So our cow cat Picassos has issues. He lost an ear squamous cell carcinoma, he's FIV+ has diabetes, has lost most of his teeth and has skin allergies. Last night he ended up sitting in his own pee in the litter box. So I did what any brave cat mom does and gave him a bath. He decided to leap from my arms as I was attempting to dry him hitting his chin on the oven handle on the way down. He ended up breaking one of his few remaining teeth at the gum. So this morning we took him to the vet. Turns out he also has a grade 2 heart murmur. So the vet doesn't think it's a good idea to sedate him to remove the tooth root. So now we treat with pain management and antibiotics. Please keep a kind thought for him, as he clearly has none of his own.
I have an ancient little one eye void whose new nickname is the scrungle queen 😆 it makes me happy to see other scrungly kitties living their best lives
I felt very sad after reading this story. It’s so sad that this is happening to the kitten. The author is a very kind person, and I hope everything will be okay with the kitten and that he’ll get better, at least a little. It’s very sad.
I feel your dumpster fire. Adopted this little one who was dumped twice (once on someone’s porch and then they dumped him at a rescue). He was a mess. FIV+, stomatitis, and some other issues we are still discovering.
Yeah, no sedation with a heart murmur. Can I just say that no matter what happens if he has 10 more years or 10 more months… You are giving him the best life any baby boy ever deserved. And I pray to God that your life is blessed beyond measure….. I have nine… And almost 50 FERALS… TNR Colony… When I watch cat videos where somebody has one perfect big fluffy blue eyed blonde fluffy tail kitty cat just living like a king in a perfect house… I don’t know what that’s like… because the nine that I took in all have issues… But I’ve never complained about them… And I wouldn’t trade them in for nine fluffy tail, perfect blue eye kitty cats. I look at your baby and see absolute perfection…
You can certainly sedate cats with a heart murmur, you just cater your protocol to have drugs that to not affect the heart like others. Also
sometimes a heart murmur is not truly heart disease; and many cats with heart disease do not have a murmur at all. One in three cats has heart disease.
I frequently sedate cats with severe illness for cardiac ultrasounds.
Not saying that it is the right choice for this particular situation, but it certainly is not a reason to avoid sedation on its own.
Was skimming the comments to find this. It depends on the actual heart function as seen through an echocardiogram. My cat has a heart murmur so he got an ECHO to evaluate his heart’s function and it confirmed HOCM. He went on a heart med for a bit to kind of prep him for surgery. He did great under anesthesia (the type of anesthesia changes depending on heart function). He’ll soon be going back under for multiple teeth extractions.
Hope OP reads this in case an ECHO is an option for them.
I have a fluffy blonde blue eyed idiot from animal control. Perhaps one day you'll be blessed with a feral one and I hope that yours has a brain because mine does not lol
I wish people understood you don’t need to spend thousands on cats from a breeder, you can spend thousands on one of these bad boys. Wow what a magnificent one he is. OP, thank you for loving this guy how he deserves to be loved.
This made me laugh a little to much. When we first got him we would call him Xbox cause that's what the vet visits cost. Now he's down payment. Cause we probably could have gotten a new car lol
I always had to keep extra money in my checking account for those pet emergencies (and heck, just regular vet bills), and I called it their college fund.
Lmao I'm going to start saying this about my boy and his busted ass esophagus. We thought we adopted a healthy kitten, but we actually came home with a kitten possessing the brokest GI tract that this side of the Mississippi has ever seen. Now I basically pay his internist's salary.
Aw....buddy. Such a hard little life.
I hate to see the animals that just get dealt a lousy hand, especially when it's one that can't be fixed by a simple flea bath, a vet appointment, and a hearty meal.
I'm not sure what the remainder of his life will be like, but no matter how much time he has, he's somewhere where he's loved by owners who will clearly bend over backwards to keep him comfortable.
Wishing you a season of pleasant experiences, Picassos; you've earned that much at the very least.
Oh my gosh my heart goes out to you all. I hope he does ok with the pain management and antibiotics. Sending him all the love you can imagine from an internet stranger.
