HCM in Cats

[Sue]

I'm very sorry for your loss. I hope that your breeder will work with you. Sue

 

[Trish Allearz]

Thank you for posting this, my beautiful F2 kitten just died.. he did not die directly from HCM but in the days leading up to his death he was diagnosed by multiple separate veterinarians as having chronic HCM. He was only 6 months old. The breeder is strongly stating that she has proven the parents do not have HCM via the genetic tests but my understanding is that they are still finding genetic variants that cause it and so a negative result for, let's say the Maine Coon variant, does not mean the cat does not carry an HCM gene.

He had a second fatal disease that my vets believe was auto-immune and another symptom that was quite severe that may be connected to the HCM (collapsed lung/infection) and may be related to the initiation of the autoimmune response.

I am not sure how to proceed with the breeder. I am trying to be careful with what I type here because I do not want to hurt her reputation since I don't believe she knew about this but I also do not want anyone else to go through this and now I've lost 5k for the cat and 10k for his end-of-life medical care. I really need some help in how to proceed with this situation.. it is very hard when I am grieving at the same time!! Do you know of any resources or have recommendations on how to proceed?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks guys, I'm so glad this chat is here.

I am very very sorry for your loss... As a breeder, this is what I'd want to see from you- I'd want to see an HCM diagnosis from a board certified veterinarian CARDIOLOGIST. Not a run of the mill vet. Or, unfortunately, a necropsy from your regular vet in the case of the death of the kitten.

HCM happens in ALL cats. So even if her lines are completely clear of HCM- it can still happen. This is why we have congenital defect guarantees- because sometimes, even against the odds, things happen.

If you decide to get another kitten from this breeder- say, she offers you pick of the litter down the line, ANOTHER thing you can do to protect yourself is to ask to see those HCM scans. A common ploy amongst shady Sphynx breeders is to say your cats are HCM scanned- when they are not. OR they are scanned, but the scans are positive and they are STILL breeding those cats! The scan should be done within the last calendar year- 12 months- and even scans are not infallible. HCM can go from basically nonexistent in a cat to full blown in 6 months- OR it can creep up slowly on a cat.

I'm also curious as to what the other diagnosis was for your kitten... How old was your little one?

 

[ALizzlyBear]

Thanks everyone! Yes it is really hard. I'm trying to be very respectful in my communications, but I do believe my vets and I fulfilled the contract, so it looks like legally I should receive a new cat (that feels aweful to say - nothing could ever replace my poor little one who passed)..

So what happened with him was really complicated so I will try to be succinct. He was in the ICU for 4 days.. the first sign was an infected collapsed lung and a very high fever (105.5). Steadily each day he got worse and his blood value results declined (his organs were enlarged but functioning normally). He died after 4 days of very intense treatment and the autopsy indicated that:
- Chronic moderate to marked hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- lung abnormalities (collapsed and infected) were a result of his heart problems
- pancytopenia (extremely low levels of white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, etc.)
The veterinarians stated that the pancytopenia could only have been caused by FeLV, the ingestion of anti-cancer drugs (etc.), or as an auto-immune response against itself. The vets ran multiple viral tests on both blood samples and bone marrow samples and everything came up negative (so no FeLV, FCV etc.). I have no chemicals or drugs in the house (house was completely kitten proof and I don't have cancer or any health issues). So they believe that it was an out of control auto-immune response directed against baby blood cells.

The breeder believes he was poisoned somehow. Having a cat be poisoned shares a few similar symptoms but overall his symptom presentation was actually very different. All of the vets that handled the case (there were about 6, some of whom were internal medicine specialists and all worked as emergency vets) told me vehemently that he was not poisoned and they would have been able to immediately tell from his blood panels that were taken every day (the values would be completely different). In fact, they seem to be getting very sick of me asking lol. The breeder also denies that he has HCM and says his heart was a result of poisoning also, since she says the parents have been genetically tested for HCM and the tests came back negative. But the autopsy results clearly state that he had moderate to marked chronic HCM and that it strained his lungs. This is all so shocking, since the severity is extreme in a 6 month old cat!!

We cannot ever know.. but from the progression of his decline and how the symptoms appeared, it really looked like the auto-immune response was a crazy reaction against his lung issues (which were a result of the heart problems).

 

[admin]

We cannot ever know.. but from the progression of his decline and how the symptoms appeared, it really looked like the auto-immune response was a crazy reaction against his lung issues (which were a result of the heart problems).

I agree with you - that is the way it sounds to me...I believe you are well within your rights to ask for a replacement kitten.

 

[Todd L]

This is almost identical to what happened to me a month ago when I lost my f2.

My breeder wont even return my calls.



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[admin]

Todd, I don't know who your breeder is, but there are ways to resolve these types of situations...

 

[Trish Allearz]

The hcm once again could or could not be hereditary, per se, but actually unless she has scans on grandparents and great grandparents and great great... Hcm can still pop up. That seems enough to warrant a refund or a new kitten.

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[Sue]

Just a thought, did ALizzyBear and Todd purchase their cats from the same breeder? I don't need to know who the breeder is. I would suggest that you pm each other. Sue

 

[Patti]

Did the vets have a name for this auto immune disease? I would make sure they document their findings and conclusions (beyond what the necropsy says) on your kitten's chart so that there is no room for questioning or alternative interpretation of the facts.

 

[ALizzlyBear]

Thanks again everyone for all of your suggestions! I privately messaged Todd to see if we are from the same breeder. I am carefully documenting everything also but trying to be respectful towards the breeder because she is very understandably upset and is not accepting the vet results.

If anyone has experienced something similar then please feel free to privately message me. It is hard to make meaning of and deal with the death of a baby kitten and I think it helps to talk with others!