It's not asthma, it's her heart

My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too. I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead
of the "months" end.

Purrs to you and Pearl. The vet said it's not real bad and you should
believe him. As our cats age, all kinds of health issues surface.
It is part of aging, as in humans. Don't blame it on yourself.
It is good you took Pearl to vet to get the diagnosis.
Did the vet say what is the cause of it? I didn't know there is vet
who specializes in cardiology. Peral will be in good hands.
Please keep us posted.

Winnie
"Karen" wrote in message
...
My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the
coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be
best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too.
I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead
of the "months" end.

Karen wrote:
My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too. I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead
of the "months" end.

Oh, no! We'll be sending our absolute best purrs and prayers for Pearl.
We're keeping our fingers crossed that she has a good long time left
with you.

"Karen" wrote in message
...
My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the
coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be
best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too.
I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead
of the "months" end.

Aw, Karen, don't feel like that. Think of all the millions of cats in the
world who would love to have you as their meowmie. It's not anything you're
doing that's causing any of this! It's just rotten luck for you (but *good*
luck for Pearl that she has a meowmie who will take care of her now when she
needs it!!).

Purrs coming that this is only a mild condition that can be easily handled
with diet, exercise, and medication.

Hugs,

CatNipped

"Karen" wrote in message
...
My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the
coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be
best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too.
I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead
of the "months" end.


Please try not to worry too much, vain hope, I know - cos that's what we do.
If it's any use to know, I kept a dog of mine on heart medication for years
and when she eventually passed, it wasn't from heart problems.
You do not kill cats, you just feel like that because you are so upset and
you lost one just recently. All that is happening is that your cats are
getting older, and just the same as people, health things start kicking in
as we age.
If you trust your vet I'm sure things will pan out. Really.

(hugs)
Tweed

Karen wrote:
My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in
for another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has
"mitral insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing
all the coughing and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He
feels g/d will be best. And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK
for Sugar to be on it too. I'll find out tomorrow more about what
medication she has to take. I'm just so depressed right now. It sucks
to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I certainly hope she is on
the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead of the "months"
end.

Major purrs for Pearl, now they know what the problem is it can be
treated. You certainly never killed a cat, you did everything you could
for Grant.

{{{{{{{{{{{Karen}}}}}}}}}}}}

--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy & Bagheera)
A house is not a home, without a cat.

Karen wrote:
My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too. I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead
of the "months" end.

KAREN! smack, smack Don't say that. You're the most conscientious cat
owner I know. You did everything possible for Grant, and you will for
Pearl, too.
An enlarged heart isn't a death sentence! Lots of people live a whole
long time with that. Pearl will just need some extra care. Purrs that
she responds *very well* to the treatment.

Sherry

aw, don't feel like any of it is your fault. Our kitties are our loves, but
like everything else things happen. I'm sorry to hear Pearl is not well, but
it doesn't sound as bad as it can be. We will purr and pray that she loses
some weight and that it helps with her problem.
Lily & her mama
Jazz, RB

--

Irulan
from the stars we come
to the stars we return
from now until the end of time
"Karen" wrote in message
...
My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the
coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be
best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too.
I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead
of the "months" end.

On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 16:09:14 -0500, Karen
yodeled:

My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too. I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for' instead
of the "months" end.


My poor Karen, you are having a lousy year, and of course you do NOT
kill cats. Purring for good news.


Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

In article , Karen
wrote:

My vet thought the heart looked enlarged. The heart vet was coming in for
another cat this after noon so I went home and got Pearl. She has "mitral
insufficiency". He said it's not real bad but it is causing all the
coughing
and throwing up. Biggest thing is to lose weight. He feels g/d will be
best.
And since both she and Sugar are 8 it is OK for Sugar to be on it too.
I'll
find out tomorrow more about what medication she has to take. I'm just so
depressed right now. It sucks to be my cats. I feel like I kill cats
I
certainly hope she is on the "year" end of the 'cats can live for'
instead
of the "months" end.


Was the heart enlargement diagnosed on X-ray or ultrasound? Ultrasound
is superior on heart detail, beyond just size.

Blood comes into the heart on the right side, goes to the lungs, and is
pumped out the left side. The mitral valve is on the left side, between
the two left chambers. There's a nice site, at first scan, at
http://www.lbah.com/heart/heartfindings.htm. This also has a discussion
of bundle branch block, another recent question.

If that's the same syndrome as human mitral valve prolapse, it's more
annoying than dangerous. In humans, it does cause distressing feelings
of skipped beats and such, which people often can ignore once they know
what it is. That's probably hard for a cat, but TLC will help.

If the cardiac vet said there was left ventricular hypertrophy, which is
an enlarged heart due to difficulty in pumping, that could be due to
resistance in the blood vessels into which the heart pumps. Such
resistance can be due to overweight, or by "essential" hypertension.
(essential means that we can't cite a specific cause, which is true of
the majority of cases of human blood pressure).

I haven't seen that many vets other than a cardiologist take feline
blood pressure -- he did it on the tail. I can think of some other ways
to do it with ultrasound.

The key thing to remember about left ventricular hypertrophy is that
it's reversible in many cases, such as my own. It may take tight
control of blood pressure, weight reduction, or drugs that help the
heart beat.