My cat, Romeo, is 5 years old. He went in for a routine dental cleaning and all went well since I specified that Ketamine not be used. Two days later his jaw was swollen where he had a few teeth removed so I took him back to the vet. The vet administered a steroid anti-inflammatory, which sent him into cardiac arrest by the next day. We took him back and it was touch and go as he was placed in an oxygen tank. X-rays showed he had an enlarged heart and fluid in his lungs. Surprisingly, he recovered quickly and was put on Enalapril and Flurosemide. I was warned that there was no real way to tell how long he would be with us. It could be months or years.

My question is for those of you who have experience with this- what can I do to increase his chances of a long and healthy life? I cannot bear the thought of losing him.

This is what I've done so far: I researched and checked all labels of wet food for salt content. Almost everything has salt added- why? I'm concerned about his blood pressure and his kidneys. I feed him wet food twice daily and add about 1-2 ounces of water to each can. He rarely drinks water from a bowl. I purchased a fancy water fountain for him and I haven't seen him use it yet. :(

What else should I be doing for him? Breeder has been notified.

Oh gosh, I'm really sorry to hear that I've done very little reading on it, so I can't help much. I see that there is a facebook group dedicated to owners with cats of this condition: https://www.facebook.com/Cats-with-Hype ... 343627255/

It might be one of those cases where you will need to make your own custom cat food for him. I will have you and your cat in my thoughts, and give mine an extra hug tonight

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The little monsters 3

Thank you, Brian :) I've been looking for some sort of support group on Facebook.

I am so sorry to hear about your Romeo. Hopefully, he will recover from his episode and, with your watching his diet, he may live a long and healthy life. It is sad.

Thank you, Sherry

This is way more common than I thought. There's a couple Facebook pages dedicated to sharing and keeping the list of Hcm positive cats up to date. Sadly, both sides of Romeo's family tree carry this gene. :(

Bengal-Data.com keeps up with this information. I don't know if your cat is in their database or if the parents are (their pedigreed names). But, information should get put on there for future reference. I have regular contact with the guy who is doing their website. Most breeders who have a cat with HCM, they are taken out of the breeding program immediately.

I'm so sorry to hear your boy has HCM.

When I did genetic testing on my cat I had PK Def and another disease checked, but I was told HCM cannot be uncovered by genetic testing, but rather only by doing an echo on the cat. In theory a breeding cat should be tested annually for HCM and if it shows up, taken out of the breeding program.

Yesterday, when I sent some TICA pedigrees to Henning at Bengal-Data, he discovered two HCM cats had been mated!