It's not asthma, it's her heart

"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.


I don't know if its the same thing at all, but our tiny poodle had heart
problems for years and years. She had a pill every day to make her heart
beat stronger and another to stop fluid build-up. I was about panicked when
she was diagnosed, but she did very well with proper medication. Our
biggest problem was she had to go out constantly - water pills. Wish she
could have used a litter box. I really felt bad that the best way to judge
her condition was to listen to her breathing and to her coughing. And I
couldn't hear either one.

Jo

In article , "Jo Firey"
wrote:

"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.


I don't know if its the same thing at all, but our tiny poodle had heart
problems for years and years. She had a pill every day to make her heart
beat stronger and another to stop fluid build-up. I was about panicked
when
she was diagnosed, but she did very well with proper medication. Our
biggest problem was she had to go out constantly - water pills. Wish she
could have used a litter box. I really felt bad that the best way to
judge
her condition was to listen to her breathing and to her coughing. And I
couldn't hear either one.

Well, I can't say if it's the same thing as what Pearl has, but it
certainly sounds like congestive heart failure.

A brief digression. The efficiency of the heart depends on three things:
"preload", or the resistance to getting blood back into the heart,
heart rate and stroke volume: how often the heart beats efficiently
and how much blood moves with each beat
"afterload", or resistance by the outgoing blood vessels to blood
being pumped into them.

In heart failure, which doesn't mean the heart has totally failed, we
try to improve the overall efficiency. "Water pills", or diuretics like
furosemide (Lasix) get rid of excess fluid that would otherwise have to
go through the heart -- in other words, preload reduction.

The next major category of drug, and the second of two in traditional
(pre-1990 or so) therapy was a drug that strengthened the actual heart
muscular pumping. Technically called positive inotropic agents, the most
typical drug in this class is digoxin, a synthetic derivative of
digitalis, which is one of the oldest effective herbals -- it comes from
the foxglove plant. We synthesize it so we don't have the variation in
strength from leaf to leaf -- digitalis alkaloids are extremely valuable
drugs, but unless very carefully dosed can turn toxic.

You'll notice I didn't speak of a specific method of reducing afterload.
Weight reduction is one potential area, but, in general, this means
reducing blood pressure. Some diuretics (e.g., thiazides) help with high
blood pressure, but they are not the ones that cause the most fluid
loss.

In humans, one of the major advances in treating heart failure is
somewhat counterintuitive: giving a class of drugs called beta-blockers.
The counterintuitive part is that they may reduce the pumping activity
of the heart, but the good part is they relax the blood vessels,
decreasing afterload. They are also effective for lowering blood
pressure.

Basic therapy, then, in addition to weight loss and careful exercise, is
founded on individual drugs or combinations. There are others that may
be added to these three classes. Luckily, given the challenge of
pilling, at least for humans, there are combination pills that contain
at least two of these drugs.

Drug therapy can reverse heart failure if used early enough in the
process. I was heading for heart failure when the drug therapy became
much more aggressive, because I had stopped trying to argue directly
with my then-HMO, and got myself into a long-term cardiac research
program at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center: an
institution whose findings are not something with which an HMO doc will
argue. I went from a pumping measurement (ejection fraction) of 35-40%,
on the border of heart failure, back to 65% (start of conditioned
athlete) in about 5 years. In that time, my heart not only shrunk back
from the enlargement, but did an "auto-bypass", in which normally
microscopic vessels enlarged to carry blood where it was needed -- and
my bypass had blocked up.

The good news here is that these drug therapies should be effective in
four-legged people. The combinations are important; my beloved dog of
the fifties only had digoxin available. Still, he lived several years
after first being given a death sentence for kidney failue, dying of
heart disease at 9 -- reasonably old for a dog of the 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.


Oh nooooooo!!! Karen, I hope Ms. Pearl gives you extra purrs and meowmies
to you tonight to convince you that this is just a little set back. She'll
continue to live on, Karen. Just have faith and do what TED says.

Purrrssss and prayers, Karen!!!

{{{{Karen & Pearl}}}}

--

·.·´¨ ¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
Laurie
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸ ·.·

*~*LiveLoveLaugh*~* Aloha!!!!!

"There is no remedy for love but to love more"...
~~Henry David Thoreau

"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.

Bummer. Purrs for Pearl t hat the weight loss eases the problem, and she
lives a happy and contented life full of love and care, however long that
life may be.

Yowie

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

Lots of purrs.

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

in article , Howard C.
Berkowitz at wrote on 6/27/05 6:29 PM:

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.

Ultrasound. He showed me how the little valve kind of bows back in. It's not
huge but definite.

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.

He definitely just called it the mitral insufficiency and that the leaking
back in which some how causes the enlargement. He didn't say anything about
ventricular hypertrophy.

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.

