My Kitty Has Been Diagnosed With Idiopathic Chylothorax

Sweet Phil

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My beautiful baby is 9 years old and he has been the picture of health all these years. He was diagnosed 2 week ago very sudden onset of this condition. He has had 2 taps and by this coming Wed. he might need another one. His vet has recommended surgery but we are skeptical as to the prognosis. We have researched for any data regarding this topic but we can't really find any concrete evidence that surgery is going to cure him. My heart breaks to see him barely eating and sleeping. The surgery is very costly but I feel that we have to do everything possible to get him healthy again if I just knew that the surgery will return his health and he won't be in pain or discomfort afterwards. I don't want to put him thru the ordeal and trauma of hospitalization and he'll end up with more health issues. Any suggestion or useful links will be very appreciate it.
 

denice

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To be honest I had to look it up so I seriously doubt that I know anymore about it then you do. I have seen a supplement called rutin several times, I don't know if that has been brought up as an option.

As quickly as he is needing to be tapped I don't think management is an option. From what I read it sometimes resolves on it's own which is why they hold off on surgery. The theory is the body makes new routes in the lymphatic system which is why it resolves on it's own. A low fat diet also may help.

I did find a case writeup for a cat that had surgery and it was a success http://vetmed.illinois.edu/surgical-treatment-idiopathic-chylothorax-geriatric-cat/ This cat was 13. I really can't give you any advise as far as the surgery. I would certainly want to find the most qualified vet that you can for this.
 

m2g2

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My rb kitty Mitzi was diagnosed with idiopathic chylothorax at the age of 4. My heart goes out to you and your sweet baby. There is a fb group ChylothoraxCats that is active sporadically and has lots of information but having to search through all the posts is quite the chore. The standard medical management is rutin, low fat diet and repeated chest taps. Some chylocats respond to octreotide which is typically given by injection 3x a day for around a month. Octreotide is thought to slow the chyle flow. If medical management fails, then surgery or euthanasia are the options. We tried medical management for Mitzi. After the first chest tap, she was put on low dose furosemide (a diuretic), her food was switched to Hill's r/d (very low fat) and she took rutin 3x a day (250-300 mg each time). The low fat diet and the rutin are not a cure. They are thought to help "thin" the chyle in hopes that the cat can better absorb the chyle leak. We did not try octreotide as Mitzi was not an easy cat to handle. We were lucky that Mitzi would take the rutin mixed in with a little meat baby food. Some cats refuse rutin. We had a surgical consult and a thoracic duct ligation with a partial removal of the sac around the heart were recommended along with possibly putting in a pleural port to make chest taps easier in case the surgery did not stop the leak. The statistics were not that encouraging and we did not go forward with the surgery. Medical management worked somewhat for Mitzi and she fought hard for 4.5 months and had a decent quality of life until complications started happening during the chest taps. The thickening of the pleural lining made it difficult to insert the needle and the last two taps resulted in pneumothorax requiring overnight hospitalizations. After that we let her go peacefully across the rainbow bridge. Chylothorax is a truly horrible disease.
 

denice

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I did find a thread that was started in Dec 2012 and the last post was Jun 2014 about a kitty that had it. He was managed medically and improved on his own. It didn't completely resolve but he had a good quality of life. She used the supplement and a prescription low fat food. Chylothorax...please help me help Butters
 
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Sweet Phil

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To be honest I had to look it up so I seriously doubt that I know anymore about it then you do. I have seen a supplement called rutin several times, I don't know if that has been brought up as an option.

As quickly as he is needing to be tapped I don't think management is an option. From what I read it sometimes resolves on it's own which is why they hold off on surgery. The theory is the body makes new routes in the lymphatic system which is why it resolves on it's own. A low fat diet also may help.

I did find a case writeup for a cat that had surgery and it was a success http://vetmed.illinois.edu/surgical-treatment-idiopathic-chylothorax-geriatric-cat/ This cat was 13. I really can't give you any advise as far as the surgery. I would certainly want to find the most qualified vet that you can for this.
Thank you so much for your reply. It seems to be the only article that I've found so far. I'm treating him with Rutin already. Thanks again.
 

TashaD

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We have a 4 year old kitty with this. We have been supplementing with rutin, and just saw a cardiologist. He has been doing pretty well and its a year since his diagnosis this week. We are going to do the thoracic duct ligation surgery. Our vet said the recovery is 10 to 14 days and he will be back to normal. There's a 50/50 shot this works, so they are also giving him the port that will allow us to drain the chyle ourselves when needed so we don't have to keep getting his chest drained with a needle.
 
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