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Archive through January 19, 2005

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2004 Nov. - 2005 Jan.: Hairball Haven (ARCHIVES): Cats (ARCHIVES): Archive through January 19, 2005 users admin

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Nancy
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, January 15, 2005 - 6:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
try again...

marble

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Saturday, January 15, 2005 - 6:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Marble is just so bright eyed. Love the caramel color with the black coat...so handsome. She's just gorgeous!

(I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has trouble posting a photo now and then! )

Herckleperckle
Member

11-20-2003

Saturday, January 15, 2005 - 6:53 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Were her gorgeous round eyes what inspired her name? She is a beautiful girl!

Nancy
Member

08-01-2000

Saturday, January 15, 2005 - 7:28 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
a few weeks earlier..

laundry day

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Saturday, January 15, 2005 - 7:43 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Nothing like a clean basket of clothes for the kitties to loll around in. LOL!

Vacanick
Member

07-12-2004

Saturday, January 15, 2005 - 9:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Nancy your Marbles is a beautiful girl! I have an all white Siamese mix and I just love the way calico's and multi colored cats look! So cute!

Wendo
Member

08-07-2000

Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 7:47 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Aww, great pics of the cats all.

So, Boo, my cat was sick last night and I took her to the emergency vet place. Fortunately, she was a bit blocked and the vet was able fix her right up.

However, while she was being examined they diagnosed her with a grade 2 heart murmur. It was quite a shock condsidering she was at the vet a month and a half ago and received a clean bill of health. Tomorrow I'll be making an appointment with my regular vet and will have to get an ultrasound scheduled with a vet cardiologist.

It's not a thyroid issue (her thyroid count was fine) so it's likely heart disease (either a thickening of the heart or a damaged valve etc.)

Anyway, if anyone here has any info regarding this issue that would be helpful and anything I should make sure to ask my vet it would be most appreciated.

Boo is better today, though she appears to be still upset at receiving the anema. LOL!

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 8:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
LOL, you'd be upset by that, too, Wendo.. hope her tests come out ok, or she is treatable.. my parents had a little dog that had to take heart meds for years but he lived to be quite old.

I wish I had more info.. most of the search hits are for textbooks, but this site might have some info that would give you some questions to ask..

CARDIO

Costacat
Member

07-15-2000

Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 9:30 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wendo, Costa has cardiomyopathy. His actual diagnosis is a thickening of the wall of his heart. He's been on human beta blockers for several years now, and it's definitely slowed the progression (it's still progressing, but they consider it "moderate progression"). Ask your vet to look at Diltiazem as an option. Costa gets 60mg a day. If they think it will help, ask 'em to give you a script so you can take it to your own pharmacist. Ask your pharmacist to get the capsule formulation (unless your Boo likes being pilled!).

He also had a heart murmur, but it's faded a bit (his regular doc says if she didn't know he had one she might miss it).

Costa was on Hills RD dry feline food. Hills doesn't make an HD formulation that comes in dry, but the renal formulation was fairly close. He's now 7.5 years old, so he's on Hills GD. But it's also a good food for him with a heart condition.

I also give him a small spoonful of canned food a night, that I use to mix in the Diltiazem. I open the capsule and mix it in, and he eats it right up. It's a lot easier this way, since neither of us has to deal with the trauma of pilling! That's his "dinner" (and his sister gets a spoonful, too, on their own little dinner plates).

If you can, ask to watch them do the ultrasound. I'm changing cardiologists, as the last one wouldn't let me in the room, and they shaved him! How humiliating! He had a naked chest!!!

You need to know that it is a progressive disease, but Boo can live a very long time. Costa was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy when he was a year old. At that time, one vet told me that he wouldn't live too long. Ha! He showed that idiot! Over six years later, and Costa still runs around the house like a nut!

PM me if you want more info. I've lived with this diagnosis for quite a while. He gets regular checkups and annual ultrasounds (so yeah, he's quite the expensive critter). But he's worth it! With proper diet and meds, cardiomyopathy is not a death sentence. (Note, too, that "cardiomyopathy" is a catchall phrase for heart conditions in cats. A murmur with no other symptoms is considered cardiomyopathy, as is an obvious heart irregularity! Go figure!)

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 10:17 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Aww would you guys give Boo and Costa each a kiss on the head for me??

I remember my parents dog was on two meds.. .my dad was totally in charge of the meds since my mom really wasn't a dog lover. Once when he had to go out of town when his aunt died she got the two mixed up and let's just say Jinx slept a lot while dad was gone. Luckily for him it was a short time. He was also on special doses of human meds.

Wendo
Member

08-07-2000

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 12:09 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks for the thoughts all; Sea, Boo got a kiss and I told her it was from you. LOL!

Costacat, I'm grateful for all the information. Wow. Thank you so much. Actually, after reading what you wrote I feel a lot better and calmer about this. I would definitely want to be in the room for the ultrasound.

Boo is 12 years old this April so I do realize that this is likely an age related issue. I'm just bummed about it, ya know. I've had her pretty much her whole life so things like this tend to throw me for a loop.

The vet last night felt it was likely thickening of the heart walls considering her age. (Although, as you know, she couldn't be definitive; the ultrasound is needed for that.)

