Certified Sick but Certified Beautiful

Ebi in recovery

Ebi is one very ill cat. I noticed on Thursday night that he was breathing very, very heavily. Eliza said she'd been observing Ebi, and he'd been doing this for probably a couple of days. So she immediately looked up vet clinics, and took Ebi on Friday morning. That quickly set in motion a chain of events that sent Ebi off to a critical care vet hospital in East Vancouver, where he was looked at by top (also read: expensive) doctors. It was here that he was diagnosed with feline chylothorax:

"Chylothorax is a relatively uncommon disorder in the cat whereby lymph fluid (chyle) accumulates in the pleural cavity. This small cavity lies between the lungs and the inner lining of the chest wall. Normally, only about a teaspoon of clear fluid is present in this space. The purpose of the fluid is to keep the surface of the lungs slippery so that they don’t adhere to the chest wall. When chylothorax is present, up to a quart of fluid may be present."

It explains why Ebi was breathing so heavily. Eliza was completely distraught on Friday, and she went to visit Ebi on Friday night after dinner at the Vancouver Club. She was able to keep Ebi over the weekend before he had to go back to the vet, and I took a few photos of him recuperating from his hospital ordeal. More surgery is in store, so hopefully he can keep his strength up. While he was at the vet, they certified him to be a beautiful cat, which was a compliment to Eliza, since she really takes care of Ebi and Tako. They are her children.