Confusion

Hello, I posted a few months ago about my cat who died from heart disease. I have just read the report that the cardiologist wrote as I had never seen it and am confused as it says this : Although the somewhat haphazard appearance to the myocardium could imply some sort of myositis (eg post-viral etc) I feel this is almost certainly an advanced and severe cardiomyopathy phenotype. What does this mean? I am so confused as to how she became ill and have researched cardiomyopathy phenotypes and don't understand. I thought it meant it could be inherited but then it said something about environmental factors such as stress and nutrition. My cat was stressed and anxious as my other cat was aggressive towards her for most of her life, I am scared that this caused her heart disease. Please could you explain in simple terms what cardiomyopathy phenotype means? I have always been bad at science so am extremely confused by what this. I just want to know if it means it could have been inherited or not. Thank you.

Hello - I'm not sure that anything surprising is being said here.  The phenotype is what is seen in real life (on examination of the patient); it is a combination of genetics interacting with the environment.

Thank you for your response, but all I meant was, does that mean she inherited her heart disease from her parents? Or that what I fed her or her being anxious etc caused her heart disease?

I just want to know if I caused her heart disease or not, or if she was destined to have it.

I think they are simply saying that there are lots of factors that came together to cause these problems.  Many cats with different genetics living your cats' life might not have had any such problem.  Many cats with the same genetics living a different life might not have had this problem.  Most likely, nobody really knows statistically, what % combination is true for your cat.  There is a natural, well established path of grief that people go through (in order to avoid accepting that a death has happened), wherein we tell ourselves 'it wouldn't have happened, if it hadn't been for Y,' and look for someone (usually ourselves) to blame. In my experience, this approach is unhelpful.  The RALPH site, or counsellors who are experienced with grief, may help you to find an approach that works better for you.  Also that it's ok to feel bad when someone dies, and to subsequently accept this terrible, unthinkable thing and feel good again - even if that feels lightyears away at the moment.  I hope that you find someone who can help you through this process, but I cannot give you the statistics that you seek because I do not think that it's possible to know them.  Your cat was undoubtedly imperfectly perfect - and all their life events made them that way.  Wishing you all the best.