Boy, I have no experience with it at all. This is worrisome. I would be
awful leary too about starting the new meds and being gone, but you really
have to get him on that. Lasix really does work. Purrs for a good outcome :(

.

Prrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I hope all will soon be well with Hobbes, Julie.

Melissa

We're still purring for Hobbes.

I'll speak here both from human medicine and personal experience with
furosemide (Lasix). First, furosemide is one of the more potent
diuretics. The trade name, rumor has it, is derived from "last for six
[hours]."

I take it primarily to deal with the water-retaining side effects of
some other blood pressure drugs. While I used to take 80mg/day, after a
change of drugs, I take 20mg.  That's a moderately low dose for a large
human.

If I have to give a seminar or be in a meeting, I have to schedule
taking the Lasix until later.  It hits me in 30-45 minutes, and,
depending on my water buildup, may mean I have to rush to _my_ litter
box every 10 minutes or so, for several hours.

The major concern with this class of diuretics is that it may lower the
potassium level and/or dehydrate. That usually would take more than a
couple of days. I have to take supplemental potassium tablets, but I
have some other reasons why I lose potassium. With humans, many people
can control the potassium loss by eating oranges or bananas, which are
rich in potassium.  That doesn't sound like plausible cat food.

Let me discuss generally the disease of congestive heart failure. First,
let me clarify some medical terms that are more scary than they should
be. For example, "congestive heart failure (CHF)" doesn't mean the heart
has completely failed, but that it is not pumping as efficiently as it
should, and the efficiency has dropped to a level that needs to be
treated. If you think this term is strange, it's amusing to know that
people regularly survive "Sudden cardiac death syndrome."

Diuretics like furosemide are a rational starting point for treating
CHF, in that they can cause quick loss of fluid retained over a longer
period that makes it difficult to examine. It sounds like waiting for
the sonogram until Hobbes has had a few days of Lasix is a very sensible
idea to get the most information from the sonogram.

The next group of drugs prescribed after diuretics, in humans, are
things that stimulate the heart's muscle. The broad class is called
positive inotropic agents, and the likely drug will be something from
the digitalis family, probably digoxin.  For those of you interested in
herbal medicine, digitalis comes from the foxglove plant, and is one of
the oldest effective drugs used in medicine. Digoxin is made
synthetically so the concentration is constant.

In humans, there is a lot of new research suggesting that a class of
drugs generally called beta-blockers (beta-adrenergic agonists) are very
effective in CHF.  Some of the properties of these drugs, at first, make
them a counterintuitive choice, but their benefit seems to be from
relaxing the blood vessels and reducing resistance to the pumping of the
heart.

Again in humans, CHF can be due to high blood pressure and possibly
obesity.  Beta-blockers and some diuretics (Lasix not being one of the
more potent one for this purpose) reduce blood pressure. There are other
classes of drugs that can be added.

In the sonogram, the heart may be enlarged, much as any muscle does that
has to work hard.  One of the goals of therapy is to return it to normal
size -- no, bulging heart muscles are NOT a good thing.  With drug
therapy, I was able to get mine completely back to normal.  My
enlargement was due to hypertension; I never got into CHF although some
numbers were trending that way (thinks briefly of how one would do a
MUGA test on a cat, which, with humans, involves lying on your back and
pedaling bicycle pedals in the air while getting a radioactive chest
scan. Yeah, right.)

Purrs and prayers for Hobbes to come through this okay. I am glad you
caught this early. I know a lot of humans use Lasix. He will be
visiting the litter pan frequently. Ask your vet about the loss of
potassium. I am on a mild diuretic and have to eat a banana every day.
I don't suppose Hobbes likes bananas? ;-)

--
CATherine

I know it's useless to say don't worry, but try not to anyway. As far
as the lasix goes, can't really help much cats taking it. I used to be
an Army Pharmacy NCO so am familiar with it's use in hoomins. It's an
older generation diuretic, and very effective, so I'd suggest telling
the cat-sitter to make sure there's lots of fresh water available to
avoid dehydration,

Purrs for the Hobbes-man continue
Sam, closely supervised by Mistletoe

Lots of purrs and best wishes for everything to go really well with Hobbes,