Community Chat

[Sammycat1]

Friends, our Schmoo Bear is in congestive heart failure. The doctors are shocked at how fast it came on--an x-ray of 10 days ago showed absolutely nothing. Monday's only showed a slight enlargement but today the cardiac ultrasound showed right and left failure both. Part of the additional stress on the heart is the prednisolone used initially to treat what appeared to be back pain, and it is good we are in tapering down mode and have been since Monday. But that did not kick it into being. Kitties heart failure starts slow over years and it doesn't appear until it's very critical.

The vet felt Schmoo had weeks, perhaps months. I asked him what he would do if Schmoo were his, and he said he would try to treat the heart failure to make him more comfortable. However, if he gets to panting and very labored breathing, we need to do the immediate and loving thing.

DH and I have decided to bring Schmoo home today and try. He is our fighter and I feel we owe him this one last chance to have some comfortable time at home. Then we will make our choice.

Thanks for your prayers for our beautiful angel boy. Although the result is not good, we are nonetheless comforted by your strength.