So I'll try to give a little background to this kitten.
My dad has multiple outdoor cats, not fixed.
This kitten is the result to that. When I first met him, he was 4 weeks old. He had a mass on his chest. It was the size of a normal marble.
Two weeks later, my dad calls me and says "Oh this little kitten isn't moving or eating, he's gonna die this weekend".
I drove myself down to his house immediately, food still cooking on the stove (left boyfriend to watch). The mass had tripled in size. His eyes were covered in "goop".
I got there at about 5:00PM and the vet closed at 5:30PM, a fifteen minute drive away. I drove there immediately.
At the time I had just put my entire bank account towards paying off my car so I knew I couldn't afford any treatment at that moment.
I asked them to give me as much advice as possible.
Initial diagnosis: Upper respiratory, ringworm, secondary skin infection, unknown mass on chest, probably other worms.
I brought him home that weekend and began feeding him formula. At the time I thought he was three weeks old, and he was the size of a three week old kitten. I found out later he was 6 weeks at the time.
On that Monday, (two days later), I returned to the vet to get all the treatment I could. He was doing well, actually.
They gave me 3 syringes of dewormer, 1 bottle of albon (they said it was an antibiotic, but its both antibiotic and dewormer), and a "good luck". They also drained the mass on his chest and said it was a pus-filled abscess. Okay, I can do this.
He did good the first week. He had difficulty breathing at times, but most of the time he was okay. On Sunday he developed a new mass on his neck. He couldn't breathe and couldn't walk much, and just cried in pain. I laid on the floor of the bathroom where I kept him and cried. I assumed he would die that night. Monday morning he was still alive so I drove to the vet back by my fathers house.
They kept him for Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday I called and asked what they had done. Absolutely nothing. I was furious - My little sick kitten is dying and you're doing nothing! They responded "Oh he's too small to do anything". So I went back to collect my kitten. They offered a blood test and I accepted. He had lost about half his weight since going to the vet. They were barely feeding him anything. They said the new mass was actually just a lymph node. It had gone down some, so I believed them. The blood test came back 1000000% clear.
Two days later, the mass came back, larger than ever and I took it upon myself to drain it with a needle. It was an abscess, and I lost trust in the vet after that. I know that may have been a very bad move, but I had faith in my gut that the mass was NOT a lymph node.
I brought him to a new vet. This vet has done wonders. She immediately said "We need to act NOW. This kitten won't make it long if you don't". She prescribed a shampoo for the skin infections, gave him some antibiotic shots, and pierced the mass with a scalpel and asked me to try to keep it drained. So I have.
Now almost a week after this vet visit, he's doing great! He plays, he runs, his hair is coming back, he's gaining good weight. But there's one problem that has happened from the beginning: He starts breathing heavy. My boyfriend and I noticed the correlation between eating and breathing heavy, and we don't know what to do.
We feed him Friskie's soft food in a can, scoop out about one tablespoon and warm it for about 8 seconds. Stir it up, test with finger, and it's perfectly warm.
He will eat and then immediately after he starts breathing heavily. Sometimes small noises (almost grunts) accompany each breath. He cries and cries, but he'll stop crying if we hold him and pet him CONSTANTLY until he falls asleep. And of course, being the sad person I am, I give in to his every cry.
So my question is - what can cause this? Other than his meals, he is thriving. He runs, he jumps, he climbs, he plays. The vet said his lungs sound amazing. No URI. Blood test came back great, no infections.
Feline Leukemia & Aids test came back fine, he's not got that.
The masses have gone away, almost. It is still open and drains a droplet once and a while, and there's a hard section under where it was on top of his rib cage.
He has what I assume is normal bowel movements. 2+ per day, solid but soft, brown in color (darker or lighter based on what variety we feed him)
I'm typing this because he just ate, and he came up to me crying in pain, breathing heavily. I put him in my lap and he cries so loudly in obvious pain, with grunts each time he takes a breath.
I sat him down to go check the food on the stove and when I came back he had just pooped in the box, and it looked normal. Still breathing heavily and grunting and yelling.
I will attempt to upload a video to help you guys determine the problem. The vet hasn't seen him do this, so she can't give a diagnosis. I don't think this is an emergency because it does go away after a couple of hours.
