No experience but I hope you find a treatment for Omar. How old is he?
Karen

<< I had to get Omar to the vet last night as he was having trouble
breathing. Xrays showed fluid around his lungs and they took 170 mls
out. The fluid fits the visual description of chlye to a T and will be
analyzed but won't go to the lab until later today. :-(  >>

Remember that Paul who used to be a regular poster here a few years back?  I
think it was Paul Cook or something and he had a cat named Zipper that he was
very devoted to?  It seems like Zipper had chylothorax and he survived.  I
believe he ultimately died of cancer a year or 2 later but whatever the
treatment was for his chylothorax, I think it worked.  I don't know if you can
Google that info and find the old posts.

Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human."  (Loren Eisely)

circa Fri, 9 Apr 2004 10:57:47 -0500, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav,
zuzu22@webtv.net (zuzu22@webtv.net) said,

No advice to offer, sorry, but please keep us posted on Omar's
condition. :-(

Laura

First, thanks to all for the replies. I'm sorry for not having responded
earlier but I am seriously STRESSED OUT due to not only the situation
with Omar but also many other things I'm having to deal with as well.
Sometimes I just need to shut down for awhile.

Before I give details, as a reminder Omar actually was the recipient
(along with Murphy) of some help from several on this newsgroup who were
kind enough to buy cat beds from me to help with the vet bills I
incurred doing this particlar rescue. The urls to the pics in the
original post have been changed, but the pics are available in the
"friends and rescues" section of my photo album, and there's a couple of
cute pics of Omar in the Zuzuscats section too. The original thread is
here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&th=afd0e23201f9ccce&rnum=1

After the rescue Omar was in a foster home for awhile and the woman that
had him loved him and wanted to adopt him. Unfortunately one of her cats
hated him and they could not be together AT ALL, so a new home had to be
found for him.

She had decided without my consent that it would be ok to adopt him to a
woman she knew that had a young child. Not only did Omar have biting
issues at the time and should not have been around children until that
was resolved, but it turned out that the lady couldn't even afford good
food or vet care. The fosterer had the idea that she would just
contribute regularly, but that can't realisitically go on forever and
then what would happen to him when the help stopped??? As any of you
that even know me a little know, this was absolutely not an option and
she and I got into a pretty heated argument, which ended with me going
over there (I had a key) and literally packing him up and taking him out
of her home right then and there before she had a chance to follow
through and bring him to this woman's home. I decided that he had had
enough with being confined (because of the other cat) and having an
uncertain future and at that moment he was mine forever. I knew it was
the right decision at the time and especially now considering the
serious medical issues that have now surfaced.

Omar's fluid analysis came back definitively as being caused by
Chylothorax. I had an appointment for an ultrasound today and he has now
been diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy. The specialist that did the
ultrasound is a wonderful man who I have dealt with several times in the
past and he is raring to go to get this under control and give Omar a
good quality of life for however long that might be. I'm ecstatic about
this and as messed up as it is that Omar has DCM, out of all the
possibilities that were given this is the lesser of the evils so I'm
oddly happy.

He's been put on 4 medications and supplemental Taurine so we'll see
what happens. I may have to bring him in again to pull fluid out of his
lung area until we get this under control, but what I really hope is
that he doesn't throw a clot. I'm going to stay with the specialist for
all of Omar's treatment and bypass my regular clinic if at all possible.

Why, you may ask?

<begin rant>
One of my big issues right now (and this is a heads up to you all) is
that the vet clinic I have been a client of for 14 years was recently
bought out by VCA which is, in my view, basically a big corporation that
runs around the country buying up already established practices and
destroying any semblence of compassion and consideration for the animals
and instead focusing on how much cash they can make in the shortest
amount of time.

One example of this was when I brought Omar in for a Thoracentesis. I
had this done before with another cat that required it several time. At
that time the cost averaged about $40 and I was fit in to the schedule
when it was convenient and never charged an office visit. This time,
thanks to VCA, I am being charged $115 plus an exam fee *every time*
which has already been twice in 9 days. It doesn't matter that between
my rescue and pet accounts I have spent well over $80,000 or that I have
brought them literally tens of thousands of dollars worth of new
business because of my recommendations. Nope, now the only thing they
see is $ and the welfare of my cat is only important if I can pay the
exhorbitant fees.

A dark cloud is now hanging over the clinic and, even though I like one
vet there, her hands are tied now and she has to tow the company line.
It's sickening and I have already heard from some of the staff that they
hate it and want to leave, and that clients are walking away and doing
things such as not following up for needed booster shots because of the
dramatically increased expense.

When I first heard this was happening  I did a google search to see what
VCA is all about and I found  mostly negative comments. Having now
experienced them for myself I can see why. I am certain that animals are
going to die unnecessarily because of these bastards and their policies
and it makes me ill. This is also going to limit my ability to help or
rescue any cats that might cross my path and that has me particularly
incensed. IMO VCA is like a malignant cancer and I urge anyone that is
considering using a VCA clinic to think twice. I'm really pissed because
now is *not* the time that I need to start finding a new vet, but I
don't see as I have a choice. Plus I don't want to give those f.ckers
another dime of my hard earned money if I can avoid it. </rant>

Megan