Vet advice pls-elderly cat with fluid around heart 🐈

[Elieza]

My 16 year old cat is off her food and seems to be puffing as she breathes. Like her body is moving with the effort.

Respiration rate is 40 awake and 34 asleep. She had kidney disease (stage 2) diagnosed about four years ago but has been totally fine since. No meds required. Just the last ten days she’s not been as active and been fussy about eating and seems a bit tired and uncomfortable.

I took her to the vet today and he listened to her heart and basically said it won’t be long as there is fluid sloshing about in there, although she has no heart murmur he could hear.

He dipped her urine sample and said her kidney disease showed up but nothing else.

He talked about putting her to sleep, but I couldn’t without trying something.

So he’s given her a steroid injection and water pills - Furosemide, half a tablet twice a day.

She hasn’t peed since this morning and the half tablet doesn’t appear to have had any effect since she had it at lunchtime. I gave her about a fifth of a tablet at tea time in the hope it may help. I don’t think she’s spat them out but since they have had no effect I don’t know.

Has anyone got any experience of this or know what the dosage should be. She weighs 3kg.

I’m paying myself for her treatment.

Thanks for any advice you can offer. I don’t want her to suffer or go through unnecessary medical procedures. But I just keep thinking could there be a blockage (she chews my hair when I’m asleep) or something that further investigation could reveal.

I think my cat was on 10mg Twice a a day. She had a very bad heart, and was on 4 different medications. But you'd never have known it. She then got kidney failure and was PTS. To be honest with that history and at 16. I think I would PTS. I thought that treating two failing organs was just too much for my girl. And I just knew it was time.

Thanks. That’s the same as the vet has prescribed here, 20mg a day split into two doses.

I just feel she’s not ready to go. She’s still walking over to me to say hello.

If she’d had enough she would just lie there.

I just need to feel I’m doing everything I can and that she’s not in pain.

It’s so hard isn’t it. Thanks.

Bear in mind that the frusemide may worsen her kidney disease. I think that's what happen with my girl. She suddenly went down hill over about two weeks. It coincided with doubling of the dose. Her creatinine was 400. She must have been feeling pretty rotten for a while. But she hid it so well I didn't notice. Until I got back from holiday and realised how much weight she'd lost In 10 days.

Generally...Most fluid in the chest can be drained, and it's a reasonably simple procedure for the pet which can provide a lot of relief. But ideally they would have some tests, e.g. an ultrasound or maybe xrays, first, to confirm the presence of fluid and exactly where it is accumulating. Furosemide is more effective for fluid which is IN the lungs themselves (which cannot be drained directly) rather than for fluid surrounding the lungs or heart.

However, your vet is the one who has seen and examined her first hand, asked you all the relevant questions, knows her presenting clinical signs and her detailed clinical history, so he/she will be by far the person to advise you on the next appropriate steps - nobody on the Internet can say for sure. Maybe discuss it further with them and see what your options are?

I think with heart failure and kidney failure PTS would 100% be the right thing to do.

You can't treat the heart failure with only partially working kidneys.

If you wait she will end up suffering 😕

I'm so sorry.

I would also PTS at this stage, vets don't recommend this lightly. It's hard, I know, I had to say goodbye to a much loved cat last autumn but organ failure isn't benign, and will almost certainly cause pain and discomfort, and cats hide pain well.

No advice OP just sending love and . It's heartbreaking. I'm here with my 17 year old cat. Her brother was PTS early hours of Boxing Day morning. We still miss him

Thanks everyone. 🙏 Sorry everyone who has been in a similar position. Thanks for the support.

My friends cats are 19 and 21 so I was thinking mine may get to that age too, but I guess not.

@Toddlerteaplease I have a similar situation to what you went through, the weight loss and the speed is what’s taken me by surprise too. She was fine a fortnight ago. Playing with her toy mouse a month ago. Now she just walks and sleeps.

I just wonder that the vet can’t hear anything wrong with her heart. You’d think it would be that causing the build up of fluid.

My vet has not suggested anything. I don’t know whether he is making the best choice for her or if he’s just going by her age alone and I should get a second opinion.

I really would PTS to be Honest. It's really hard I know. But it does sound like it's time. Kidney failure makes you feel really ill apparently. Even I she's not in pain. She must be feeling terrible.

My cat was only 8. 16 is a very good age.

Get a second opinion for your peace of mind. Then you won't be doubting the decision.

There is a saying "better a week too soon than a day too late". Vets don't just go by age, he's looked at everything that's going on including the weight loss and change in behavior (gone from playful to just walking & sleeping.

With heart failure you don't usually hear murmurs or something in the heart and it isn't as simple as unblocking a blockage.

The heart simply doesn't work very well anymore.

The vet can already hear this - they can hear the fluid, the fast respiratory rate, the not peeing.

I waited a day too long to get Old Lady Cat put to sleep because she was still purring, getting up and 'I had to try'.

If the vet says it's time, then they do mean it for the best.

Thanks for your support.

The vet didn’t hear anything wrong with her heart. Just that the fluid was there. And we knew she had kidney disease prior.

She has had two water pills yesterday and a steroid injection.

This morning she’s much better. Had a wee. The gurgling in her chest has gone and her breathing is much more relaxed. Ate some breakfast. Went out to sunbathe and even groomed!

She’s more herself. Don’t know how long for but I phoned the vet and he’s happy with that. I’ve got an appointment in a few days time.

Update - It’s taken me weeks to face writing this update down but I did make the difficult choice to have my cat put to sleep after speaking to another vet on the phone a few days later.

I’m still waking round the house expecting to see her and looking at the floor when I open a tin of tuna, expecting her to be there.

It’s heartbreaking that she’s gone but I had no choice.

Thanks everyone for your advice on one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do.

❤️ 🐈 ❤️

I'm so very sorry for your loss Elieza.

🙏 thanks