Six Toes Gets His Diagnosis

Today Six Toes visited the cardiologist.  I know, it's hard to believe that such things are possible.  Anyhow, away we went to the vet.  Six Toes loved the doctor, who saw right off the bat he had personality plus.  He listened to his heart and then looked up at me. 

"That's loud," he said.  "Maybe we should do an ultrasound so I can see what's going on."

Six Toes did NOT like the ultrasound.  He cried from the time they took him away until the time the brought him back.  I think he was afraid they weren't going to bring him back.

"Well, I can tell you what's wrong with Six Toes," the doc said.  "He's got HCM."

HCM is short for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  It's a disease of the muscle in the heart in which the muscle gets progressively thicker until the heart can no longer work properly.  Because Six Toes is a mutant, it's appropriate that HCM is a genetic disorder.  It's not something they can cure, but they can give him medicine to help his heart work better, such as the Atenolol he's been on. It's rare to have HCM show up in a young cat, which makes Six Toes even more special.

The doc wants to see Six Toes back every six months, just to make sure he's doing ok.

Six Toes cried all the way home, but he sure was happy to come back.  The first thing he did was to curl p in his favorite chair and go to sleep.

We're Goin' To See The Cardiologist....

Well, after a loooong delay...too long actually....Six Toes has his appointment with the cardiologist in September!  I had no idea there was such a thing-cat cardiologists-until I did a little research.  Here's what I found out:

For many states you can count on one hand the number of board certified ACVIM (American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine) cardiologists.  Some states like California have quite a few vets around who have this specialty and you can find a list of cardiologists for each state here. Cardiovascular diseases are often found in cats, with the most common killer being myocardial disorders.  Cats can also have Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), Feline Restrictive Cardiomyopathy (RCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy, just to name a few.  For some conditions only medication is indicated, however, in more severe cases surgery might be the only option open to an owner.  Just like humans, cats can have pacemakers and even coronary bypass surgery although it's extremely rare that such procedures are done!  It's amazing what's possible with today's veterinary skills combined with technology, even at this rudimentary stage surgically.

I don't know what the cardiologist will tell us about Six Toes, but I'm so hopeful that he'll be ok on just medicine.

I'll let you know how he fairs next blog entry.