![]() Stoner explained it and all of the different hands that were going to be involved, we knew that if Whiskey was going to have a chance of success, we were in the right place,” Chris said. When the SATH team suggested a rare procedure that could be performed in a manner they had never done before, but that had the potential to greatly improve Whiskey’s lifespan and quality of life, the Hartnetts decided to go for it. “When those chambers of the heart max out on capacity for what they can hold, blood can back up to the level of the lungs and can actually put fluid within the lungs, causing breathing difficulties,” Stoner said.ĭespite looking at a very grim situation, Whiskey’s owners refused to give up hope. The abnormal blood flow through the hole was also causing the loud murmur. This separate blood flow that was only going between the lungs and heart, combined with the malfunctioning valve, was filling the left half of Whiskey’s heart with extra blood and causing it to swell. While all of the blood in Whiskey’s heart should have been circulating throughout his entire body, some of it was instead only going from the right side of the heart to the lungs and then to the left side of the heart and straight through the hole to the right side again in the wrong direction. “Those two problems together led him to have severe heart enlargement at a very young age and early onset congestive heart failure,” Stoner said. This hole wasn’t the only problem with Whiskey’s heart - he also had mitral valve dysplasia, meaning the valve on the left side of his heart was formed abnormally, could not open or close correctly, and was leaking significantly. “We see this fairly commonly in cats, but the thing about Whiskey’s that was so significant was the size of it - it took up a huge chunk of his heart wall.” “Whiskey had a ventricular septal defect, which is a hole in the wall between the two chambers of the heart that allowed blood to flow from one side to the other it shouldn’t normally do this,” Stoner said. Ashley Saunders found that what was causing the heart murmur was much worse than expected. “The louder the heart murmur is, the more likely it is to be pathologic (diseased) or something else significant, and Whiskey’s murmur was truthfully about as loud as it could get.”Īfter a series of tests with ultrasound and chest X-rays to look at Whiskey’s heart, Stoner and VMBS professor and cardiologist Dr. ![]() Caitlin Stoner, a former SATH cardiology resident. ![]() “Whiskey’s heart murmur was so loud that his actual chest wall vibrated with it,” said Dr. ![]() Their local veterinarian discovered a heart murmur and suggested the couple take Whiskey to the SATH’s Cardiology Service. Taking the kitten home with them, they quickly fell in love with Whiskey, named for his golden color, and decided to keep him.īut trouble struck in September when Whiskey began acting sick and vomiting repeatedly. The couple spotted a tiny orange tabby, about 5 weeks old, running out of the forest, straight toward them although they looked for a long time, they were never able to find its mother, or any other cats, nearby. “We were just walking past an empty lot and I’m chattering away, and, all of a sudden, Chris stopped and said he heard a little meow,” Vicki said. Whiskey entered Vicki and Chris Hartnett’s lives in June 2020 on one of their daily walks near a heavily wooded area in their hometown of Spring. Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical SciencesĪt only 5 months old, Whiskey the kitten was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a condition with potentially deadly consequences.īut thanks to committed owners and a talented veterinary team willing to try a procedure in a way never done at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ (VMBS) Small Animal Teaching Hospital (SATH), Whiskey got a second chance at life.
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