HCM in Cats

[Michaela]

Contract : There is a FIP lifetime guarantee and 1 y genetic / congenital terminal disease with replacement or 72 hr health screen that is inappropriate
HCM is not terminal within 1 year of birth.


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Michaela L

 

[Michaela]

Well I guess even more important to have read the contract to know that the kitten was completely NOT covered! Yikes!

Death in 1 year is covered and nothing else is much of hope unless it is 72 hr or FIP.

I will treat my baby and pay for his care for his natural life


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Michaela L

 

[Michaela]

Oh that definitely is scary to know that with your kitten with early onset HCM that there are more kittens expected, and the sister kept for breeding. I sincerely hope the breeder has both mom and daughter screened now with this knowledge.

Another indication to pet buyers, read your contract. If a kitten has to DIE in the first year? Wow, so if you leave him unmedicated he would die, but if you are a good pet owner you void your health guarantee? I must say that I had a similar contract with the cat I described above with the heart valve defect. The breeder was ethical enough to agree that leaving him to die to fulfil the contract terms was not reasonable and she "replaced" him nevertheless...we did not return him, she obviously didn't want to take him and his vet bills on! But she did give me credit on my very first breeding Savannah...who has given me an entire line of screened-negative Savannahs. Your breeder has the opportunity to go further than the contract and "do the right thing"....

Death and terminals genetic ,congenital , and FIP are the ones covered in my contract but it is scary that mom and sister are breeding ...
My Romeo is lucky to be diagnosed asymptomatic but therapy is not proven to change prognosis in cats .
Thk all for the support



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Michaela L

 

[Michaela]

Wow, so basically a useless clause in the contract. May I ask who the breeder is?

Privately I may tell you
I did not realize you s a local breeder
and CVC NP
Wow
Lol
Would have visited you before I got my kittens

Best regards
Michaela


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Michaela L

 

[Patti]

Contract : There is a FIP lifetime guarantee and 1 y genetic / congenital terminal disease with replacement or 72 hr health screen that is inappropriate
HCM is not terminal within 1 year of birth.


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Michaela L

Okay, so there is a replacement clause - but as you say, HCM is not necessarily terminal within one year so still fairly useless

 

[Patti]

Privately I may tell you
I did not realize you s a local breeder
and CVC NP
Wow
Lol
Would have visited you before I got my kittens

Best regards
Michaela


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Michaela L

LOL, yes - that is my other life. I literally could not afford to breed if I didn't have a 'real' job!

 

[Michaela]

Privately I may tell you
I did not realize you s a local breeder
and CVC NP
Wow
Lol
Would have visited you before I got my kittens

Best regards
Michaela


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Michaela L

I did not interpret this as a real health guarantee but expected her to want to know and test her cats before they have more cats.....I would feel attached to the cats I create if I was a breeder ... It is hard to let them go unless you get updates and feedback. In the The contract she seem to want to know the cat for the rest of their life. No cat should be destroyed without theirs permission.


Best regards




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Michaela L

 

[Patti]

I did not interpret this as a real health guarantee but expected her to want to know and test her cats before they have more cats.....I would feel attached to the cats I create if I was a breeder ... It is hard to let them go unless you get updates and feedback. In the The contract she seem to want to know the cat for the rest of their life. No cat should be destroyed without theirs permission.


Best regards




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Michaela L

I agree, it seems incomprehensible that the breeder would continue to not only breed the mother but the sister as well. Perhaps she has already had them screened, but who knows...

 

[Michaela]

My vet had a pro BNP marker blood level done which is very elevated over 800 (normal up to 100 in cats)
Cardiologist said that this is on the range of active clinical heart failure range

Now I have to get him on meds soon but still no data that it will help change his survival

Need lots of prayers
Xoxoxo


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Michaela L

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Yes, the proBNP will tell you if there is evidence of heart damage. I do believe that meds will help not only extend his life but improve the quality of life. I had a cat with a heart defect that was diagnosed in congestive heart failure at 18 months of age. He was not expected to make 2 years of age. He died at 12 and a half years old of lymphoma after having over ten years more of great quality of life. I actually hadn't realized how his heart condition had impacted his quality of life until we finally got it well-managed (which took a few years), he became more of a kitten than ever before. Because Savannahs are naturally high energy cats, any decrease in activity can really go unnoticed. And more subtly, when his heart condition was not quite "right" his temperament became slightly more on edge and a bit "freaky" and easily startled. I imagine it is how I might feel if my heart wasn't feeling right..

My Bobo is not the only Savannah I've known over the years with heart issues, and more specifically I've known of SVs with HCM. Donna Lawver of Summerwood Savannahs had an F1 diagnosed with HCM before my Bobo got ill, with careful medication and monitoring, her Guy lived another ten years or more with HCM. She might be a good person to contact to learn more about living with a cat with HCM?

I hope your boy is easier to medicate than my Bobo was... for the longest time he acted like we were trying to kill him every time we pilled him (twice a day). Eventually what worked was pill pockets. Not in the usual way of getting them to eat the pill as a treat, but to coat the pill so when we pushed it down his throat there was a pleasant aftertaste. Then it didn't seem to be so awful what we were doing. And then eventually (after more than a year of that) he actually would eat the stuffed pill pockets.

In terms of being in heart failure, my Bobo was in congestive heart failure three times, and kidney failure twice also. Heart disease can mean balancing the heart and the kidneys...especially in his case taking lasix then spirolactonone (diuretics) along with enalapril and pimobendan. It can be so scary, I found it heartbreaking to go through and am so sorry for you. This is the reason I have all my breeding cats scanned before using in a program, to try to avoid this kind of thing happening :-(