Wednesday, December 05, 2007 , the wee hours

Bunny has HCM

We got Bunny’s report back from the cardiologist today, and it said that her x-rays and echocardiogram are “most consistent with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy”.  In fact, the x-rays from the day we took her in to the vet (the day she was having trouble breathing) show that she was actually in the middle of heart failure.  Thank goodness we didn’t wait any longer to take her in—Flippy’s instincts said not to wait, and I’m glad we listened to them.  Right now, we don’t know if she has a month to live, or years to live.  She started on Lasix and Enalapril today, and she’s got a full schedule of rechecks ahead of her—kidney values in one week, x-rays in one month, and another ECG in three months.  Hopefully the tests will show improvement.  Enalapril is an ACE inhibitor, but there’s a beta-blocker called Carvedilol which has been showing good results in clinical trials on cats with CHF.  I think Bunny could take both drugs concurrently, so this is definitely something I want to pursue.  It’s unfortunate that we don’t actually have a relationship with the cardiologiy service—they just consult with our vet, so we never get a chance to speak to them.

This coming Monday, we’ll be taking Carlo in for the same tests, because this condition is genetic.  It’s also more common in males.  I really hope he’s not affected, just because it would be such a huge emotional burden to know that they were both living on borrowed time.

When I returned the vet’s phone call today, it was literally right at sundown… I noticed it getting darker outside as I waited on hold.  I don’t think I’ll ever go through another Hanukkah season without thinking about this particular day.  Although I’d been just beside myself with emotion when the idea of HCM was first posed last week, I’d actually convinced myself that Bunny didn’t have it because she’s had such a good week.  When I got the positive diagnosis today I was really shocked… I thought bad news just happened to other people.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 12/05 at 01:26 AM
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