Our cat had Chylothorax, and lived. Any animal having this does not have a good chance at surviving. Sorry. But those are the facts.


Chylothorax is fluid in the chest. It has nothing to do with the heart or any other organs (not cancer either), although if enough fluid builds up, it will push on the walls of the lungs, and that is where it can be dangerous.

The Idiopathic, just means they have no idea how it got there.

Was your dog hit by a car? That is the most common way for dogs. Our cat is an indoor only cat, and we still don't know why, but with the help of an Internist he did get better.

My first thoughts for you is to find yourself a Veternarian who specializes in Internal medicine. Either ask your own vet, or look it up in the phone book.

Please do NOT do surgery on your dog. All that is most likely needed here, is for the fluid to be drained from her chest, on an hourly basis if needed. They can do this at the ER or in the doctors office. That is what they did to our Lucky. It took a week or 10 days I really can't remember, but it was interesting plus expensive at best.

If you Google : Chylothorax (the correct spelling) you will get a whole bunch of information. Although this is still concidered one of those "mysterious" things for animals, that is why they do not have a good solution, nor do too many people, including vet's know about it.

If you read up on it, they you could possibly tell the vet what you want done, or at least understand more about this disease.

Good luck........please keep us all posted.

.......sorry for the grim facts.