Newly Diagnosed Peritinealpericardiac Diaphragmatic Hernia in my 13 old cat.

About two weeks ago my sweet guy Benny start having some trouble while purring. His purr became much noisier and after a few seconds he needed to open his mouth to get enough air. I originally thought/hoped he just had a bad upper respiratory thing going on, made a vet appt. He got really stressed out/scared at the vet. Vet noticed his breathing was labored and discovered his color was very pale. Benny was given a mild tranq and bit of pain meds to calm him down enough for x-rays. I could tell the vet was worried Benny would go into cardiac arrest during x-rays which of course freaked me out. We left Benny at the vet but did not go home, I didn't want to get an emercency call and be 40 minutes away.

He made it through x-rays and turns out he has a peritinealpericardiac diaphragmatic hernia which has really crowded his heart & lungs. And we only have this diagnosis because he has come down with bronchitis which exacerbated everything enough so he had symptoms I actually noticed. The vet sent us & Benny home with steroids & a bronchodilator to treat the bronchitis.

Let me back up. At the time of diagnosis when talking to the vet we discussed that most likely this hernia was congenital. A lot of fat has filled in the chest cavity but also some of his liver. Benny has no other symptoms other than some difficulty getting enough air while purring. He only opens his mouth to catch air when vigourously purring....he has always been a loud, passionate purrer. Benny is 13 yrs old and fairly mellow. We also have his brother/litter mate who is much more of a "crazy" personality. Benny sleeps a lot, but loves to get attention & lives on my lap when I'm watching tv. He is a very big, long-haired, tabby mix. Last year the vet techs decided he might also be part Maine Coon. Benny is almost 15 pounds. He has always been a big, tall, long kitty. His nickname is 'Big Kitty'.

Anyway......(can you tell I'm unbottling a bit.....so much in my head right now)....last saturday when we got this diagnosis the vet was leaning on the 'make him comfortable, treat the bronchitis, avoid stressing him or freaking him out at all costs and here's some brochures for the three best specialty/surgical vetirinary practices in the area if the situation becomes emergent but he's a 13 yr old cat so why put him through such an invasive surgery?' I agreed at the time. But now.....

Yesterday I called the vet's office again, I've been concerned that the open mouth catching air while purring has not resolved...guess I naively thought the medicine would resolve the bronchitis in a few days. So I called to ask about it. Benny is better than he was last week, in great spirits....absolutely LOVES the Salmon Pill Pockets he gets 3 times a day and mostly back to his regular sleepy life. I left a msg with the front desk. Later that night, last night another vet from the practice called me back. She was excited by the diagnosis as it's pretty rare. She talked with me for a good long time and discussed pros & cons but was really leaning towards having the corrective surgery. So now I am so torn I can't see straight.

Expense is an issue, we are not paycheck to paycheck but we don't have much extra. We signed up for Care Credit while waiting for Benny's x-rays to be done since we didn't know what the diagnosis was going to be. I'm already considering asking family for a loan if we have the surgery.

I so wish Benny could just tell me how he's doing. He seems pretty darn good. Glad to be home, not in distress.

Ugh.....surgery or no? Has anyone been through this particular scenario with an older cat? I don't even want to think about him dying in surgery. But if surgery will greatly improve his quality of life? Extend his life? It's been recommended that he havemild  tranquilizers before any future vet visits, even just for a shot or blood draw.....so how would surgery go down?

Help? I don't know what to do. I don't have to decide immediately but I just don't know where to go from here.

Thanks everybody for letting me talk about this.

Cara

Hi and welcome to TCS. Sorry to hear about Benny's diagnosis. That is a difficult decision to make. I think if I were in your shoes, I would do a consult with the surgeon. Discuss the risks vs rewards. What does he/she recommend and why?

The other thing you may consider is having an animal communicator talk to Benny and explain the situation and ask what he wants. I know it sounds far-fetched, but we've had several well-respected members here have great success with it. The one I see recommended is enlightenedanimals.com. Just something to consider.

Many vibes for Benny and lots of hugs for you as you both go through this difficult time.

Thanks so much. I have not called the surgeons yet. Have only spoken with two vets at our regular office so far. I might try to put both cats on a diet and see if a little weight loss helps Benny's breathing.

