Hi Amanda,

I'm glad that I could be of some support to you. I know that this is a very scary and difficult disease to deal with.....especially for the poor cat. I didn't mean to sound so doom and gloom but facts are stuborn things. Like I tried to explain to you, unless an underlying condition to this disease can be identified, your kind of stuck and so is the vet. All you can do, is what you're doing. I truely hope your vet can find the culprit. Has Bandit been checked for cardiomyopathy, a heart tumor or any other heart disease? These are some underlying diseases that may overshadow those of pleural effusion. Cardiomyopathy is not as common in female cats but not unheard of. It can be easily detected with ultra sound. It's just a shot in the dark but worth investigating. You are very lucky that Bandit doesn't have fibrosing pleuritis. My poor sweet boy, Buddy does, in addition to two large cysts and scarring on his heart. I will definately pray that the underlying cause with Bandit can be caught in time and is curable. Amanda, you can post me any time. As I said, I do know what you're going through. You will be of great support to me also. I've included a web site that will explain in more detail about chylothorax. I'm sorry that I don't know how to include it so you can just click. Take care and give Bandit a kiss on her little cold wet nose for me. :-)

Linda

www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/chylothorax.html