My dad has multiple outdoor cats, not fixed.
This kitten is the result to that. When I first met him, he was 4 weeks old. He had a mass on his chest. It was the size of a normal marble.
Two weeks later, my dad calls me and says "Oh this little kitten isn't moving or eating, he's gonna die this weekend".
I drove myself down to his house immediately, food still cooking on the stove (left boyfriend to watch). The mass had tripled in size. His eyes were covered in "goop".
I got there at about 5:00PM and the vet closed at 5:30PM, a fifteen minute drive away. I drove there immediately.
At the time I had just put my entire bank account towards paying off my car so I knew I couldn't afford any treatment at that moment.
I asked them to give me as much advice as possible.
Initial diagnosis: Upper respiratory, ringworm, secondary skin infection, unknown mass on chest, probably other worms.
I brought him home that weekend and began feeding him formula. At the time I thought he was three weeks old, and he was the size of a three week old kitten. I found out later he was 6 weeks at the time.
On that Monday, (two days later), I returned to the vet to get all the treatment I could. He was doing well, actually.
They gave me 3 syringes of dewormer, 1 bottle of albon (they said it was an antibiotic, but its both antibiotic and dewormer), and a "good luck". They also drained the mass on his chest and said it was a pus-filled abscess. Okay, I can do this.
He did good the first week. He had difficulty breathing at times, but most of the time he was okay. On Sunday he developed a new mass on his neck. He couldn't breathe and couldn't walk much, and just cried in pain. I laid on the floor of the bathroom where I kept him and cried. I assumed he would die that night. Monday morning he was still alive so I drove to the vet back by my fathers house.
They kept him for Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday I called and asked what they had done. Absolutely nothing. I was furious - My little sick kitten is dying and you're doing nothing! They responded "Oh he's too small to do anything". So I went back to collect my kitten. They offered a blood test and I accepted. He had lost about half his weight since going to the vet. They were barely feeding him anything. They said the new mass was actually just a lymph node. It had gone down some, so I believed them. The blood test came back 1000000% clear.
Two days later, the mass came back, larger than ever and I took it upon myself to drain it with a needle. It was an abscess, and I lost trust in the vet after that. I know that may have been a very bad move, but I had faith in my gut that the mass was NOT a lymph node.
I brought him to a new vet. This vet has done wonders. She immediately said "We need to act NOW. This kitten won't make it long if you don't". She prescribed a shampoo for the skin infections, gave him some antibiotic shots, and pierced the mass with a scalpel and asked me to try to keep it drained. So I have.
Now almost a week after this vet visit, he's doing great! He plays, he runs, his hair is coming back, he's gaining good weight. But there's one problem that has happened from the beginning: He starts breathing heavy. My boyfriend and I noticed the correlation between eating and breathing heavy, and we don't know what to do.
We feed him Friskie's soft food in a can, scoop out about one tablespoon and warm it for about 8 seconds. Stir it up, test with finger, and it's perfectly warm.
He will eat and then immediately after he starts breathing heavily. Sometimes small noises (almost grunts) accompany each breath. He cries and cries, but he'll stop crying if we hold him and pet him CONSTANTLY until he falls asleep. And of course, being the sad person I am, I give in to his every cry.
So my question is - what can cause this? Other than his meals, he is thriving. He runs, he jumps, he climbs, he plays. The vet said his lungs sound amazing. No URI. Blood test came back great, no infections.
Feline Leukemia & Aids test came back fine, he's not got that.
The masses have gone away, almost. It is still open and drains a droplet once and a while, and there's a hard section under where it was on top of his rib cage.
He has what I assume is normal bowel movements. 2+ per day, solid but soft, brown in color (darker or lighter based on what variety we feed him)
I'm typing this because he just ate, and he came up to me crying in pain, breathing heavily. I put him in my lap and he cries so loudly in obvious pain, with grunts each time he takes a breath.
I sat him down to go check the food on the stove and when I came back he had just pooped in the box, and it looked normal. Still breathing heavily and grunting and yelling.
I will attempt to upload a video to help you guys determine the problem. The vet hasn't seen him do this, so she can't give a diagnosis. I don't think this is an emergency because it does go away after a couple of hours.
