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fun at over 2 MHz
Aug. 20th, 2008 05:32 pmMe: eating soft serve for dinner.
Oz: doggedly licking ultrasound transmission gel off his back leg... no, he's moved on to licking his paw and wiping it off his chest.
Oz's cardiologist: incredible sweetie.
Oz's cardiologist's technician: Big blond guy with dreadlocks, named Roman, totally awesome.
Atenolol: the starting dose for cats is 6.25mg daily, because that's pretty much the smallest you can cut up the 25mg pills. Any smaller and you have to compound it, I think.
The diagnosis is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), of course, because that's the most common cause of a newly found heart murmur in an adult cat. I remembered to ask what type of murmur it is: it's a grade 3 blowing systolic murmur best heard in the parasternal region. The ultrasound wasn't too difficult to get; we put a party hat on Oz and the tech held him on his side on a table with a hole in it, so that the cardiologist could shave his chest and take the images. (I'm copying from the report the cardiologist did, for the technical stuff.) The left ventricle is mildly hypertrophied, and there's mild left atrial enlargement. The Doppler flow results indicate dynamic outflow obstruction (blood having trouble leaving the heart) at high pulse rates, which is also a hallmark of HCM from what she told me, and though they don't know that it causes pain in cats, it sure does in humans so it may not be pleasant for Oz. She saw systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the mitral valve, and I'm not clear on whether the SAM causes the dynamic outflow obstruction or if it's the other way around, but basically, yeah, it's HCM.
I haven't gotten any photos of his shaved back leg (for his blood pressure) and his shaved chest yet, because he's sitting in the next room cleaning and giving me a "FUCK YOU, CLOWN" glare when I walk by. But apparently I helped keep him calm according to the cardiologist (which means there was quiet growling the whole time, instead of yowling), and when I left him in his crate in the waiting room so I could use the loo, they said he'd gotten quite upset while I was gone. I guess the glare is an act.
Just FYI: rubbing a cat with ultrasound transmission gel is good for laughs because they get OCD about cleaning it off. I wonder if it lubricates hairballs, too?
So yeah, tonight I take my 25mg of Atenolol as usual, and I give Oz his 6.25 mg. He's gonna give me his DO NOT WANT face, I just know it. And no, we dunno how progressive this condition is-- we'll get some idea by doing another round of ultrasound in 6-9 months to see if his heart has gotten more out of whack, or if it stays as-is. I just hope this condition stays asymptomatic and then makes him die in his sleep or something, rather than going into heart failure or (worst case) throwing a clot. I will be prepared to handle it, and I have already thought through a lot of this stuff and I feel confident I won't let him linger in pain, but I hope he gets lucky and has a comfortable life course.
*Oz comes and lays next to me on the couch for chin scritches while I'm writing this*
Awwwwww. I feel like a good cat owner today. And the cardiologist is partial to gingers, so she loved him.
Oz: doggedly licking ultrasound transmission gel off his back leg... no, he's moved on to licking his paw and wiping it off his chest.
Oz's cardiologist: incredible sweetie.
Oz's cardiologist's technician: Big blond guy with dreadlocks, named Roman, totally awesome.
Atenolol: the starting dose for cats is 6.25mg daily, because that's pretty much the smallest you can cut up the 25mg pills. Any smaller and you have to compound it, I think.
The diagnosis is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), of course, because that's the most common cause of a newly found heart murmur in an adult cat. I remembered to ask what type of murmur it is: it's a grade 3 blowing systolic murmur best heard in the parasternal region. The ultrasound wasn't too difficult to get; we put a party hat on Oz and the tech held him on his side on a table with a hole in it, so that the cardiologist could shave his chest and take the images. (I'm copying from the report the cardiologist did, for the technical stuff.) The left ventricle is mildly hypertrophied, and there's mild left atrial enlargement. The Doppler flow results indicate dynamic outflow obstruction (blood having trouble leaving the heart) at high pulse rates, which is also a hallmark of HCM from what she told me, and though they don't know that it causes pain in cats, it sure does in humans so it may not be pleasant for Oz. She saw systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the mitral valve, and I'm not clear on whether the SAM causes the dynamic outflow obstruction or if it's the other way around, but basically, yeah, it's HCM.
I haven't gotten any photos of his shaved back leg (for his blood pressure) and his shaved chest yet, because he's sitting in the next room cleaning and giving me a "FUCK YOU, CLOWN" glare when I walk by. But apparently I helped keep him calm according to the cardiologist (which means there was quiet growling the whole time, instead of yowling), and when I left him in his crate in the waiting room so I could use the loo, they said he'd gotten quite upset while I was gone. I guess the glare is an act.
Just FYI: rubbing a cat with ultrasound transmission gel is good for laughs because they get OCD about cleaning it off. I wonder if it lubricates hairballs, too?
So yeah, tonight I take my 25mg of Atenolol as usual, and I give Oz his 6.25 mg. He's gonna give me his DO NOT WANT face, I just know it. And no, we dunno how progressive this condition is-- we'll get some idea by doing another round of ultrasound in 6-9 months to see if his heart has gotten more out of whack, or if it stays as-is. I just hope this condition stays asymptomatic and then makes him die in his sleep or something, rather than going into heart failure or (worst case) throwing a clot. I will be prepared to handle it, and I have already thought through a lot of this stuff and I feel confident I won't let him linger in pain, but I hope he gets lucky and has a comfortable life course.
*Oz comes and lays next to me on the couch for chin scritches while I'm writing this*
Awwwwww. I feel like a good cat owner today. And the cardiologist is partial to gingers, so she loved him.