So some wild stuff happened since the initial surgery date last Monday. 5 minutes before we were about to leave for her surgery, the vet called us and let us know the surgeon had encountered an emergency and we had to reschedule to Friday (today as of writing this journal). This morning I brought her in, handed her off to the nice vet, and hoped for the best.
About an hour later, the vet gave me a call, way too early for the surgery to be finished. They let me know that they did this heartscan test, and my cat has small signs of a heart murmur. It could have been a false positive, but the problem is that if she does have a heart problem, traditional anesthesia could worsen it and cause her to go into cardiac arrest. The problem is that if we wanted to pause the surgery to get my cat's heart condition reviewed properly by another specialist, we'd have to put the surgery on hold for likely months. This is especially problematic since she has teeth issues that can actually worsen any cardiac issues that she potentially has, meaning that taking the time to the heart doctor has just as much risk of shortening her life.
I talked it over with the surgeon. He told me that if he had to rate it, my cat would have a roughly 25% chance of encountering a cardiac episode during the surgery. He did affirm that they do have special medications and techniques that they use for cats with cardiac issues, and he felt confident that a cardiologist would simply send my cat back for the surgery, advising that they use those assets. Furthermore, my cat's bloodwork and fecal work showed her to be very healthy for her age, and had no signs of heart-related issues at all, indicating that even if she had a slight heart murmur, it would likely be nowhere near as risky as operating on a cat with heart disease.
Unfortunately I am no cat biologist, so I have to retain a certain level of confidence with our vet. I also had to consider that even if we delayed the surgery, my cat is in a great amount of pain. She can only eat certain foods, and we basically have to give her pain meds daily so she can sleep. If she couldn't get the surgery to fix her teeth, I would need to discuss humanely putting her down. Struggling so hard just to eat is simply too cruel to force on such a sweet creature. Similarly, I agreed with the doctor that pursuing the cardiologist was not going to be a substantially safer alternative. In fact, I honestly think that whole ordeal would have caused my cat more damage through the stress of more labs, scary doctor visits, and another surgery date.
So I decided we're going to take the risk. They're treating her as if she has a heart problem and are applying all the safest protocols afforded to them. If she doesn't have a heart problem, there will be absolutely no issues and she'll come home today. If she happens to pass during the operation, I will try and take comfort knowing that she lived a long happy life of 14 years, and was able to pass peacefully in her sleep. I wish there was more that I could do to affirm the state of her heart, but I truly think this is the path of least suffering for her, regardless of if she survives or not.
| Viewed: |
96 times |
| Added: |
1 week, 2 days ago
05 Sep 2025 21:59 CEST
|
|
|
