Quote:
Originally Posted by jacquelinebabco  It's only been about a week and Abby has gone downhill so quickly. She had such an awful night last night. I just can bear to see her gasping for air and looking to me with these big brown eyes for help. I'm at work and can't stop the tears. I have a call into the vet to see if maybe we can adjust her lasix or just what we can do at this point. I can't watch her in so much distress and not be able to do anything. I keep praying that she will just go to sleep and not wake but this so seldom happens. I am just beside myself in grief and fear for the future. Please keep us in your prayers that I can make the right decisions for her. |
I wish I had seen your post sooner. One of my senior IGs, Opal, has mitral valve prolapse. Her right atrium is enlarged and her cardiac function is compromised.
In August, she didn't want to eat her breakfast and I noticed she was having trouble breathing. I took her right in, first thing in the morning and she had to stay at the vet's until the following evening in the oxygen cage. She had fluid in her lungs. My vet, an internist, told me that IV lasix is more effective then the oral meds. She was breathing fine by the time I got her. Also, her pulse ox was way down, in the 80's, which is really bad and had come up into the 90's by the time I got her.
Opal's dosage of lasix was also increased and she hasn't had another episode of fluid in her lungs since. My vet told me thatwe might even have to experiment with injectable lasix if the oral meds didn't work at home. Luckily, that isn't the case.
I was also told that if her respirations were above 30 per minute to get her back in or to an emergency vet ASAP. I wanted to stress that, very important.
Besides the lasix, Opal is also on enalipril, vetmedin and digoxin. The digoxin is for some irregular heartbeats she was having. I'd ask your vet about the vetmedin.
I hope Abby is doing better. I'll keep her in my thoughts. It is pretty scary to see them so sick.