Remember Bam Bam, my heart murmur foster? He was adopted by a rescue center volunteer who specializes in special-needs animals. She took him to Cornell for an echocardiogram/ultrasound last week. The decision to have further testing done was not made lightly; cats have to be anesthetized for the procedure and that in itself can be dangerous for heart murmur cats, and sometimes the tests reveal damage so extensive that there is not a lot that can be done for the animal, even with medication, and then you have to live with the knowledge that you've got a ticking time bomb for a pet. (Been there/done that, and it is NOT easy.) Bammer's adopter made the decision to go ahead with the testing, a decision which I fully supported, and guess what?
It turns out he may not be so special-needs after all! She reports:
"I just wanted to let you know what I found out at Bam Bam's appointment. He has a hole in his heart between the right and left ventricle that causes his heart murmur. This is allowing blood to flow directly from one side to the other instead of having to go through the whole heart system. She said that he will live a perfectly normal life! She said she wants to recheck him in a year just to see if the hole gets bigger, but other than that he is a healthy, happy kitty! The vet even said that it is the best news she's given in a long time."
Yaaaaaaay! Go ON with your bad self, little Bam!
5 comments:
those days are terrible....you sit and wait and never know what to expect. but what GREAT news!!
My daughter was born (41 years ago!) with that same problem, a vertical hole between the ventricles. The advice was to wait, because as she grows, as her heart muscle grows, the hole may actually close over on its own. It did; by her 18th month there was no murmur at all. We can hope for the same outcome for Bam Bam.
Grow Bam Bam, grow!
Random, yeah, waiting for test results is the WORST.
and ~~Silk, that is good news! I talked to Bam Bam's local vet yesterday, and she's going to be coordinating Bam's care with the Cornell vet. He's got a whole team pulling for him!
it is so nice to hear good news when you were expecting the worse. YAY!
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