May I share with you the story of our itty bitty cat with the too big heart? Vanilla Bean is a sable Burmese and typically people-oriented, lappy and affectionate. She is very special — as we all think our cat is. As a tiny kitten she brought a teddy bear three times her size up 15 stairs and through the house to present to us in the kitchen. Now, at 12 and a half she has stuffed toys that go everywhere with her.
In 2014, Beanie was about to celebrate her first birthday. I remember the moment clearly—she was sitting beside my husband Devlin (he is her favorite and it shows) and I noticed her breathing was strange. I went online immediately and there was no good reason. Our local vet referred us to a veterinary cardiologist, Dr. Kristin MacDonald, DVM, Ph.D., DACVIM. She diagnosed a congenital heart defect — an extra membrane in the upper chamber with a hole big enough to allow blood to pass through to the mitro valve when she was tiny. But as she grew it did not allow sufficient blood flow. The technical term is cor triatriatum sinister. She was in heart failure.
Other than medication management, the prognosis was not good — she had maybe months to live. Dr. MacDonald said a surgical option was very risky and would have required special equipment for her tiny heart and blood vessels and a highly trained staff. We started the meds she needed to keep her heart going and they were so hard to give her. I remember crying in frustration trying to figure out the best way knowing she needed them to keep her alive, and she was smart and canny and made it hard to catch her and fought the pills when we did.
I couldn’t accept that we really had no solution and went online again and found a veterinary journal report on a procedure that had saved a cat in North Carolina and took it to Dr. MacDonald. As luck would have it, she had done her cardiology residency at UC Davis and knew of Dr. Josh Stern and his work and that he was now with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. And, she would see him at an annual cardiology conference coming up the next week. Happy coincidences for certain.
There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for Vanilla Bean — she was such a special little kitten, funny and affectionate and smart. When Dr. Stern called us, we agreed immediately to his offer to examine her and see if she might be a candidate. He did and determined the surgery could be done but at very high risk, of course. We felt we had the only possible solution and trusted in Dr. Stern and his cardiology team at UC Davis. In early October of 2014, Vanilla Bean was admitted for surgery.
Her defect is as rare in cats. Dr. Stern had enlisted assistance from pediatric cardiologists from UC Davis Health for their instruments and for their expertise. Those doctors volunteered their time. Dr. Stern’s approach was to insert what he described as a cutting balloon into the heart and into that small hole, nicking at it to make it possible to stretch the opening with bigger and bigger balloons. He first performed it on the kitty I read about in his vet journal report. A second cat was prepped for the procedure but they discovered a massive infection in the pericardium and knew the cat would not survive the infection. So Vanilla Bean is second to go through the whole procedure.
On surgery day Dr. Stern explained all of the possible problems he might face. Sure enough she presented him with a few of them. Beanie’s heart chamber was engorged with blood and she lost a lot of it, requiring several transfusions. Two of the biggies.
But our girl pulled through the surgery and was scheduled to come home the next day. We got a call that morning and her kidney count had spiked, showing signs of injury, probably a result of the blood loss. She spent several days in ICU at the UC Davis William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. We drove the almost 2 hour trip several times to visit before we were finally able to bring her home, all of us happy and relieved.
She was her playful happy self again and within months was off all her meds. We still to take her to UC for checkups every six months or so. Her celebrity status continues given the rare surgery she had. Not to mention how cute she is. Also, her surgery is part of the curriculum at UC and other veterinary schools, so the students and interns are always thrilled to meet her. We cherish our famous little girl and are eternally grateful to the cardiology team at UC Davis.
During Covid we had a longer break between visits. And when we were able to take her back, her tests showed signs of heart changes and early failure and she went back on medications. We were able to bring her out of failure and she seems totally unaware that she has an oddly shaped heart. The UC cardiology team monitors her heart and kidney function and adjusts her meds as needed. We’ve learned to crush the bigger pills and put them in capsules with the portions of other meds which cuts down the number of pills she has to swallow. They go down pretty smoothly with a little butter.
So far we’ve been able to bring and keep her out of heart failure and she is still our very much-loved and snuggly cat. As with anyone with a senior animal, we know we could lose her — especially with her constantly changing heart. But so far she is funny and energetic and playful. And we will continue to do everything we can to give her a happy, comfortable life.
- Linda and Devlin
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Read more detail about the rare lifesaving surgery that Vanilla Bean had in this 2015 article.
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