maximusprime
Lairian
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2013
- Messages
- 28
- Points
- 24
sorry, folks, this will be long, but i'm looking for some insight from people who might have on the ground experience with this. i could probably bottom line this, but i feel like the details could be relevant. the tl;dr is that they just found a grade 2 murmur in my boy, so obviously i fear hcm. the problem is, i also fear that there's something else going on, so i wanted to run his symptoms past everyone. particularly interested in feedback from those with hcm kitties, but if anything i write here inspires an unrelated flash of brilliance, please do share. (sorry, no idea why my font got weird here.)
in may 2014, max had a consolidated left lung. after several treatments failed over the course of three weeks, it was finally determined that he had mycoplasma felis, and a course of baytril corrected the problem and he's been fine ever since. (at the same time, he was diagnosed with herpes.) that's not necessarily relevant to the current situation, but will go toward explaining the series of recent events.
fast forward to august 17. he developed a sneeze with no other symptoms. activity seemed normal, no vomiting or fever or anything like that. normal activity, everything absolutely fine (seemingly) other than the sneeze. however, on the 20th, i took him in to be checked out just in case. figured it was a herpes flareup, but given his history and the likelihood of secondary infections taking hold, i wanted to have him checked out. his vet - not the one who normally sees him, but another doc in the clinic that day - confirmed my home-diagnosis and sent me home with ointment for his eye, which had mild conjunctivitis.
by the 23rd, he had developed some nasal congestion, but fluids were clear, and apart from the sneezing, he had no other symptoms. however, on the 24th, he coughed after eating an l-lysine treat. it was a strange, shallow little cough, almost like you do when you're clearing a stuck piece of popcorn from your throat, and since the treats were dry, i thought perhaps that was the issue. just a throat clearing.
however, later that evening, he vomited his dinner about 30 minutes after eating. i was immediately alarmed because he never vomits, but chose to simply keep watch. long story short, over the course of the next three days, i saw the cough several times, and he vomited once more. the cough always occurring after eating, and sometimes randomly, later on. so, on the 27th, i took him back to the vet - this time he saw the one we normally see, whom i've always trusted implicitly due to not only my history with her with our other pets, but also due to the fact that she saved his life fifteen months ago.
she was not alarmed at all (for various reasons not necessarily important) and sent us home without labs or anything, but she did mention he was down a few ounces from his visit seven days prior. from 8.9 to 8.3. she wasn't particularly concerned because his history has him normally at around 8, but she told me to watch his weight. i advised that his activity level and food intake had decreased slightly, but she chalked this up to him feeling basically under the weather, which made sense to me, though i just had this nagging little feeling...
the following morning, i was finally able to capture one of his coughing fits on video, and t his time, it didn't look like it had the prior few days - it looked like the deep cough from before. i immediately emailed the video to her, and she had me bring him back in for xrays. so i did.
his lung is not consolidated this time around, which is good, so she decided to treat this like asthma, as she HAD noted "bronchial activity" in the xray. this felt wrong to me, but i couldn't place it, and i'm not a doctor, so.
she prescribed baytril to ward off secondary infection, that terb-stuff that i'm too lazy to look up for his breathing, and - this is key - prednisolone. i shelled out a small fortune for the meds and went home with a very nagging, concerned feeling about the steroid. however, i administered the meds as directed friday night, saturday, and this morning.
however, here's the thing. max is normally extremely active and rambunctious, but for the last few days, has been very skittish, inactive, and jumpy. sometimes when i pick him up, he freaks out like i'm hurting him. he's extremely tentative even when crossing the room, like he has to think about it first, and then all the way across. his vocalizations have reduced to a minimum, and when he does talk to me, his voice is completely different. very weak and tinny. he sleeps a lot, isn't eating as much as usual (still interested, but doesn't pig out like he normally does - normally he chases me around all over the house all day asking for food. he eats about half what i put down, now, and doesn't show any interest in eating till the next time i put food down, and even then i have to beg. i've taken to just giving him fancy feast to entice him to eat as much as possible.
this morning i worked myself up into a near panic over all of this, in addition to a couple of brief coughing fits as he slept, and did some research and finally googled exactly the right terms that led me to what i've feared since i got him - hcm. i immediately checked for prednisolone in hcm patients and discovered it is absolutely verboten. between this and my sense from the beginning that my vet was missing something (and concerned about the fact that we hadn't done labs), i took him into the emergency clinic.
his vitals were good, everything checked out perfectly. i was horrified, however, to see him weigh in at 8.1. that's two ounces in three days, eight ounces in ten. then doc listened to the heart, and found a murmur that he put at grade 2. i immediately mentioned the steroid - "i have to take him off this" - and doc agreed, and assured me it was fine to stop him cold without tapering since he'd only received four doses.
based on everything i've read, this all looks like hcm to me, but i'm just stunned that he would go from absolutely fine 13 days ago to clearly sick at this point. i asked them to run labs just to be sure, and everything came back clean, other than low K. (3.4 - low range of normal starts at 3.5.)
so, that's the history. speculation, experiences, suggestions, commentary welcome. in the meantime, obviously i plan to take him to a cardiologist, but this just all looks SO strange to me that i'd love any and all feedback.
