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My 10 yr old cat became very sick last week. She was diagnosed with a serious & relatively rare heart disease: arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. She came home from the vet on Thurs night. Today is Sun. Her prognosis is not good, but it’s possible that her condition can be managed for a time with medication, lasix to reduce fluid & enalapril to lower blood pressure so her heart doesn’t have to work as hard. This is helping as her breathing seems ok, but she is not eating or drinking & of course is very lethargic. She drank some water on Thurs & maybe on Fri, but I have not seen her drink anything since then (today is Sun). She ate a very, very small amount on Thurs & Fri, but has not eaten since. I’ve tried a variety of wet foods, tuna, baby food. She may be dying and there may be no option other than putting her to sleep, but I know there is absolutely no hope if she doesn’t get any food or water on top of a weak heart. Any tips for getting her to eat or drink? Thanks.
I should have mentioned that I am in contact with the vet, and there is nothing they can do except force feed her, which think would be too stressful. They will not give her fluids because a problem with heart disease is accumulation of fluids in the chest cavity. That’s why she is on the lasix, which is a diuretic to slightly dehyrdrate her. Which wouldn’t be a problem if she was still drinking. I’m hoping someone has been successful at getting a sick cat to eat and drink and can share how they did it.
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