Question
xray
Hello,
My cat, Spot has been having a really hard time breathing for about a month now. I made an appointment with the vet, and on the way there we had to instead rush to the CLOSEST vet because once we got in the scary car, his labored breathing turned into CHOKING...it was a scary situation. The vet gave him oxygen and took some Xrays, but wasn't able to tell me much. Other things that i have noticed are that Spot has been throwing up his catfood a lot, and that he swallows alot. He has lost a little weight. He is 15 years old. I suspect he might have asthma, but have no idea what that might look like in an Xray. In his Xrays, my vet pointed out the problem area in his trachea(?) where there appears to be a "cloudy" obstruction. The Xray was taken during his scary breathing episode. I am nervous to take him ANYWHERE (because he might stop breathing again) without knowing what to look for and having more information about what could be wrong. Does anything stand out to you based on the images i have attached/ what i have described? Thanks for any suggestions you may be able to offer.
AnswerHi Heather. Unfortunately, I don't have the training to read your kitty's x-ray. Also unfortunately, I have had more than one cat who has suffered precisely the same symptoms as Spot's. I hope it will be very different for you, but in my cases, I regret to say that the cats had cancer in the area surrounding the trachea. In one case, it was thymic lymphoma (which typically affects kittens), and in the other two cases, lymphoma in the mediastinum, the middle part of the chest. In all cases, a tumor had grown to restrict the passage of food through the esophagus. This caused noticeable swallowing and also frequent regurgitation. The tumors also restricted the flow of air through the trachea and caused labored breathing and sometimes aspiration of saliva and choking. As with Spot, when the cats became stressed while trying to take their temperature or drive them to the vet, they turned blue and went into crisis mode.
Some cats with severe asthma may have sudden attacks and require oxygen, but I have two asthma sufferers, and neither of mine have ever suffered this seriously. Also, their x-rays will usually show a snowflake-like pattern of inflammation in the lungs, and not a problem in the trachea area.
I feel very nervous about that cloudy obstruction on the x-ray, coupled with his regurgitation, choking and the need for the oxygen chamber. I would strongly encourage you to consider a thoracic ultrasound for him. This will give you much more information on what that spot detected on the x-ray was. If the ultrasound suggests it's cancer, and there's a possibility you may want to treat it, your vets will probably want to do a biopsy at the time of the ultrasound. Many times, they can do an ultrasound-guided needle biopsy.
If the ultrasound finds that the area is clear, and asthma or inflammatory bronchitis is suspected, your vet can prescribe a steroid for Spot to bring down the inflammation that's present in his airways. Steroids can be oral (most common method) or may be given with an inhaler especially designed for cats (AeroKat inhaler). Bronchodilators may also be helpful.
One other possibility is feline heartworm. These can be tricky to diagnose, but you may want to have him blood-tested. These are transmitted by mosquito bites, and even indoor cats have been diagnosed with them. They are the same pests that cause heartworm disease in dogs, but in cats, they tend to cause disease when the young worms reach the airways, due to the cat's strong immune response to their presence. If heartworm is believed to be the cause of his symptoms, an oral steroid is likely to be the treatment in this case, as well.
Best of luck to you both!
Jessica
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