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From: "Phil P." <phil@maxshouse.com>

Thanks again, Phil. We really appreciate your help.
I trimmed down some of the report to cut back the file size.
But all that I cut was blank page, fax headers, Tufts header,
and addresses. You should have recieved 2 pages in
separate e-mails of 1 page each.

E-mail 1:
Page 1 starts with an identifying header that I added,
"TK's Echocardiogram Report pg 1 of 2"
and contains History, Physical, Echo (with scales, dimensions,
and description),and ends with a line followed by
"John E,Rush DVM, MS,Dip ACVIM Cardiology, ACVECC"

E-mail 2:

Page 2 starts with "Tk's Echocardiogram Report pg 2 of 2"
The data starts with Weight (and a bunch of dimensions
that I don't understand). then Doppler, Miscellaneous,
Assessment, Recommend.

If you recieved all that, then you've got the entire report that
was Faxed to TK's regular vet.
If not, please let me know what you're missing and I'll re-send
it.

Well, that's some good news about a bad situation.
But it's the "WHY?" that keeps eating at me.
MY understanding is that the heart takes in blood on the
right side, pumps it through the lungs and back to the left
side of the heart which then pumps it through the arteries,
veins, etc.
My medical knowledge is somewhat limited, but as an
engineer, I do know pumps, and fluid flow through pipes.
Your comment about "high left ventricular filling pressure"
is interesting. I'm assuming that you're saying that the
left ventricle may be forced to increase pressure to a
higher than normal level. If so, that says to me that there
could be a restriction in the downstream "piping"
system.
One thing that jumps out at me is TK's roundworm problem.
I've read that they can move through the circulatory system
and get into the lungs and liver. Could this have possibly
caused a restriction and forced the heart to work harder
at a higher pressure? He was wormed in the Spring of
'04 and subsequently tested negative. But this Spring he
tested positive, again, and was wormed last month. The
vet suggested a "chronic roundworm" problem may
exist since he's an indoor cat. Which means the worms
have probably been in his system for the past year.
The vet said that "Revolution" might clear up the
roundworm problem if it reappears. But that was before
the HCM diagnosis so I don't know if we could use it
on him, now.
Six months earlier there was NO trace of a heart murmur.
I know he could have been developing HCM prior to
that and the murmur didn't appear until the HCM had
developed to a certain point. But to go from no trace
of a murmur to a level 3 in 6 months seems awfully
quick.
Another thing that I'll throw out as info. is that fact that
TK has some powerful "kitty breath". He's been checked
a couple of times for mouth, tooth, throat, infections and
looks fine. And while NO cat that I've ever met has
minty fresh breath, his seems a little on the strong side.
Something else that just came to me as I'm writing
this. We had a problem with our heating system
this winter where the boiler got clogged with soot
and started forcing fumes into the basement. We have
a CO detector in the basement and it never read
anything other that "0" until the day the boiler clogged
and I had a guy in to clean and re-tune it within
hours of noticing the smell and a slight reading on
the CO meter. But there could possibly have been
very small, undetectable, amounts of of CO getting
into the house and basement for several months and
TK has a favorite chair that he sleeps on in the basement.
Could the HCM possibly be connected to trace
amounts of CO in the air over several months?

Well, we THINK he's young. He appeared in our backyard
in the early fall of '03, looking small, thin, and hungry. So we put some
food out for him and he kept coming back every day or 2 and
it wasn't until the end of Nov. when he started to trust us. We
thought he was female for a few months..then we notice that
he seemed to have suddenly grown balls around the beginning
of Dec. '03. Based on that, we're guessing that he was born
in the spring of '03 and someone dumped him at the golf
course down the road (sadly, a favorite dumping ground for
unwanted pets) sometime around the middle or end of summer.
But we really know nothing about his heritage. He may have
been a stray, or a feral, or just another piece of refuse that
some a.shole dumped. But we do know that he's got a lot
of "wild" instincts and behaviors.

You've been VERY helpful. I have a MUCH better feel
for what I'm dealing with, here, thanks to you. You've given
me a lot of insight and information, and one tiny bit of
that information may turn out to be a crucial element in
helping TK have a longer and better life. But no matter
how things turn out, I will always appreciate your concern
and the time you've taken to help.
You're one of "the good ones", Phil.