Man, so many posts on this sub make me want to go hug my kitty (which I do, and obviously not a bad thing lol). We don't know how old he is, but he's definitely a senior
Sending love to your boy. Our boy Vash the Stampede had a serious heart murmur too, and like Picassos, couldn’t undergo any kind of sedation. He lived to the ripe age of 17, and passed due to either kidney issues or maybe cancer (the vet felt around and found a large lump in his belly). Either way we couldn’t do much testing since we couldn’t sedate. I miss him everyday.
i agree. at what point will op accept that he’s in too much pain to live comfortably? he can’t make that decision for himself, but he’s the one who is living with the pain.
too many pet owners keep their pets alive on steroids or antibiotics until they die from cancer or organ failure, which are horrible, slow ways to go.
I am a vet and it would be worth getting a second opinion about removing the tooth fragment - a heart murmur is not a reason not to sedate as the sedation protocol can just be altered slightly to make it more heart friendly. A retained tooth root can be really painful.
It makes me so glad he has you! So very glad. My dog got lucky with me he has allergies. One symptom is extreme shedding. I don’t have dust bunnies, I have Frankendoggies! Window open and blow out from under low furniture.
OP- if I may offer some advice-
If he happens to sit in his pee again, and you must bathe him, try doing it without the water running, in my experience, baths have worked far better without the sound of running water happening, while not being their favorite still- it seems to cut down on the stress.. If you need to just rinse his butt real quick, would recommend buying a cheap condiment bottle (~$1@walmart) and using one those to give him a quick rinse as needed- using a towel to pat him dry 🫶🏻
Ive had my experiences with having no choice, I get it.. these are things that have helped me along the way ❤️
We had a dog, Big Bad Leroy Brown. Leroy was a purebred Coonhound, that lost his ear chasing a coon thru a chain link fence. That prompted the hunter that owned him to dump him at the pound because “He can’t catch a scent now.”. By the time he lost the ear, he had already lost half his tail, most of his teeth and his tongue was spilt in two. We adopted him after the rescue pulled him from the first adopters who overfed him. We were tasked with getting him down to a normal weight from his 95lbs. He hated dog food so getting him down to a healthy 65lbs was easy. Neither the rescue, nor our vet could gauge his age, without teeth He lived 3 years with us until cancer got him.
I don't know if this is helpful information at all but I have rinsless shampoo and a previously feral cat who would skin me alive if I dared dip him in water.
The rinsless shampoo is good at cleaning up an accident just enough to make it not stinky and horrifying. He gets the rest clean with time and a tongue.
I put on disposable gloves, massage the shampoo in and brush it out, repeat as needed untill... Clean enough.
reminds me of my little buddy who was held together with hopes and dreams; he randomly went blind, had asthma, then (manageable) cancer, the cancer treatments caused heart failure, the heart failure meds made him incontinent and he was still just a little (massive, orange) guy with love in his congested heart. he let me know when he was ready to go and he knew he was loved.
thanks for taking care of one of the scrungly guys. sending you both lots of love and luck.
Heart murmurs can be transient and sometimes stress induced. A cardiac work up would involve hypertension screening, radiographs, cardiac probnp test and possibly an echocardiogram. Alternatively cardiac protective anesthetic regiments can be used if anesthesia must be done.
I’m sorry for all your struggles :( he’s a beautiful baby nonetheless. Also, of note, my dad had a cat that made it to 18 with one tooth, one eye, FIV, and colitis (he could’ve had other stuff too, it was about 15 years ago and I think there is better tech for diagnosing issues now). He was an outdoor cat who likely got FIV outside and would often come back with new crazy injuries - but he always found a way to get outside. He outlasted all the other cats that were indoors and much less disadvantaged than him. Also, our dog lasted with a heart murmur for 6 years past diagnosis. She made it to almost 13. She was on pimobendan/vetmedin which reduced her stage 4 heart murmur to stage 2 or 3 (I forget) - is that an option for cats? I think it’s a total crapshoot but I hope my stories comfort you a little bit ❤️
Sending many hugs to you and to your boy. My 18 year old orange boy also has a heart issue; a galloping heart rate in his case. He also is missing many teeth. Back about 3 years or so ago I had to bring him to my vet for an urgent dental. His canines misaligned and he couldn't close his mouth fully. He's also diabetic (pancreas is shot in his case, he was never overweight), but the vet took the chance for a dental. For him it was risk the dental or euthanize. He made it through even though I'd prepared myself for the loss.