He said it wasn't reversable but it was manageable. My regular vet called
and tomorrow I go get and start her on lasix and a beta blocker (don't
remember which one right now) and we will wean her down on the prednisone,
but keep her on it since it has helped get rid of the cough. She may be on a
small dose of that indefinitely but most of this is all "see how she does".
Right now it will be one dose a day of the lasix and the other heart med. I
hope it stays there. Of course, the main thing is diet management and try to
get the extra weight off. Of course, it is a no guarantee situation. My vet
has seen one case where the client opted to do nothing and the cat has lived
years. She also said let's put the blood test for thyroid off a week to let
Pearl recover, which I agree with because between yesterday and today she is
VERY worn out and I am quite worried about how stressed she was. Plus it's
so dang hot and my car does not cool down fast so just the trip between was
tough. I guess I just need to do what I can and hope for the best. Besides
the cough she hasn't really presented any other symptoms. I really hope she
likes the g/d and we can get her to lose weight. Since she isn't a really
picky eater, there is at least a chance of that. Also, we can try the other
brands like Waltham and IVD if she doesn't like the science diet. They seem
most worried about the salt content. She did say that I can grind all these
into a fine powder and mix it into a little a/d. I think that will work. She
is gagging a bit with the pill wrapped in a/d, but she is eating it. So I
think powderized might go down without trouble mixed in that for a little
treat. I'm just feeling like she is going to drop over any minute which is
probably irrational. Asthma just seemed like a more manageable ailment than
this. And not really as scary. There was stuff you could DO to help. This
seems so, well, less definite in proportion to what you can do to what will
reallly happen. Probably desceptive but there you go. That's how I feel. I
sure hope it isn't caused by thyroid. I just don't know how many
medications I can get down her, nor am I at all ready for multiple problems
to balance when the one seems so huge. I'm so depressed.

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.

Aww, Karen, you know it's not true. You take the best care you can of
your cats. No way is this kind of thing, or Grant, your fault. Purrs for
Pearl to live many many years in spite of her condition. Soothing purrs
on the way to you, too.

--
Marina, Frank and Miranda. In loving memory of 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

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.

You do not kill cats! Don't even think that. Pearl will be fine with
some maintenance. These things just happen. Hugs and purrs,
--
Britta
"There is no snooze button on a cat who wants breakfast." -- Unknown
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album

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.



Ack, I'm sorry, Karen. However, I hope the Vet will be able to help Pearl
and that she'll be with you for a long time yet. Talking cats would be
pretty scary, but sometimes, I wish they COULD talk to tell us "Gee, I'm
not feeling so great, and my age is catching up to me. These are my
symptoms, do you think I need to go to the Smelly Office and the guy in the
white coat?.."

No, of course, you don't kill cats!

Melissa

"Karen" wrote in message
...

He said it wasn't reversable but it was manageable. My regular vet called
and tomorrow I go get and start her on lasix and a beta blocker (don't
remember which one right now) and we will wean her down on the prednisone,
but keep her on it since it has helped get rid of the cough. She may be on
a
small dose of that indefinitely but most of this is all "see how she
does".
Right now it will be one dose a day of the lasix and the other heart med.
I
hope it stays there. Of course, the main thing is diet management and try
to
get the extra weight off. Of course, it is a no guarantee situation. My
vet
has seen one case where the client opted to do nothing and the cat has
lived
years. She also said let's put the blood test for thyroid off a week to
let
Pearl recover, which I agree with because between yesterday and today she
is
VERY worn out and I am quite worried about how stressed she was. Plus it's
so dang hot and my car does not cool down fast so just the trip between
was
tough. I guess I just need to do what I can and hope for the best. Besides
the cough she hasn't really presented any other symptoms. I really hope
she
likes the g/d and we can get her to lose weight. Since she isn't a really
picky eater, there is at least a chance of that. Also, we can try the
other
brands like Waltham and IVD if she doesn't like the science diet. They
seem
most worried about the salt content. She did say that I can grind all
these
into a fine powder and mix it into a little a/d. I think that will work.
She
is gagging a bit with the pill wrapped in a/d, but she is eating it. So I
think powderized might go down without trouble mixed in that for a little
treat. I'm just feeling like she is going to drop over any minute which is
probably irrational. Asthma just seemed like a more manageable ailment
than
this. And not really as scary. There was stuff you could DO to help. This
seems so, well, less definite in proportion to what you can do to what
will
reallly happen. Probably desceptive but there you go. That's how I feel. I
sure hope it isn't caused by thyroid. I just don't know how many
medications I can get down her, nor am I at all ready for multiple
problems
to balance when the one seems so huge. I'm so depressed.


Karen, I understand your feeling depressed. I lost count of how
many time I got depressed over Rusty's various health problems.
Go ahead and have a good cry to let it all out.
Then you have to concentrate on efforts to keep Pearl healthy.

G/D is not bad. Rusty ate it with no problem when the vet thought
he has renal insufficiency. But he developed crystals again while
on it and so we switched back to a prescription diet for urinary
problems.
Twice the vet thought Rusty has a thyroid problem. He has all
the typical signs - always asking for food while losing weight.
But blood tests both times showed his thyroid is fine. Now his
weight has stablized and he just eats what he gives him.

So don't lose hope and just follows the vet's instructions.
Try not to worry ( I know it is hard as I am a worrior especially
when it concerns Rusty) and think positive thoughts.

Purrs coming from Rusty the senior cat

Winnie