Valentino, crossposted from facebook:
For those who've been wondering, here's what happened:
Muchi and Bitsy (but Muchi in particular) woke me up at 5:30 in the morning because Tino was having some sort of cardiac event. I rushed him to the emergency vet (and, of course, by the time we arrived he was fine, just unhappy about being in a carrier). They ran a barrage of tests and found his heart was enlarged.
They had me come back, pick him up, and transfer him to the *other* emergency vet -- the one with the cardiologist on staff. Let's just pause for a moment and give thanks that I live in a city where there's such a thing as a veterinary cardiologist.
There they ran an EKG, and echocardiogram, and a bunch of other tests (while I snuck away for the last three hours of my Friday class).
The end result: He has pretty severe heart disease. There's pericardial effusion. There's a clot in the left auricle. There's thickening and remodeling of the heart muscle. Prognosis: 11 months is the average.
But here's the other thing: Other than that 5:30 am event, he's been fine. Eating. Purring. Maybe walking a little slower, but he did have a pretty big day yesterday (a ride on a bus! And a subway!). So from here on out he gets three medications a day (including Plavix and Lasix), and we hope that he beats the odds and outlives us all. Or at least lives for a few more years.
Muchi and Bitsy (but Muchi in particular) woke me up at 5:30 in the morning because Tino was having some sort of cardiac event. I rushed him to the emergency vet (and, of course, by the time we arrived he was fine, just unhappy about being in a carrier). They ran a barrage of tests and found his heart was enlarged.
They had me come back, pick him up, and transfer him to the *other* emergency vet -- the one with the cardiologist on staff. Let's just pause for a moment and give thanks that I live in a city where there's such a thing as a veterinary cardiologist.
There they ran an EKG, and echocardiogram, and a bunch of other tests (while I snuck away for the last three hours of my Friday class).
The end result: He has pretty severe heart disease. There's pericardial effusion. There's a clot in the left auricle. There's thickening and remodeling of the heart muscle. Prognosis: 11 months is the average.
But here's the other thing: Other than that 5:30 am event, he's been fine. Eating. Purring. Maybe walking a little slower, but he did have a pretty big day yesterday (a ride on a bus! And a subway!). So from here on out he gets three medications a day (including Plavix and Lasix), and we hope that he beats the odds and outlives us all. Or at least lives for a few more years.