Any success treating a cat with a "straddle" blood clot?
 

On 13 Jul 2006 10:35:12 -0700, , clicked their heels
and said:

Sad to say I euthanized. I'd be lying if I said I don't have doubts about
whether she was mistaken about his chance for recovery and am haunted
by fears I unnecessarily cut his life short. My first time dealing
with this. What a brutal decision to have to make and thing to
experience.

It's really tough and I feel for you. I can only say that hindsight
is so much clearer, and if you hadn't made this choice, your buddy
wouldn't have the peace and freedom from pain that he's no enjoying.
You did the right thing, as brutal as it feels right now.


--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

Any success treating a cat with a "straddle" blood clot?
 

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 13:28:34 -0400, Janet B
wrote:

On 13 Jul 2006 10:21:39 -0700, , clicked their heels
and said:
On 10 Jul 2006 10:21:37 -0700, wrote:

My cat while hospitalized for congestive heart failure threw a blood
clot that cut circulation and paralyzed his hind legs.

Has anyone here had a cat with a similar problem that they were able to
treat and help recover from?

I treated for it with a 9 year old cat, about 14 years ago. She
recovered from the paralysis in about 6 weeks (improved daily). She
used her box throughout, and was a mostly happy little cat. 8 months
later, she had failure again and another paralysis. She had just
gained use again when she had her 3rd, and we decided to say goodbye.
She went on her own before the vet appt. If I had to do it again, I
would have said goodbye right away. I was prolonging her life for me,
not her. Her condition would never get better, only worse, and the
number of meds, complications, etc, was just not the best thing in
retrospect. I had never lost a pet before and wasn't prepared for
that, so I was an optimist. I hope I don't make that mistake again.

That's really key, I did the same thing with Nico. I couldn't bear the
thought of letting him die when perhaps it was just his time. He did
live six more months, but he never climbed the cat tree again.

Any success treating a cat with a "straddle" blood clot?
 

On 13 Jul 2006 10:35:12 -0700, wrote:

Sad to say I euthanized. Given the concurrent congestive heart failure
that they were balancing against while giving him glucose to keep his
blood sugar at survivable levels, the critical care vet said she
expected him to die in a day or two. She recommended euthanasia saying
all it would do is end a few hours of anxiety and pain. I was very
reluctant never having done something so final as that. I asked to
bring him home so at least he could die outside on the porch where he
loved to be but I was worried he wouldn't survive the car ride and his
last moments would be stuck in awful rush hour traffic so I ultimately
agreed to euthanize there.

He was pretty out of it but gave me a final weak rub with his head
which made me desperately want to call the thing off. The vet was
experienced but I'd be lying if I said I don't have doubts about
whether she was mistaken about his chance for recovery and am haunted
by fears I unnecessarily cut his life short. My first time dealing
with this. What a brutal decision to have to make and thing to
experience.

I know death is inevitable and with the underlying heart disease and
risk of future clots his life span probably wouldn't have been very
long even best case scenario. But damn if I don't worry that I made a
horrible mistake.




We just can't win on this. Either we regret making them suffer too
long or we regret euthanizing them too soon. You made the right
decision on this one though even though it hurts. My thoughts are with
you.

Any success treating a cat with a "straddle" blood clot?
 

Hey just wanted to say that while I'm sorry to make people recall their
own sad experiences, I do appreciate hearing people's feelings on
situations like mine. Thanks for all the thoughtful replies.

dgk wrote:
On 13 Jul 2006 10:35:12 -0700, wrote:

Sad to say I euthanized. Given the concurrent congestive heart failure
that they were balancing against while giving him glucose to keep his
blood sugar at survivable levels, the critical care vet said she
expected him to die in a day or two. She recommended euthanasia saying
all it would do is end a few hours of anxiety and pain. I was very
reluctant never having done something so final as that. I asked to
bring him home so at least he could die outside on the porch where he
loved to be but I was worried he wouldn't survive the car ride and his
last moments would be stuck in awful rush hour traffic so I ultimately
agreed to euthanize there.

He was pretty out of it but gave me a final weak rub with his head
which made me desperately want to call the thing off. The vet was
experienced but I'd be lying if I said I don't have doubts about
whether she was mistaken about his chance for recovery and am haunted
by fears I unnecessarily cut his life short. My first time dealing
with this. What a brutal decision to have to make and thing to
experience.

I know death is inevitable and with the underlying heart disease and
risk of future clots his life span probably wouldn't have been very
long even best case scenario. But damn if I don't worry that I made a
horrible mistake.




We just can't win on this. Either we regret making them suffer too
long or we regret euthanizing them too soon. You made the right
decision on this one though even though it hurts. My thoughts are with
you.

Any success treating a cat with a "straddle" blood clot?
 

Hey everyone, I realize this thread was started many years ago ... my heart goes out to the original poster.

I want to share my experience because as I understand it ... most people euthanize in this situation and they've never heard that they have other options.

You do have other options, but you may need to do your own research and learn some new skills.

It has been six months now since the harrowing night when my beloved cat Harvey suffered this condition.

I was pressured by several veterinarians t euthanize him. I refused to do it.

Using a combination of conventional medicine and energy healing, I had the clot on one side cleared within about 3 hours, and the clot for the other leg cleared in about two days.

He was still limping about three months later so I applied more energy healing. He began what appeared to be a self-initiated physical therapy regimen of shaking his right leg vigorously on a regular basis. He no longer limps and is able to jump to the high cabinet again (50 inch vertical leap) as of a few days ago.

I believe heart failure was preventable in our case. Unfortunately the very negative attitudes of the veterinarians we encountered those first couple weeks led to him not being properly treated.

Heart disease is often reversible in hyperthyroid cats, and had he been treated immediately for hyperthyroidism … I believe he would not have ended up in heart failure.

But … we did go through heart failure. It was awful, and we survived.

Harvey was down to a scary 7 pounds and we had a number of scares after that with his respiratory rate. He had way more Lasix than he should have had … because it became very clear to me as the weeks went on … what slowed down his respiratory rate was not the Lasix but the thyroid meds … He needed a higher dosage.

It has been a long journey, and probably we would not have survived it without the energy healing. I’ve seen miracles with my other cat as well, when we had a harrowing experience with severe kidney failure.

Both my cats are here today because I said no to euthanasia. Harvey is up to 10.2 pounds, no longer requiring Lasix or appetite stimulants. Indeed, the only meds he is on now are nutritional supplements (which should probably be used in all of these cases), and sporadic thyroid meds and ranitidine to deal with the side effects of the thyroid meds.

I truly believe that veterinarians could be achieving much better outcomes in straddle thrombus cases, if they were thinking more constructively. Of course, energy healing helps a lot.

I thank God every day that Harvey is still here and happy, with full use of his back legs …

Don’t give up. Learn some new skills. You can thank me later …

p.s. I want to add that hyperthyroidism can be the cause of heart murmur, and so may be reversed with proper treatment of the hyperthyroidism.

Beyond that though, in my extensive research, I learned that many people have seen reversal of heart murmurs with appropriate supplementation (e.g., CoQ10, L-carnitine, B vitamins, omega 3s, etc.) …

If heart murmur is the usual cause of straddle thrombus, then vets ought to be more focused on healing heart murmurs. But if your vet is clueless, then by all means, do the research yourself as I did.