Cow Mau to the vet’s (congestive heart failure)

I know how scary congestive heart failure sounds. But that’s what Cow Mau has.

Congestive heart failure (also called heart failure) is a serious condition in which the heart doesn’t pump blood as efficiently as it should. Despite its name, heart failure doesn’t mean that the heart has literally failed or is about to stop working.

Again, Cow didn’t show any symptoms at all, but since I was bringing Cleo and Indy, I thought I’d bring Cow along.

He did, however, show me he had to squat a few times to defecate yesterday. I also saw his hind legs tremble a little, so the vet was right when I mentioned it to her the last time when Cow squatted a few times to defecate. She said it could be due to weak hind legs where he cannot squat long enough to empty his bowels, so he has to squat several times. I had already given him Lactulose for this the last time and again, yesterday and today.

Luckily the vet also checked Cow Mau’s heart and that’s when she detected that his heart rhythm sound was faint. This means the heart isn’t efficiently pumping blood to this body. This may result in some leftover blood in his heart which may form a clump and if this clump gets out of the heart and lodges in the blood stream, it is called a thrombus and can cause a stroke or heart attack that would be fatal.

A thrombus is a blood clot formed in situ within the vascular system of the body and impeding blood flow.

So I agreed to get a proBNP blood test to check Cow’s heart. The reading was an astronomical 1451.5pmol/L. Anything above 270 is already considered congestive heart failure. Cow’s is five times that reading. The ProBNP blood test measures the amount of certain enzymes that are produced by the heart when there is injury. So, Cow Mau’s high reading means that the injury in his heart happened only recently. If it had happened a long time ago, the reading would not be so high.

He would need a heart scan tomorrow, but he needs to be calm, so the vet says to give him some Gabapentin an hour before going to the vet’s tomorrow.

Meanwhile, for his joints, Cow is prescribed Maximus Joint from Petdiatrics for his weak hind legs and for his heart, Clopidogrel, a blood thinner.

Clopidogrel is used in veterinary medicine in cats that are at risk for having a blood clot, particularly those with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. 

Clopidogrel is an antiplatelet blood-thinning medicine that may help prevent future heart attacks, strokes, and other clot-related diseases in patients who have already had a heart attack, stroke, or have certain cardiovascular conditions.

Unfortunately, there is no heart medicine for cats. Clopedogrel is a human medication.

I know, with aging, there is no escape from illnesses. In July, I was so happy that Cow Mau’s kidneys were fine. Unlike most of our elderly cats, Cow Mau doesn’t have any kidney issues.

He has a heart issue.

I remember Bunny also had some heart issue, but not serious enough to warrant medication.

There is no escape from old age.

Aging is a terminal disease of all living beings.

Our warrior is 17 years 4 months old.