Abbey was diagnosed with chylothorax in early May, had her pleural
cavity drained twice, had x-rays and an ultrasound which indicated she
has fibrosing pleuritis (lungs are scarred from the chyle).  Her
prognosis was not good at all.

She is still doing fine, fortunately.  She is on lasix and rutin.  She
eats, plays. acts perfectly normal except her breathing is faster than
normal (which is 20-40 respirations per minute).  She actually is
usually 40-46 but will increase to almost 60 when she exerts herself.
When she is sound asleep it will drop to the high 20s or lower 30s.  So
it's not horribly fast but it's more the way it looks, it looks like
she is diaphragm breathing, which she is.

But...ever since this all happened, we have not heard her purr.  She
was sick for awhile so we didn't expect it.  But now she acts normally,
rolls around on the floor, squeaks, loves to be petted and brushed, all
things where she would normally be purring.  But she doesn't.

I know it's a mystery (another mystery on rpchb!) exactly what causes
purring.  I was just googling it:

"It is not known how cats purr. One suggestion is that the vibration of
blood passing through a large vein in the cat's chest causes purring.
The windpipe, along with air spaces in the cat's skull, magnifies the
sound of the blood passing through the vein. An alternate theory is
that the sound is produced by the cat's larynx as its vocal cords open
and close."

It sounds like it may be impossible for her to purr because of her
lung/chest  damage.  Whaddya think?

Candace