Mass in cat's chest?

Dr. Marie replied:

Hi there. If you've got images or other information, you can email it to me at photos@askavetquestion.com. Thanks. I'll have a look at that and then respond more thoroughly,

Dr. Marie.



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Dr. Marie replied:

OK, thanks for sending the photos. I've taken the radiographs and added some labels to help explain what is unusual here:





What I can see in these xrays is that there is definitely something very wrong with Leo's chest. I can't tell whether the problem is fluid or is a mass. It's possible that he has something called a mediastinal mass.

In the top picture, the trachea is way too high. Something is pushing it up towards the spinal cord. Can you see where I have labelled the lungs to the right of the heart? Lungs should be a black color. Now, we should be seeing the same black color in front of the heart and we are not. Instead, everything there is white. Similarly, on the second radiograph, the area on top of the heart should be black and it is not.

This white area is either fluid or a mass. It is possible that the ultrasound image you sent me shows that it is a mass. I don't do chest ultrasounds. (I usually have to send the cat to a specialist for that), so I can't tell you much about the ultrasound images.

The tough thing here is determining whether or not this is something we can treat. Do you know if any test was done where a needle was put into the chest to determine if this is fluid? In a cat that is FIV positive, it is possible that this is a chest full of pus (infection.) However, if this were the case you would expect to see an increase in white blood cells which we don't have. An infection could be treatable.

But, if this is a mass then this is not good news. Most chest masses are quite serious. It is possible that some surgery could be done to explore the area to determine if there is a tumor that can be removed, but you would definitely need a specialist to do this surgery and it would definitely be expensive.

Unfortunately the only way to know if this is a cancerous tumor or one that is likely to spread is to actually get a biopsy of the mass which is hard to do in the chest.

I'm afraid that things do not look good from what you have shown me though. I'm very sorry for the bad news.

Dr. Marie.