Feline Chylothorax

[brooklyndonut]

Hi Pouncymom,

Thank you so much for your reply. I'm so happy for you and your cat, and I hope we'll be as lucky. After doing some research and talking to a pet store that specializes in health foods, I found out the food I was giving Donut was already low-fat, so now I'm trying to mix in a bit of the lowest fat raw foods to get lower the processed element of her food. I also just gave her her first batch of food mixed with Rutin (the powder from the capsules mixed with water). I have 3 other herbs that were recommended by a commenter who treated her cat successfully with Rutin + herbs. She noted that based on other commenters' feedback, a Rutin-only treatment seemed to have limited effected (20-25% success rate). So fingers crossed this works and Donut will be able to get better. 

I'd still love to receive your vet's info just in case I have questions. I unfortunately don't really have a regular vet as I just moved back to New York after 4 years in Los Angeles. The vets I've taken her to seem alright but I'd be more than happy to take her to vets either with more experience or confidence in treating her. I'm glad your regular vet didn't just give up.  

Thank you again!

 

[pouncymom]

Hi Brooklyndonut!

I try not to let Pouncy's fat per serving not to go above 8% for dry food. For wet food, I give him Fancy Feast Broths, which are really low fat. Like .05%. I never used the rutin as the RX diet seemed to work so quickly. It is a strange affliction for cats but I think it can be managed. Unfortunately for Pouncival, that is not his only issue. He has severe asthma as well. 

Good luck with your little Donut. I think you are on the right track and she will improve with a low fat diet. I hope the rutin helps as well.

 

[bekerl01]

Hello everyone!

I have a small male kitten 4 mos who has been diagnosed with PE, Thoracenthesis was performed and Chyle liquid was present. My vet told me to give him Rutin. Since I only buy supplements from Solgar its available as 500mg. I crush it and try to divide it as best as possible (the suggested dos is 50-100mg per kg) my kissa is 2.8 lbs so minimum 60 mg I administer. I had no idea that he will be taking this for the rest of his life. since starting rutin I can say his SOB has decreased in presence. we used to take him every wk to get drain because this stuff with come back so frequent. but with Rutin its once a month. I wanted to know other than Rutin what else can I do to improve his quality of life?

 

[pouncymom]

I have a cat diagnosed with chylothorax. The vet put him on a very low fat diet. He has asthma as well, and is on prednisone and a bronchial dilator as well as minocycline which helps with inflammation. He has never been on rutin. He has done very well on the low fat diet with the drug protocol. No fluid for over a year. I hope this helps you.

 

[Kristinamb]

Hello all, my baby girl was turning 4 in September. a couple weeks ago she started breathing differently, we thought maybe it was her diet so we changed diets and she loved the new food! She was eating normally and acting somewhat her self. Finally about 2 weeks ago she was having a very hard time breathing after being chased by our dog. I knew right away something wasn't right, I made an appointment with the vet, earliest I could get her in was Friday that just passed. Vet said she had lymphatic fluid built up in her lungs, he said they could perform surgery to find the leaking lymph duct but the procedure is rarely ever done and not great prognosis, the other option was to drain her lungs and to a post x ray in a week and see if the fluids back. According to him majority of cases the fluid is back within 24 -72 hours. He told me to take her home and spend as much quality time with her as he only gave her 1-2 weeks to live.. the next morning she was in the bath tub barely able to breathe, we let her outside as she was an outdoor cat, she went under our camper trailer and less than an hour later she had passed away. This same morning I was on the phone with the vet to schedule her in for that Monday to have her lungs drained..I feel like I should have brought her to the vet sooner as maybe there could have been something that could have prevented this but the vet said there's no known cause of this and it wouldn't have made a difference.. i will always feel guilty for this, so please if you ever notice your cat breathing abnormally take them asap to your vet and hopefully it'll make a difference!

 

[artbaron]

My first piece of advice..............only listen to your vet and do your own extensive research because mine reveal a high number of sad stories where people followed poor/maybe good advise from vets who seem to have a high percentage of the answer "there's nothing we can do" > I changed vets twice and my cat that had "poor prognosis" is healthier now than he was three months ago. I have read and researched (thank my history degree) hundreds of hours and my conclusions are based on patterns that I see forming.
The person who said your lucky the vet did not straight away say FIP...Yup I was not lucky but told them to euthanize their vet practice after $1500 spent and more knowledge of what was wrong than they seem to have. First Plurel Effusion or chylothorax is tricky because as you read here there seems to be a bunch of causes to which I have a theory ,which only strengthened from these great threads. One person mentioned the pulled nails and another bad breath , and another teeth removed. Prior to landing here I had asked my vet do you think it is possible his mouth problems are causing this....answer " I don't think so but we are at a loss" . So what does teeth , nails, cancer , and heart disease possibly have in common that would cause an over active immune system and leaky blood vessels?
Infection! It was not the anasetic and the vets may not have done anything wrong, I highly suspect all these issues cause the immune response as the animal is in the last stages of fighting for their lives. I have been having the cat tapped for months and there has been times he looked so bad I found my resolve to fight for him wavering. Then using various immune boosters I would bring him back...to the astonishment of friends and the vet. Early on I tried a supplement called protandim which had a lot of tumeric and for a week I completely reversed his tummy filling up only to have it inexplicably stop. THe courier is here with the Rutin and I will post results soon.

 

[KBSC]

I am looking for other cat owners who have had a cat survive or die from Feline Chylothorax. Please e-mail me your story.

My friend has a cat that was just diagnosed with it and he would like to read other survivor stories.

Thank you.

Hello, we just lost our cat from this disease this week. We fought for him and he fought for life but we were unsuccesful. My question is why is there no cure. Why is there no answer as to how to stop the fluid or where does it really co.e from....What can we do to come together as loving pet owners and end this questionable disease. Get a cure..find a cure!!!..???

 

[pouncymom]

My cat Pouncival survived chylothorax. He was basically pronounced dead twice. The fluid that develops in the lungs is from fat in the digestive system. My vet put Pouncy on a low fat diet (Purina OM). She also started him on prednisolone 5mg and theophylline which was compounded for me at a compounding pharmacy. She removed the fluid by aspiration but he had less fluid on the low fat diet. The chylo had scarred his lungs so badly that he developed asthma as well (which he still has, but we are managing it). He was still coughing and feeling badly. Two years ago in January my vet told me the next time I brought him in would be the last. But she said she wanted to also prescribe and anti-inflammatory as that might make him more comfortable. It was minocyclinehcl 50 mg. I think this is in the tetracycline class of drugs. Apparently, that was the right drug protocol for him. He started feeling better and the next time I brought him in was 4 months later for a checkup and my vet was astounded. I am not saying this will work for every cat, but both my vet and the specialists he went to said there was nothing more to be done for him before my wonderful vet prescribed that last drug that I think got him over the hump. If you have a cat with chylothorax and they are going downhill, maybe ask the vet to try the Purina OM, Theophyline, Prednisolone and Minocycline. Maybe you would get lucky like me. I wish everyone well. I understand what you are going through.

 

[pouncymom]

Also, if you are giving several medicines to a cat, that can be stressful to both of you. I buy NOW V caps size O from Amazon and either crush or put the pills in whole into the capsule and seal it. I put all 3 of Pouncy's meds into one gel capsule so I only have to pill him once, not 3 times.

 

[darcifinn]

Hi -

We lost our beautiful Maine Coon, Finn, to that disease in August. It was so tough we spent 9k trying to save him we were going to have surgery but they said he was to weak. I am glad to hear a kitty is beating this monster.

Erin