HRFL Tiger UPDATE.

If I may ask, what does HRFL mean?

Of course you can ask Annie. )

It started out as a joke on RPCA waaay back in about 1999. I forget who
coined it.

HRFL stands for "His Royal Feline Lordship".

Tiger is utterly convinced that if he stands still long enough the
entire world will revolve around him. It frequently does!

Helen M

I can't imagine not treating your cat with meds at this point. His
condition is obviously *not* stable as is evidenced by the increased
murmur and increased thickening not to mention the fact that you brought
him in in the first place because he was obviously feeling bad. Having
had a cat with a heart condition myself, I can't imagine, considering
the above, that a vet would recommend not treating. Please get a second
opinion, preferably from a cardiologist. Medication can help to
stabilize a patient. What does this vet want to do? Wait until more
damage is done? Also, the crackling sound that often goes with feline
asthma is also common with heart condtions and is a sign of edema. Your
cat's panting is more likely to mean that dema is happening and he needs
treatment for the heart condition, not a wait and see approach. My cat
Omar also presented with this as well. Assuming asthma without doing an
xray to look for the obvious signs to me, and especially knowing there
is a heart condition, is *extremely* worrisome, and *coughing* is the
most common sign of asthma, not panting. I have a cat with asthma so
I've BTDT too.

Again, PLEASE get a second opinion! Just because a vet "seems"
competent doesn't make it so and the recommendation to not do meds is
very alarming to me.
http://www.newmanveterinary.com/felhcm.html

Megan



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HRFLTiger wrote:
If I may ask, what does HRFL mean?

Of course you can ask Annie. )

It started out as a joke on RPCA waaay back in about 1999. I forget
who
coined it.

HRFL stands for "His Royal Feline Lordship".

Tiger is utterly convinced that if he stands still long enough the
entire world will revolve around him. It frequently does!

Helen M

Ahhh, I had almost figured it out. Just couldn't come up with the "L".
Aren't all "mwowing" furbabies reincarnated aristocracy? Mine
certainly think they are!

Smokie Darling (Annie)

In article .com,
"HRFLTiger" wrote:

Well, himself is back from the TED, and very miffed about his shaved
armpits he is too!

The vet doing the Ultrasound and X-rays was very nice - she was also
very direct, which I prefer. Apparently, Tigers heart murmer "HAS"
increased from 3/6 to 4/6 (which is why the vet got upset last night)
and there has been a slight thickening in the left ventrial wall
compared to the utrasound readings 18 months ago, but nothing so
significant that it merits medication at the moment as the whole thing
seems relatively stabalised.

Apparently, the literature suggests that for a stable HCM condition
like Tiger has, rather than CHM, medication has not been shown to make
a significant difference. The vet is competent, so I'll follow her
advice.

This might be a local difference -- I don't recognize the acronyms. I'd
think of CHF as congestive heart failure, and we usually spell out the
different kinds of heart enlargement and cardiomyopathy. Are you
referring to the valvular disease?

Turns out that the panting is probably asthma!! Apparently after the
ultrasound, they put him onto the equivalent of a kitty treadmill to
see what he was like after exercise, and he started panting. Whilst
this *is* indicative of heart problems, they listened to his chest and
apparently he has "typical asthmatic sounds", whatever the hell they
are. Needless to say, after the last 24 hours, I don't really care!

I'm very glad they found that out, if medication becomes appropriate in
the future. In human congestive heart failure, beta blockers
(technically beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists) are a relatively new
addition to the basic regimen of diuretics and often digitalis. Beta
blockers, however, are contraindicated in asthma.

It's treatable, it's dealable, and my little boy is actually OK. ))

Thank you all for the purrs and prayers - you really have no idea the
difference it made to me having the support.

Purrs again. If it helps any, while I don't have heart valve problems, I
did have heart enlargement from other conditions. With aggressive
treatment, it's completely reversed. Hopefully that might happen for
Tiger.

Helen M

In article , "Monique Y.
Mudama" wrote:

On 2005-02-22, HRFLTiger penned:

Turns out that the panting is probably asthma!! Apparently after the
ultrasound, they put him onto the equivalent of a kitty treadmill to
see
what he was like after exercise, and he started panting. Whilst this
*is*
indicative of heart problems, they listened to his chest and apparently
he
has "typical asthmatic sounds", whatever the hell they are. Needless to
say,
after the last 24 hours, I don't really care!

I'm trying to imagine a device that would get a cat to run consistently
for
long enough to get an accurate read. I can't do it.

It was strange enough to see a blood pressure taken with a cuff around
Clifford's tail. Even then, the cardiologist only measured the systolic
pressure. I'm trying to remember if he needed a Doppler sensor rather
than a stethoscope even for that.

HRFLTiger wrote:
Well, himself is back from the TED, and very miffed about his shaved
armpits he is too!

The vet doing the Ultrasound and X-rays was very nice - she was also
very direct, which I prefer. Apparently, Tigers heart murmer "HAS"
increased from 3/6 to 4/6 (which is why the vet got upset last night)
and there has been a slight thickening in the left ventrial wall
compared to the utrasound readings 18 months ago, but nothing so
significant that it merits medication at the moment as the whole thing
seems relatively stabalised.

Apparently, the literature suggests that for a stable HCM condition
like Tiger has, rather than CHM, medication has not been shown to make
a significant difference. The vet is competent, so I'll follow her
advice.

Turns out that the panting is probably asthma!! Apparently after the
ultrasound, they put him onto the equivalent of a kitty treadmill to
see what he was like after exercise, and he started panting. Whilst
this *is* indicative of heart problems, they listened to his chest and
apparently he has "typical asthmatic sounds", whatever the hell they
are. Needless to say, after the last 24 hours, I don't really care!

It's treatable, it's dealable, and my little boy is actually OK. ))

Thank you all for the purrs and prayers - you really have no idea the
difference it made to me having the support.

Helen M

This is excellent news! I'm so happy to hear it! Continued purrs for HRFL
Tiger and all the other kitties and peoples who need purrs.

Jill

[[Ahhh, I had almost figured it out. Just couldn't come up with the "L".
Aren't all "mwowing" furbabies reincarnated aristocracy? Mine
certainly think they are!]]

Either that, or aristocracy are reincarnated from cats... and the cats
KNOW it! )

Donna and the royal fuzzballs, Captain and Stanley

I'm glad Tiger's problem is treatable. Healthy long-life purrs for Tiger.

Suz

HRFLTiger wrote:

It's treatable, it's dealable, and my little boy is actually OK. ))

So glad to hear your little darling is OK. Did they put him on asthma
meds? Nikki gets Prednisone, and it seems to keep her coughing down
pretty well.


--
Marina, Frank and Nikki
marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

Oh, good boy, Tiger. Continuing to send the purrs.

Katz & cats