Milita's (Possible) Broken Heart

Hi everyone, it's the Mom today.

Our beautiful graphic was made by Ann of Zoolatry.

Milita had a couple of asthma attacks in the past week or so, so I took her to the vet yesterday to get her checked out and make medication adjustments.

Due to her history of pneumonia, Dr. M and I agreed that they should take chest x-rays.  They gave Milita a little kitty Valium, as x-rays are very stressful on her.

Dr. M came out to talk with me after they took the x-rays.  She said that Lita's lungs looked very patchy, and while she thought it looked like asthma, she wanted to send them to the radiologist for an opinion.

She also told me that Milita had a lot of sugar in her urine.  She gave me some special litter to get a urine sample at home in the next few days.  She said that sometimes a cat's sugar will spike when they are very stressed out, and she didn't want to diagnose diabetes based on a sample taken in the clinic.  So I will try to get a sample from her early next week.  I do believe that the sugar spike was stress related as Lita tends to get very stressed out when going to the vet.  Dr. M told me that it is going to be complicated to treat Lita's asthma if she has diabetes because steroids and insulin cancel each other out.  So let's all hope that she does not have diabetes.




I spoke with Dr. M this morning regarding Lita's radiology report and got a huge shock.  Dr. M said that the radiologist believes Lita has fluid in her lungs and that 99% of the time when a cat has fluid in the lungs, it indicates heart disease.  I was completely unprepared for this news.

Milita is going to have a heart ultrasound and see a cardiologist on Wednesday.  In the meantime, Dr. M is prescribing her a diuretic to reduce the fluid in her lungs.  I will be setting up some sort of fundraiser this weekend to help cover the cost.  Dr. M said that the heart ultrasound and consult will likely cost about $500-600!

I have been crying all morning.  I just cannot believe this is all happening.  Now I wonder if Milita's coughing has been a symptom of heart disease and not asthma?  I feel horrible that I didn't know she was this sick.  Other than her coughing and allowing Carmine to lay near her, she's been acting like her normal self.

Dr. M told me that if Lita has heart disease, it will also complicate her asthma treatment because steroids can increase the fluid in the lungs.

I am very scared for my baby.  Up until the past year or so, she was always the healthy one.  I just can't believe this.