Toby

On friday I came home and "Toby" who is my 14 year old cat, started acting funny. I didn't even have time to take my shoes off, and still in my work clothes, I rushed him to my work. He seemed to be batting in the air at nothing. His eyes glazed over and I picked him up and he was really stiff. I thought he was choking because his neck was bent downward, and he wouldn't straighten it up. My thoughts were, seizure, brain tumor, kidney failure (which can lead to a buildup of ammonia in the brain), neurologic disorder of some sort. But there is a reason I am not the doctor. These were all logical differentials of possible problems only running more tests would tell us what was wrong.

By the time I got him in the car he was acting normal again, just a little groggy and weak. His doctored ordered a blood test, everything was normal. Then we did a blood pressure which was also normal. She ordered an EKG, here was the diagnosis. My cat has HCM/Hypertrophic cardio-myopathy. Heart disease. We gave him some medication/beta blocker and he hasn't had another episode that I am aware of.

This is a very bad prognosis long term, and you just keep them comfortable until you put them to sleep. I have seen several cats die of this. My cat will never die of this disease. I will put him to sleep long before he begins to suffer. They do suffer at the end stage of this disease.

My co-workers and I always laugh that if it's sick and it's an orange cat then it's either, kidney disease or diabetes. It just seems they are more prone to those diseases. I really was not prepared for this. I really thought him would end up with one of the other two diseases. HCM is much more common in exotic breeds like persians an himalyians. I have a co-worker that has a 4 yr old persian cat that was diagnosed with the same thing last week. I guess it's not that uncommon.

There is acutally a funny end to this story. My doctor decided on medication for Toby and gave it to me. I took a look at it:

Atenolol 25mg.

I looked at her and said "Huh, thats funny this is the same exact medication that my husband is on." she looked at me and started laughing and said, "Well if Toby ever runs out of medication he can borrow a pill from your husband!"

When I got home I told Joe what medication they put Toby on and he said "Well, I know who's gonna get the last pill if we ever run out!" Of course he was just playing. So Toby will have an Echocardiogram done on Friday, and a repeat EKC, we will monitor his progress and keep you all updated.

Toby's nicknames: Tobis, Tobie-wobbie, McTobe(his Irish name, he is a red head), Handsome boy, Handsomest, Tobis dias(Thats his latin name) and many more.