I do plan on calling the surgeons, don't know how willing they'll be to spend time giving opinions over the phone for free but I will be calling them to continue the research.

At least Benny appears to not be in much distress overall. The dog & other cat are starting to get jealous of all the Pill Pocket treats Benny is getting.

Thank you again for your kind words.

When you talked to the 2nd Vet, did you tell her that the first Vet was leaning toward not doing the surgery?  Did you ask her why she thought the opposite?  Did any of them think that him losing weight might help?  You might call them back and ask those questions in order to help with your decision.  Also, seriously, you might consider checking with an Animal Communicator, since you already wondered what Benny himself would want to do.  One of our member @LDG had a cat with Lymphoma, and she consulted an Animal Communicator to see if Lazlo wanted to go thru Chemo before proceeding.  Turns out he DID, and he's still with her, long after the prognosis dictated . 

It's interesting, because LDG also has a cat this has a "purr issue" now (different cat)  Strange...............

Thanks, I did mention to second vet that first vet recommended meds & stress-free life. I think that part of second vet's opinions were driven by her excitement at hearing about the rare diagnosis & her experience in the past with a successful surgery for same problem. I hope to start contacting the surgeons in the next few days to see if they'll give opinions over the phone. I am now leaning towards putting both my cats on a diet, see if a little weight loss helps and keep up with whatever meds the vet says will help. Most of the time Benny is quite content to just sleep, still loves the pill pockets (thankfully).  The only time I think about doing surgery is when he is purring and his whole body has to work so hard to move air. It doesn't seem to bother him but it sounds & looks disturbing. So I'm holding back on petting as much or as long so he won't purr quite so vigorously.

As for a pet communicator, I doubt anyone would be able to get close enough to Benny to do any communicating. He hides in an unfindable place whenever anyone but myself or my husband are in our house. Both of my kitties are very shy except around us.

I am so glad to have found this site. It is really helpful for me emotionally to have supportive words to read every couple of days.

I'm sorry you are going through this.  I know how hard it can be when your furry friends are sick and can't tell you what they want or need. 

Just my own two cents here, but it sounds like Benny is doing pretty well right now, so I would personally be hesitant to put him through something like surgery.  I'd try to the lose some weight approach and see if that helps.  If the condition isn't life threatening or anything like that, you can always do it in a few months.

CaraR said:

 
As for a pet communicator, I doubt anyone would be able to get close enough to Benny to do any communicating. He hides in an unfindable place whenever anyone but myself or my husband are in our house. Both of my kitties are very shy except around us.

I am so glad to have found this site. It is really helpful for me emotionally to have supportive words to read every couple of days.

Click to expand...

As to the Animal Communicators, oddly enough, they don't have to actually be in the presence of the animal!  Strange, I know, but it's true.  They usually do it via phone, having just a picture of their "client", and "vibes".  You can go to the website Vball have you and read about it.  It's actually quite amazing.  I'm thinking about doing it right now because I have an issue here and am wondering what my little one is thinking .  Here's another one, just in case you want to read about more than one:  http://www.gazehound.com/

I think you read my mind. I just purchased some diet kibble from the vet am mixing with their regular. I will most likely need to have his meds tweaked and continue to pay for that but we're just not ready for the huge surgery risk quite yet.

I just hate that I'm holding back on the amount of love & attention I give to Benny so he won't purr so much and put himself in that respiratory distress. But as soon as he settles down and gets all sleepy I know it's worth it to wait & try less invasive things to help him.

Thanks for your thoughts on it....it's helpful to have other cat lovers input on such a big decision.

The above was a reply to Casey.

Just a note about prescription diet food.  It typically doesn't work.  I've tried it.  The only way it might work is if you monitor how much you feed them, by calories.  No free feeding.  Know how much each one is eating.  Period. 

So...if they are on scheduled feedings and you figure out how many calories they need to lose weight slowly, and you feed them only that amount of calories, then they might lose weight (on any food), but otherwise, unless you increase their exercise, they probably won't.  And the key to cat's losing weight is that it needs to be slowly.  We can help you with that too