My 9 yr old moggy Lacey hasn't eaten for a week, so today (my birthday) I took her to the vet and paid alot of money for blood and urine tests which point to her having heart disease. She's always been a bit overweight. Tomorrow she has to have a blood test to show whether or not she needs a heart scan. This takes a while for results and no doubt the scan would be stress for her.

I feel so sad, how can I encourage her to eat and drink in the meantime?
Is she giving up. I love all my cats soo much. I'm supposed to be going away for a week on Friday, with my children, but I haven't got any money, and I'm scared my cat will die while I'm gone.

I think I just wanted to tell people who'd understand. I know it won't help in a practical way, but if anyone can give me any advice on caring for her, or have any experience with cats with heart problems I'd really appreciate it.

no experiance - sorry, i do know if cats are poorly that warming food helps them want to eat. plain food like boiling chicken & leaving lots of the water with it can also help

hope shes ok

I'm so sorry for your distress. The only experience I have is a cat with a heart murmur which wasn't picked up until just before he died aged 10 (from a totally unrelated problem) If you are so worried perhaps you could put off going away, especially until you know what's going on with the cat. I'm sorry I don't have any experience with this condition although I am sure someone will come along who has. Just wanted to offer my support. Hope things turn out ok, please keep us updated and good luck with the feeding

It is so stressfull I know they are animals but to me I have to treat them as well I would any child.

__________________

Black with white around his private area



Black Tortoiseshell




R.I.P Patch my well behaved boy dog
R.I.P. Abby and Rebel my beautifull litter sister cats

I can't postpone going away unfortunately.
Someone is staying at my house while I'm gone, and my mum is coming in every day too, so she won't be alone.
In fact she'll prob be glad to get rid of the kids lol
She's not even acting unwell, she's just not interested in anything, she's still purring when I stroke her, and still meowing at flying insects. I'm shocked by the diagnosis, I sort of expected it to be her teeth, or something.

At least someone will be with her and your mum will be visiting too, so that's good. It's difficult when you go away, I have a 16 year old cat and I worry every time I go away that something will happen due to his age. My mum is coming to stay if we do go away so I have no worries there and I will be in contact just in case. All you can do at this stage is see what the vet says, I hope things work out well for you all and I will be sending positive vibes for a good outcome

Actually I'm quite alarmed to hear about your cat not eating for this length of time. Is she drinking?

Did the vet not give you any suggestions or express any concern? It's absolutely VITAL your cat eats. Not eating for this length of time is potentially very dangerous because cats can go on to develop a very serious condition called hepatic lipidosis when they cease eating and I'm surprised nothing showed up in the bloodwork to point to a medical condition which is usually at the root of inappetence. The key to treating this is by establishing the cause. Also the longer this goes on for the harder it will be to restart her appetite.

Heart problems are not normally detected via blood and urine samples-more by physical examination and it's also unlikely to be a cause of her not eating. Do you know what kind of heart problem the vet was alluding to?

I would take her back to the vets today, explain the situation and take it from there.

I'm just waiting for the vet to ring me back but he said the results of her blood and urine all point towards it being heart disease and this special blood test today will probably confirm that. Then she might need a heart scan. He did say she had a murmur when he listened to her heart. She's not eating or drinking at all.

What did the vet say then? Hopefully he suggested an appetite stimulant to kick start her eating again. In the meantime here are some tips I thought I'd included earlier.

Tanya's Comprehensive Guideto Feline Chronic Renal Failure - Persuading Your Cat to Eat

Yes, I can understand a specialised blood test for heart problems but I'd certainly be interested to know what on a routine panel made the vet suspect a heart condtion in the first place. A murmur can be suggestive of it though sometimes it occurs when another illness is present.

Either way unless she's been showing symptoms like breathing problems it sounds as if it's in the early stages if confirmed.

Hope she starts eating and drinking really soon!

Still waiting for the vet to call!!! Grrr!!
Getting really worked up and anxious about it.

Lacey managed to eat a small plate of mashed tuna this morning and she was quite interested in it when I gave it to her.

I'm also anxious about the cost too, I really can't afford alot of longterm treatment, altho I would pay any amount to make her well, I don't know where I'm gonna get it from.