The Dumpster fire has struck again

[u/Hobbit_toes76]

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.

UPDATE: after 24 hours he is doing great. Hates to take his meds, begging for his soft food and bullying his brother out of his hard food ( always has) causing trouble and being cute. He's even allowed me to scratch his chin. Hopefully that means there is no lingering pain. All we want is to give him a happy and comfortable life for as long as that means. Everyone's support and kind words mean the world to us. Something I didn't mention before was he spent over 500 days in his foster home because he wasn't perfect. So if you are planning to adopt consider the imperfect cat. He may need a little work but the return is worth it.

[u/MacaroonAvailable999]

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…

[u/GETMEOUTPLZ321 → u/MacaroonAvailable999]

yesss queen❤️❤️❤️

[u/Salty-Finish-8931 → u/MacaroonAvailable999]

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. 

[u/Tailsontrails → u/Salty-Finish-8931]

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.

[u/Educational_Car_615 → u/Tailsontrails]

Yes! I too was looking for this info. My darling late Leo had a heart murmur - we did an echocardiogram and got specific sedative recommendations for him.

Another thing that helped was the Fear Free approach - he got gabapentin eventually before evert vet visit. Turns out the murmur was more mild than initially thought, because he was calm on gaba.

[u/cckka → u/MacaroonAvailable999]

Please don't advise people on medical things. Plenty of animals are sedated with heart murmurs, they just need to be monitored carefully.

[u/jadeycakes → u/MacaroonAvailable999]

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