Congestive Heart Failure - Please Help

[Roxygirl1516]

My little Dolly was breathing very heavily on the weekend. Not open mouthed but heavy and very fast. I took her to the emergency vet and they said she was in pain. Gave her opioids.

didn’t work but luckily my normal vet was open on Tuesday after the bank holiday. They immediately said this is fluid and took her in. They gave her duretics which cleared the fluid. And scanned her heart to find thickening and says she has CHF.

She’s 14. She also has stable stage 2 CKD for 7 years. And hyperthyroidism which she has thyronorm for.

My vet advised because of these conditions we are now approaching time where PTS is on the cards.

He said let’s see how she goes the next few days.

Shes been taking her meds well. So far she’s eaten plenty, using litter tray, played with toys, been in garden, comes for cuddles etc. Grooming.

Pretty much normal.

don’t know what to do. Shall I PTS now or give her a bit of time while she’s doing well?

I refuse to drag her when she’s poorly so the first sign something isn’t right I’d do it - but I’m so conflicted right now.

Im heartbroken. Utterly devastated.

We had a cat who had CHF for a couple of years, however, he didn't have other health issues. He was brilliant at having his medication and this is what prolonged his life, as having the regular medication gave him a good quality of life. Unfortunately, he then developed bad acute kidney issues and changed from being gregarious to very quiet almost overnight. We decided to call it a day then, as he had obviously crossed the threshold of what he could cope with.

Yes my worry is her kidneys. She seems so fine currently, just like her normal self. So I just don’t know what to do. You know when they say ‘they’ll tell you it’s time’ well she’s sure making it hard for me!!

My cat had this and had to have fluid drained from his lungs twice. We went to a university vet hospital who have him some brilliant medication (relatively new apparently) that allowed to have quite a good quality of life for another 8/9 months before he died. However he was pretty happy still, good appetite, going out in the garden etc so we didn’t feel it was time. Our vet advised to write a list of things that if he stopped doing something, that would be our trigger for being PTS, eg losing interest in food or personality changes. In the end he died of a sudden heart attack, which we were also warned about was a likely outcome - but until that point he’d had a good day.

I'm sorry OP. Nothing much to add but I'm in a similar situation with DCat3 and it's very difficult.

If it were my cat and she was acting as well as Dolly is currently then I would watch and wait. My vet is very much a ‘treat the cat, not the numbers’ sort of person (meaning she goes by behaviour first, with appropriate medication obviously). That served my two ragdolls who passed at 16 and 17 very well, despite CKD, HCM and even a slipped disc that required spinal surgery.

Exactly what happened with my girl. She had nine months of completely normal life, after diagnosis. Even I could see on the scans how severe her HCM was, but she really wasn’t bothered by it. I think the diuretics she was on caused the kidney failure, as it got worse when the dose was doubled. I knew when it was time to PTS.