Cat xray with fluid in chest.

We euthanized our cat this week based on the recommendation of our vet. We feel we should have waited longer to make the decision unfortunately, which may be common in this case. I don't know.

Our cat had been losing weight over the past few months and becoming less active. He would typically sleep all day when our son was active, since he was afraid of most kids. He would come out at night after my son would go to sleep, a behavior that mostly stopped the past few weeks. We tried many types of food and he ate almost nothing over the past month. Almost no stool in his litter box, only urine. His weight decreased enough that I could feel each spinal vertebrae. I decided to take him to the vet because his belly enlarged abnormally while he breathed, even at rest. No coughing or vomiting, or other symptoms. Looking back for signs, his meow was almost like a squeek this last week which made me think it was a breathing issue.

I brought up him to the vet and left him for x rays and blood work to pick him up an hour later. The vet immediately called and said she couldn't draw blood since as he became stressed he started mouth breathing. She put him in the oxygen chamber at about 28% oxygen and developed the X-ray which showed a large amount of fluid in his chest, squeezing the lung space. She thought he would not survive the general anesthesia and would have to remove the fluid without it. Her opinion was that the causes of that much fluid are essentially all very bad and it was more humane to euthanize him.
I looked at x ray and compared it to a healthy feline lung on X-ray. We decided to take her advice and euthanize him because we did not want him to suffer gasping for air. When we held him at the vet after oxygen therapy, he was still belly breathing but not gasping. Breathing looked labored but because of his age (13-14+) it was hard to tell how he should look since he was very sedentary the last months or year.
I just want another set of eyes to see this X-ray since compared to other X-rays I've found online, since it isn't as bad as some I've seen. Still very limited compared to normal lung capacity. I just want to know if this looks bad to you as well. Looking back. I probably should have had her try to remove the fluid and see his response, but with life sometimes there are no second chances. Attached is his X-ray. He did. To have any other conditions we knew of, but had not been to the vet for several years. Thanks in advance for your review.

Thanks so much for your reply. We have been struggling with our decision to euthanize him since we had to make that choice. Looking back we should have taken him home for a night to spend time with him rather than deciding all of this in an hour at the vets office. Knowing that he was likely very ill makes us feel better about the decision though, and your opinion helped us fell more confident that it was the right decision for him.

This is one of the worst types of decisions I would say I ever had to make, and never want to go through it again. I can't imagine having to euthanize animals, I couldn't do it. The animal has no say in their medical care which makes it seem worse to me, even when it is to avoid suffering or pain for the animal.

Thanks again for your reply. I have many friends who are physicians, but no veterinarians to discuss medial issues. Your website is a great service.