Sweet Monkey

My dear Monkey cat is my best friend. I'll just say that right out the gate. I love this guy more than cookies. He's the most well-behaved cat I have ever known. Friendly, funny, talkative. I just love love love him.

A couple of months ago he started sneezing and coughing and so I took him to the vet, suspecting allergies. She agreed and after some chest x-rays, decided that it was probably asthma induced by allergies. He had a short round of antibiotics and some allergy pills (kitty Claritin, basically) and was much better. And then about a week ago, he started the coughing again. The coughing isn't 'productive' coughing, but a deep, wheezing, trying-to-get-out-a-hairball type of sound that is actually an asthma attack. So I crammed him into the cat carrier and back to the vet. More x-rays showed some lung troubles and an enlarged heart. So a series of (expensive!) blood tests were done and everything looked pretty good. No change in blood count, urinalysis was good, mild elevation in liver and blood sugars, but that could be a nominal change, so we're just assuming that he's got a pre-diabetic type of thing and he'll be going on prescription diet food to help him lose weight. This tiny baby - the runt of the litter - weighs nineteen and a half pounds. HA! Because he's such a big cat, the doctor says that he should be about 15 lbs. So, essentially, he's like 40 lbs overweight - not good, but not lethal. And his heart is big, but not terribly so, since he's a big guy - he should have a big heart.

So today I talked to the vet again and she says that the radiologist confirmed that his heart enlargement is due to heart disease. Luckily, he's not too bad off, although she did have to give the disclaimer that most cats show no signs and just suddenly die. So it's good that he's being monitored, but it's scary as hell that he could just be gone at any moment. He's my buddy! I love him! He can't die! I know he's 9 years old, but that's too young! Our last family cat lived to be 21! I want to have him around for at least another decade!

I have just ordered his new medicines, which will be Eanalapril and Lasix. The Eanalapril is for the heart and Lasix thins the blood, so hopefully we should see some changes soon. I've decided to start chronicling it all here for my reference.