TK's heart murmur. Bad to worse.

Nomen Nescio wrote:
So here's my take on the situation:
Last year I adopted a wild cat with the intent of treating
the bite wound on his butt, and giving him a good home
where he would be well loved and well fed.
And what did I really do? Take a cat that was perfectly
happy living outdoors and visiting us for food and a little
play. Then I locked him in the house, cut his balls off,
made him fat and lazy, and gave him heart disease.
All the while thinking how much I LOVE the little guy and
how I want the best for him.

I'm sorry to hear about your kitty, but this is NOT your fault. Here's
my take. You provided a good home for a cat that most likely could
have ended up with a lot worse than a bite wound on his butt, plus he
would have contributed to pet overpopulation. Mostly likely his
condition is probably genetic and I don't think it's anything you did.
Much as we'd like to think they do, vets don't know everything.

"Nomen Nescio" ] wrote in message
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From: "Mary"

He's so young! How heartbreaking.

That's an understatement.
My wife and I both feel like our entire world has crumbled.
TK's become such an important part of our life.


Just don't blame yourself. I am glad Phil verified what
I had heard about this type of heart disease being hereditary in young cats.
It is horrible enough without
you blaming yourself. You have been nothing but wonderful for TK.

Oh jeez!!!! My heart breaks for you. My Randall was overweight. And when
I took Randi to the
vet before I got Cali, they said he was too fat and had a very slight heart
murmur!
I just adopted two more kittens today.
You are not an asshole!!! I feel so bad for you. Life really does suck.
Carol \

"Nomen Nescio" ] wrote in message
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Well, I have a diagnosis on TK's condition. I've known
for a couple of days but couldn't bring myself to post
an update.
At an age of about 2 y.o., TK has moderate Hypertrophic
Cardiomyopathy. I watched the echocardiogram being
done and it was obvious even to my untrained eye.
Prognosis: He could die tonight or he might live up to
another 6 years.
Treatment: He's getting an aspirin (81 mg) twice a week.
Although the vet admitted that if you had 100 cats that
you knew would die of a blood clot within a year and gave
them all aspirin, 95 would still die.
And he's getting 30 mg of Diltiazem ER daily, mostly to lower
his heart rate but there are other potentially positive
effects.
And he should lose 3 lbs to bring his weight down to about
11 lbs.
Cause: This is the tough part. One of the first questions
that I asked the vet was "Could I have done something to
cause this...chemical, environmental.... ?" He shook his head
and said "No" but then in further discussion 2 points jumped
out at me.
1) He pointed at the chart of cat weight conditions (the one
that every vets office has on the wall) and indicating the
picture of the slightly underweight cat said that "You rarely
see heart problems in a cat like that".
2) He also said that "You rarely see heart disease in an
outdoor cat"
Well, TK isn't obese, but he is overweight. He was about
10 3/4 lbs last year when we took him in. And he was an
outdoor cat.

So here's my take on the situation:
Last year I adopted a wild cat with the intent of treating
the bite wound on his butt, and giving him a good home
where he would be well loved and well fed.
And what did I really do? Take a cat that was perfectly
happy living outdoors and visiting us for food and a little
play. Then I locked him in the house, cut his balls off,
made him fat and lazy, and gave him heart disease.
All the while thinking how much I LOVE the little guy and
how I want the best for him.

I feel like such an ASSHOLE, right now.


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