thank you for reading, and for any insight. i'm desperate and heartbroken. i cannot tell you how much i love this cat, and i probably don't need to. it's killing me, watching his movements now. also, his breathing appears to be slightly labored, but i honestly don't know if that's legitimate or if i'm just staring too hard at this point.
in may 2014, max had a consolidated left lung. after several treatments failed over the course of three weeks, it was finally determined that he had mycoplasma felis, and a course of baytril corrected the problem and he's been fine ever since. (at the same time, he was diagnosed with herpes.) that's not necessarily relevant to the current situation, but will go toward explaining the series of recent events.
fast forward to august 17. he developed a sneeze with no other symptoms. activity seemed normal, no vomiting or fever or anything like that. normal activity, everything absolutely fine (seemingly) other than the sneeze. however, on the 20th, i took him in to be checked out just in case. figured it was a herpes flareup, but given his history and the likelihood of secondary infections taking hold, i wanted to have him checked out. his vet - not the one who normally sees him, but another doc in the clinic that day - confirmed my home-diagnosis and sent me home with ointment for his eye, which had mild conjunctivitis.
by the 23rd, he had developed some nasal congestion, but fluids were clear, and apart from the sneezing, he had no other symptoms. however, on the 24th, he coughed after eating an l-lysine treat. it was a strange, shallow little cough, almost like you do when you're clearing a stuck piece of popcorn from your throat, and since the treats were dry, i thought perhaps that was the issue. just a throat clearing.
however, later that evening, he vomited his dinner about 30 minutes after eating. i was immediately alarmed because he never vomits, but chose to simply keep watch. long story short, over the course of the next three days, i saw the cough several times, and he vomited once more. the cough always occurring after eating, and sometimes randomly, later on. so, on the 27th, i took him back to the vet - this time he saw the one we normally see, whom i've always trusted implicitly due to not only my history with her with our other pets, but also due to the fact that she saved his life fifteen months ago.
she was not alarmed at all (for various reasons not necessarily important) and sent us home without labs or anything, but she did mention he was down a few ounces from his visit seven days prior. from 8.9 to 8.3. she wasn't particularly concerned because his history has him normally at around 8, but she told me to watch his weight. i advised that his activity level and food intake had decreased slightly, but she chalked this up to him feeling basically under the weather, which made sense to me, though i just had this nagging little feeling...
the following morning, i was finally able to capture one of his coughing fits on video, and t his time, it didn't look like it had the prior few days - it looked like the deep cough from before. i immediately emailed the video to her, and she had me bring him back in for xrays. so i did.
his lung is not consolidated this time around, which is good, so she decided to treat this like asthma, as she HAD noted "bronchial activity" in the xray. this felt wrong to me, but i couldn't place it, and i'm not a doctor, so.
she prescribed baytril to ward off secondary infection, that terb-stuff that i'm too lazy to look up for his breathing, and - this is key - prednisolone. i shelled out a small fortune for the meds and went home with a very nagging, concerned feeling about the steroid. however, i administered the meds as directed friday night, saturday, and this morning.
however, here's the thing. max is normally extremely active and rambunctious, but for the last few days, has been very skittish, inactive, and jumpy. sometimes when i pick him up, he freaks out like i'm hurting him. he's extremely tentative even when crossing the room, like he has to think about it first, and then all the way across. his vocalizations have reduced to a minimum, and when he does talk to me, his voice is completely different. very weak and tinny. he sleeps a lot, isn't eating as much as usual (still interested, but doesn't pig out like he normally does - normally he chases me around all over the house all day asking for food. he eats about half what i put down, now, and doesn't show any interest in eating till the next time i put food down, and even then i have to beg. i've taken to just giving him fancy feast to entice him to eat as much as possible.
this morning i worked myself up into a near panic over all of this, in addition to a couple of brief coughing fits as he slept, and did some research and finally googled exactly the right terms that led me to what i've feared since i got him - hcm. i immediately checked for prednisolone in hcm patients and discovered it is absolutely verboten. between this and my sense from the beginning that my vet was missing something (and concerned about the fact that we hadn't done labs), i took him into the emergency clinic.
his vitals were good, everything checked out perfectly. i was horrified, however, to see him weigh in at 8.1. that's two ounces in three days, eight ounces in ten. then doc listened to the heart, and found a murmur that he put at grade 2. i immediately mentioned the steroid - "i have to take him off this" - and doc agreed, and assured me it was fine to stop him cold without tapering since he'd only received four doses.
based on everything i've read, this all looks like hcm to me, but i'm just stunned that he would go from absolutely fine 13 days ago to clearly sick at this point. i asked them to run labs just to be sure, and everything came back clean, other than low K. (3.4 - low range of normal starts at 3.5.)
so, that's the history. speculation, experiences, suggestions, commentary welcome. in the meantime, obviously i plan to take him to a cardiologist, but this just all looks SO strange to me that i'd love any and all feedback.
thank you for reading, and for any insight. i'm desperate and heartbroken. i cannot tell you how much i love this cat, and i probably don't need to. it's killing me, watching his movements now. also, his breathing appears to be slightly labored, but i honestly don't know if that's legitimate or if i'm just staring too hard at this point.