Last night, Leo started to mouth breathe, pant and was using his abdominal muscles to breathe. He was in respiratory distress so I quickly took him to the emergency room, where they noticed he had trouble breathing, was very pale and hypothermic (low body temperature). He was found to have bilateral pneumothoraces (air in the space between the lungs and chest wall) concerning for a tension pneumothorax which is an emergency in which the air surrounding lungs is building enough pressure and is beginning to compress the lungs. Thankfully, I came in time and they were able to create a cut and release the air.

However, the air re-accumulated over night, with the most likely reason being having pulmonary bullae , which are invagination of tissue that have a tendency to form bubbles and burst, causing pneumothorax. This is likely something he was born with. The vets recommendation at this time was the proceed with CT scan and proceed with lung lobectomy surgery, involving removal of the lung tissue with the bullae.

 

for anyone who knows Leo, they know he’s a 1 year old ball of energy and love. He loves playing with his brothers and sister, especially his new brother Charlie. He loves playing! He usually has so much energy running around ! And he was my very first cat love.

 

Please anything that can be given to help me, I genuinely appreciate it. I’ve already taken out an $8000 credit card and maxed it out, and now I have to pay an additional $5,000.  I’m in residency so I don’t make much money. I don’t want my Leo to die, which unfortunately would likely be the case as he would develop many pneumothoraces in the future , and would have tension pneumothoraces which are deadly.