Been hoping for an update, and happy to hear he's still living his best life.
That's pretty encouraging news on the xarelto study. Fingers crossed that clot stays where it is.
I found myself just today counting the breaths per minute of both my cats, just as part of what is now my periodic habit as their caregiver. After 18 months with my HCM guy, it pretty much became second nature.
Anyway, thoughts with you and Marmalade as you navigate onward. He's lucky you are willing to take all that on. Not every cat or cat owner is up for it, so kudos and best wishes!
Xarelto is not cheap, unfortunately. Everything else he's on, through Costco Pharmacy is pretty affordable. Same with the Pimobendan from Wedgewood Pharmacy.
When we started that medication, Xarelto was running us almost $10 per dose, starting out was 1/4 tab, 1 per day, 15 Tabs was around $350.00... A discount program from GoodRX brought that cost down (about $6 per dose) a little when we were charged by the cardiologist to increase dosage to 2x per day.
Canada Pharmacy has been a huge help with that medication. 30 tabs are running us around $160, now.
Canada Pharmacy even offers a generic version, 60 tabs for ~$200, but I didn't really trust the generic option. *shrugs
It's not always easy, as you well know, caring for our little ones. Learning to give him pills was a challenge, too. Half me learning, plus teaching him, and then having the confidence to do it. The confidence part is the key thing, though. They know if you are frightened!
Empty capsules are the way to go when confronted with a cocktail of medication. Everything fits into 2 capsules, except the Pimobendan... so he gets 3 pills, twice a day.
And yes, like you, now whenever the cats are napping I am watching their breathing. It's gotten to the point with Marmalade where I can just glance and tell if I need to do a breath count or not. Fortunately he seems to be staying pretty regularly right now at 30, which is sort of the max the vet wants to see. Our other cats are all much lower.
