Our Sweet Ocicat Pia and Feline Heart Disease

One day, everything is hunky dory and the next day, whammo, life throws a curve ball aimed at the heart; knocks the wind out of you. I was sitting at my computer yesterday late afternoon answering emails from buyer’s agents and uploading new listing photos when I heard my husband call my name from the other end of the house. His voice was interspersed with the sounds of our Ocicat, Pia, crying. I thought he had captured Pia and was ready for me to give her a daily Pepcid pill, so I grabbed the pill plunger and dashed toward my husband’s office. She tends to disappear around pill giving time.

Instead, I found my husband clutching Pia with an alarmed look on his face. He said she somehow broke a leg. Maybe fell off the back of his desk.

She had crawled out from under it, pulling herself on her two front paws, whimpering, legs dragging behind her.

It took two of us to get her into the carrier; I called the vet to make an emergency appointment.

It wasn’t a broken leg. It was much worse. When my husband called to tell me it was much more serious, my mind could not grasp anything more serious than a broken leg. I had expected her to come home with a cast on her leg and wearing another cat collar. She was diagnosed with heart disease. A blood clot had formed in her heart, traveled to her leg and was blocking blood flow. The vet cut her toe nail into the quick and it did not bleed.

It’s commonly called saddle thrombus. Caused by feline heart disease.

The options were options but they weren’t really options. Just things that would prolong her pain and suffering and other options that had a slim chance of working. She had already survived two cancer surgeries. Pia was fussy, prissy, and her own way of doing things, thank you very much. Purrrrrr.

She was only 9.

Here is a video of Pia going crazy for Chicken treats. I believe I posted that link only yesterday in my blog. No idea what was coming for me that day. Who knew about feline heart disease?