Community Chat

[MrsLorraine]

My cat's health saga has taken an unexpected turn.

I took him for an x-ray on his this afternoon and his bones--hips, knees, pelvis, etc.--are in perfect condition. You should see them; he's as clean as a whistle!

So what does this result mean? I thought maybe he had hip dysplasia or some kind of bone malformation. But he doesn't. The vet who took the x-rays was pretty surprised; I was astounded.

Of course I asked him what he thinks it is and without going into a long explanation, he thinks it's very likely Boo had cardio myopathy, which means weak heart muscle. There's a long list of symptoms and effects which, again, I won't go into detail about because I could write 5 pages.

I'll have one more set of pictures taken of his heart but that's all I'm going to do. The vet was so nice about it; he knows this costs a lot so he offered to do the heart series for half price and NOT charge me for interpreting the x-rays, writing the report, etc.

All that can be done for Boo, really, is just to keep him comfortable; there's no treatment for this--well, maybe complicated heart surgery and I'm not going to put him through that. He doesn't appear to be in much pain or anything. Of course I'm going to talk to his regular vet and so on, but in the long run that's what we're going to do--just make his life and easy and comfortable as possible. Hugs and snuggles and purrs don't cost a cent.

This is really an unexpected development. Of course I raced to my computer at home and binged this condition, and it turns out the Maine Coons are prone to it. There's nothing to be done about it. Since this is part of his breed, this is another reason to spay and neuter your pets.