I'm just hoping my vet has someone she refers her patients to; and someone located here in the city. The emergency vet place gave me a card of a doctor in case I needed one, but he's located out in the suburbs. I would hate to have to drag her out that far in the car.

I expected that this new condition wouldn't be cheap. LOL! Heck, last night's emergency vet visit that lasted at most, two hours was $433 dollars. Ouch! Thank goodness for credit cards. LOL!

Again, thanks for all the advice Costacat!

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 8:25 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
My these vet bills are something else...ouchie!

I was just working on the computer and saw this face through the window...Mighty cold out and doesn't she look ticked?



Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 8:28 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
c

Costacat
Member

07-15-2000

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 10:12 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
LOL, Vee. She looks MIGHTY ticked!!!

Wendo, I just realized I made a slight error. Costa was on Hills KD (the renal diet) until they switched him to the Hills GD.

Although cardiomyopathy may not exhibit symptoms until the kitty kid is older, Costa's was diagnosed when he was a year old. So it's likely Boo has had problems but they were asymptomatic.

At any rate, you can treat to slow the progression, to some extent (depending on the cat, I think).

Costa is now going to have to submit to a half hour (each way) drive to see a new cardiologist. I loved his first heart doc, but he moved to New York!!! The doc that he's seen the last two times is, well, a royal (rhymes with witch). I don't like her bedside manner either, nor the fact that she made us wait almost two hours during his last visit. I mean, he's a pretty easy going kid, but hello? He has a heart problem. Shouldn't I work on trying to AVOID stress????

Keep us posted on Boo, Wendo. And Vee? You'd better let Miss Kitty inside! (Yikes, if looks could kill!)

Eeyoreslament
Member

07-20-2003

Monday, January 17, 2005 - 12:16 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
LOL @ Vee's quick picture!! The look on her face says it all!!

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - 2:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Vee, your cat is such a character!!

Board Certified Veterinary Cardiologists

Not so many of them.. Wendo is Northbrook where that one was located? I've actually BEEN to Northbrook on several trips for conferences.

Costacat
Member

07-15-2000

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - 4:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
You don't need to see a board-cert cardiologist. I would see a cardiologist that is recommended by your vet, though.

The Helen Woodward Center here (a renowned animal care facility) doesn't have an AVCIM-certified cardiologist on staff.

I don't know for sure, but I do think that a cardio vet can be certified with other organizations (AVMA for one). I also think that a board certified radiologist is the one who actually performs the echocardiogram (ultrasound). And you need to see the same facility each time, as it's easier to compare subsequent tests.

Seamonkey
Member

09-07-2000

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - 8:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
That makes sense..

Costacat
Member

07-15-2000

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - 10:15 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
So, like, Wendo??? What's the word??? How's little miss Boo doing?

Gina8642
Member

06-01-2001

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - 10:53 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I love the p.o.'d kitty Vee. She looks so much like my Cutie kitty it's freaky. And here I thought Cutie was so unique. LOL.

Cutie

Wendo
Member

08-07-2000

Tuesday, January 18, 2005 - 11:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hey all. Sorry it took me a bit to get back to the thread. Ugh, life, work, you know the routine.

So anyway, yes, my regular vet did verify the heart murmur and she was stunned. Stunned I tell you. She just could not believe it considering she just saw her a little over a month ago.

She did refer me to the same vet in the suburbs (yes, Sea, in Northbrook.) While I'm not to thrilled to have to go out there, this vet comes highly recommended. (His name is Dr. Michael Luethy; he's at that link Sea provided.) He will be doing an echochardiogram and we will then discuss treatment options. My regular vet said that that would likely be meds.

Regarding the queen of the house, Boo, she's doing much better; though, she still seems peeved about the anema (she keeps running away from me!) LOL! She's back on track doing her duty in the litter box. She's definitely still lacking some peppiness though.

I was lucky to get the cardio vet visit scheduled for next Wednesday. Usually there's a two to three week wait. Guess I lucked out.

So, that's where things stand as of today. Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and suggestions; especially Costacat, your information has been invaluable.

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 6:33 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Glad to read that Boo is on her way back to feeling normal. Hope that you get all the information/help you can use next week at the cardio vet.

Gina, Cutie is absolutely unique. What beautiful markings she has and such bright topaz eyes! She's lovely. How old is she?

Sweetbabygirl
Member

08-31-2002

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 1:04 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Okay, this is freaking me out....Harpo is aggressively cleaning himself, to the point of where he is bleeding.

His back paws are dried red at times, and just recently it seems like his nose and mouth are peeling. When I took him to the vet the last time, they said that he would likely need blood work done, as he is allergic to something.

Right off hand, does anyone know what he could be allergic to?

Landi
Member

07-29-2002

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 1:22 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
he could be allergic to his food, his shampoo, something in your carpet, his flea stuff, fleas, a thousand different things.

Sweetbabygirl
Member

08-31-2002

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 2:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hmmmmmm, I wonder if it is the food....pfffffft, like the big heifer would let me shampoo him, I vacuum a lot (I don't use carpet cleaner when I do it).

He and his brother have been eating 9-Lives for years, and I have recently given them the new Meow Mix wet food....they have been tearing that up.