Happy collapsed while I was walking her today. The vet thinks it’s her heart. Syncope, she called it. Happy fainted or collapsed, because not enough blood was getting to her brain.

We set off for just a little walk, down to the end of the block and back. We’d been walking 3 or 4 minutes when Happy fell over on her side. She looked ridged. I thought she was having a seizure. I scooped her up, ran to my truck and went straight to the vet. We were there in less than 10 minutes after it happened. She seemed disoriented on the way down, but conscious. She could sit up and stand, but not well.

The vet did a neuro exam, to rule out a seizure, and that result was OK. They kept her in the clinic for several hours, until closing time, for observation. Chest xray last week showed no fluid in her lungs, so she’s not in heart failure.

Happy had a smaller syncopal episode last night, though we didn’t know what it was. She was sleeping in a chair, started to stand up and fell over in the chair. My Mom called me, and I thought it was maybe just a pinched nerve or leg gone to sleep. She was better in a few minutes, but seemed restless, so my Dad slept on the floor with her.

Happy was diagnosed with bad mitral and tricuspid valves in December, at the time of the chicken bone crisis. But it wasn’t bad enough to start therapy. The vet is doubling her heat medicine from once to twice and day. And she’s having an ultrasound — or maybe it’s an echo cardiogram — in the morning. Mean time, she’s at home and resting.

I’m worried. Happy’s my widdle buddy. Prayers would be appreciated.