are doing.

So he's on some new medicines now, a heart medicine and a diuretic to try to draw out some of that fluid, and I'm pushing vitamins and watered-down food into him via syringe so he gets some nutrients. This vet didn't talk with me about prognosis; I assume my vet will.

I did ask the vet about the sudden onset, since it sounded like he was describing progressive diseases (and the net agreed when I got home and looked). He said that cats are really good at hiding problems until they become so overwhelming that they can't any more. So Baldur has probably been feeling unwell for some time (days? weeks? dunno), and I couldn't tell. Poor guy! I hope the meds help.

Comments

[eub.livejournal.com]

Yikes, I hope they get the pulmonary edema under control. All best wishes to Baldur.

Our cat Narshie had HCM. It can cause embolisms from blood clots (http://www.manhattancats.com/Articles/Arterial_Thromboembolism.html), which is what happened to her. I hope it doesn't to Baldur, but if you feel you would like to process possibilities in advance, you may want to ask your vet about it (if he/she doesn't raise it already). How it would present, and what might happen then.

And also you might ask whether anybody has tried giving low-dose aspirin to cats with HCM to prevent clots before they show up with an embolism.

[eub.livejournal.com]

(I should emphasize, not all cats with HCM have clotting problems, at all. Just that it's not rare, either.)

[cellio]

Thanks for the information! I do prefer to pre-load information (while hoping I won't need it).