Hello everyone,
First of all, sorry for my english, but I'm French.
I'm trying to gather as many testimonies as I can about my cat's disease and in French forum, I did not get much of answers.
Let me try to sum up what is happening to us.
Tigrou is an european cat of 13 years old (13 years that he is my companion). Everything started 1 month ago.
1. Around one month ago, Tigrou started to breathe with difficulty. As I was homeworking, I went straight to the vet who told me that tigrou has a heart tumor and went through a "tamponnade" : meaning that the tumor was leaking blood into the pericard ("kind of bag" circling the heart) and compressed the heart. He was really closed to death but he was tapped by the vet team and released to us with a questionmark when it will start again (could be few days, months, never).
2. Unfortunately, 4 days after, "tamponnade" again and he was howling in pain. Straight to the vet again. And the vet tapped him again and explained us that we do not have lots of options as he is filling with blood too quickly and we cannot tap him every 4 days. So either we go to pericardectomy (cut parts of the "bag" (pericard) around the heart to let the blood leak from times to times into the thorax either we stop here and let him go. Vet seemed by that time pretty confident about the surgery if the tumor is benign. From his point of view & experience (mainly with dogs as unfortunately, this kind of tumor is more common with dogs), Tigrou can still have years ahead of him with that surgery.
3. We decided for the surgery as we were not prepared to let him go. Surgery went well. But unfortunately (again), complication arrived as 5 days after surgery, Tigrou experienced again issues with breathing and we brought him back in the middle of the night to the vet (clinic is open H24). He was diagnosed with chylothorax as consequences of surgery (they tapped him around 300 ml). Medications were changed and switched to prednisolon to support him. New protocols also applied with vet control visit every 48 h. The 2 first visits (Wednesday/Friday) we saw that they still were some liquid thanks to the echography but not too much and manageable by Tigrou without tapping. Diuretic was also added
4. Sunday (1 week after last tap & 2 days after last control), again, difficulty of breathing. Vet again in urgency. Chylothorax again. Tapped again with 300 ml. At that time, treatment with prednisolon & anti-biotics were over the day before.
5. 48h after for the tapping, we went to the control visit and again he had too many liquid and was tapped for the 3rd time (for Chylothorax) with 300 ml. Vet recommanded to start again prednisolon with higher dose (as the increase of liquid coincided with the end of the prednisolon treatment). As during those times, I read a lot of studies / researches in French / English, I proposed also to start also rutine 3 times a day 300 mg (our cat was 8 kilos, now 6). I also tried to reduce the fat in his diet (not entirely as he was very weak due to the fact that all "fat energy" were leaking in his thorax). Our vet expressed clearly that returning with this treatment is his last option without other surgery.
6. Unfortunately (again, I know), one week after he has started again to show signs of disconfort and I know that tomorrow during the control visit, he will have to be tapped.
And now, I'm lost. It seems that we are losing the battle. My little cat is fighting hard (still doing his walk in the garden, still playing if stimulated, still eating) and except from chylothorax, he has recovered well from the pericardiectomy. I know that in the long run, he is condemned by his heart tumor and we do not think that we will put him under surgery again. I love him too much to make him experience pain again, especially when the chance of success is very low.
I'm looking for ideas how to fight this disease. What could I have missed ? I read lots of articles, testimony about idiopathic chylothorax but did not find anything of chylothorax as result of pericardiectomy. Did it change something that it is after surgery ? Did you also experiment the same after surgery and manage to overcome this disease ?
This past few month has been hell for me : as we are alternating between hope & despair every 5 days. I'm crying every day to be so powerless. I'm waking up several times during night to check if he is breathing correctly. I really do not know how to help him, so any thought will be welcomed.
Thank you for those who would have read my long thread.
First of all, sorry for my english, but I'm French.
I'm trying to gather as many testimonies as I can about my cat's disease and in French forum, I did not get much of answers.
Let me try to sum up what is happening to us.
Tigrou is an european cat of 13 years old (13 years that he is my companion). Everything started 1 month ago.
1. Around one month ago, Tigrou started to breathe with difficulty. As I was homeworking, I went straight to the vet who told me that tigrou has a heart tumor and went through a "tamponnade" : meaning that the tumor was leaking blood into the pericard ("kind of bag" circling the heart) and compressed the heart. He was really closed to death but he was tapped by the vet team and released to us with a questionmark when it will start again (could be few days, months, never).
2. Unfortunately, 4 days after, "tamponnade" again and he was howling in pain. Straight to the vet again. And the vet tapped him again and explained us that we do not have lots of options as he is filling with blood too quickly and we cannot tap him every 4 days. So either we go to pericardectomy (cut parts of the "bag" (pericard) around the heart to let the blood leak from times to times into the thorax either we stop here and let him go. Vet seemed by that time pretty confident about the surgery if the tumor is benign. From his point of view & experience (mainly with dogs as unfortunately, this kind of tumor is more common with dogs), Tigrou can still have years ahead of him with that surgery.
3. We decided for the surgery as we were not prepared to let him go. Surgery went well. But unfortunately (again), complication arrived as 5 days after surgery, Tigrou experienced again issues with breathing and we brought him back in the middle of the night to the vet (clinic is open H24). He was diagnosed with chylothorax as consequences of surgery (they tapped him around 300 ml). Medications were changed and switched to prednisolon to support him. New protocols also applied with vet control visit every 48 h. The 2 first visits (Wednesday/Friday) we saw that they still were some liquid thanks to the echography but not too much and manageable by Tigrou without tapping. Diuretic was also added
4. Sunday (1 week after last tap & 2 days after last control), again, difficulty of breathing. Vet again in urgency. Chylothorax again. Tapped again with 300 ml. At that time, treatment with prednisolon & anti-biotics were over the day before.
5. 48h after for the tapping, we went to the control visit and again he had too many liquid and was tapped for the 3rd time (for Chylothorax) with 300 ml. Vet recommanded to start again prednisolon with higher dose (as the increase of liquid coincided with the end of the prednisolon treatment). As during those times, I read a lot of studies / researches in French / English, I proposed also to start also rutine 3 times a day 300 mg (our cat was 8 kilos, now 6). I also tried to reduce the fat in his diet (not entirely as he was very weak due to the fact that all "fat energy" were leaking in his thorax). Our vet expressed clearly that returning with this treatment is his last option without other surgery.
6. Unfortunately (again, I know), one week after he has started again to show signs of disconfort and I know that tomorrow during the control visit, he will have to be tapped.
And now, I'm lost. It seems that we are losing the battle. My little cat is fighting hard (still doing his walk in the garden, still playing if stimulated, still eating) and except from chylothorax, he has recovered well from the pericardiectomy. I know that in the long run, he is condemned by his heart tumor and we do not think that we will put him under surgery again. I love him too much to make him experience pain again, especially when the chance of success is very low.
I'm looking for ideas how to fight this disease. What could I have missed ? I read lots of articles, testimony about idiopathic chylothorax but did not find anything of chylothorax as result of pericardiectomy. Did it change something that it is after surgery ? Did you also experiment the same after surgery and manage to overcome this disease ?
This past few month has been hell for me : as we are alternating between hope & despair every 5 days. I'm crying every day to be so powerless. I'm waking up several times during night to check if he is breathing correctly. I really do not know how to help him, so any thought will be welcomed.
Thank you for those who would have read my long thread.