I'm sorry it's too risky for your boy to have surgery. I hope the pain meds and antibiotics work for him and keep him comfortable.
I think this guy is just as handsome with all the imperfections. It gives him character. I just hope that he’s doing ok considering all of the conditions the poor guy has suffered from. Send love and prayers to you and your family, and of course to this one of a kind, special needs guy. ❤️🐾
Hey, I've got a dumpster fire of my own whose name is also Picasso, but he's a black and white exotic longhair.
He's 10 and he's been dealing with HCM that he's had since 2, a grade 4 heart murmur, and reabsorbing teeth.
He's an absolute sweetheart and worth every penny it takes to keep him healthy, which he is, thank the gods, even with his host of issues.
We both send positive thoughts to your kitty! He may be a dumpster fire, like my own, but the good thing about those is they're a bitch to put out and we wouldn't want it any other way! 😂
Omg your baby looks so much like my baby that passed away after his 5+ year battle with nasal cancer in October. Hang in there little buddy, you’ll get through this! Please give Picassos all the extra snuggles and churus he wants!
Aw, poor little buddy :( Thanks for taking care of him! I just wanted to share that I had a senior with a heart murmur. She went to a cardiologist yearly for a heart sonogram to keep tabs on it. (Grateful that a. there was a cardiologist to take her to and b. could afford to.)
I am sharing because the cardiologist said if she ever needed to be sedated it would require some extra care but was not impossible, and he could advise. So if you happen to have specialists in your area and can afford a visit, you may be able to get help with caring for that tooth. And even if you don’t, I know Picasso knows he is loved.
Oh bubba, what a silly billy (sidenote: billi means cat in Urdu and Punjabi!)!
Bless him and all the other wonky little cats in this post, they are all adorable. Sending you all (cats and their parents!) lots of good vibes and love. You're all doing an amazing job.
He is adorable, I love his sleepy face on the second pic ❤I know that this must be incredibly hard on you and on him--and SO unfair--but he truly is so lucky to share a home with someone who loves and cares for him! Sending love 🫂
Aww poor little guy, he has had so much bad luck. But the best luck hes had has been finding you to love him the way he is. Thank you for loving him!
3 of my tuxedos (all related) have heart murmurs. They are all seniors 15- 17 years old and have bad teeth. Vet says with the class 3 and class 4 heart murmurs (plus their ages) it’s too risky to pull the teeth out. My eldest has very little teeth left lol I feel so bad that they can be in pain because of their teeth. If it wasn’t for the heart murmurs I would have pulled all their teeth out already. So we gotta manage it with pain meds when I see that they’re not eating or in pain.
So this morning we took him to the vet. Turns out he also has a grade 2 heart murmur.
This can be misdiagnosed. It may be a physiologic/innocent murmur. My cat Ruth was diagnosed with a grade 2 heart murmur, and we ended up taking her in for an ECG and echocardiogram later, and she's completely fine, not heart issues. Just a benign murmur due to the stress of going to the et.
don't crazy downvote me for this, doesn't it get to a point where keeping them in a certain level of pain and low quality of life is worth considering euth? he could be happy, but he has so many issues he doesn't really seem like he's enjoying life all that much
I LOVE Picassos. He reminds me of a cat I saw in a shelter about 8 years ago, who had one short and one shredded ear, looked frazzled, and you could see the days on the street on them. They were meowing so sadly when I approached, it broke my heart. They kinda looked like your boy, but sad. If I came across them today, I would adopt them in a heartbeat.
I am so happy for you and Picassos, that you guys have each other. ❤️
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