Thanks all. We did go to the Vet School hospital and the results of their diagnostics are less promising. They repeated x-rays and cytology, and did CT and took a deep nasal swab for culture as well. The x-rays and cytology gave us the same clues--mass is probably thymoma or lymphoma.
The CT showed the full extent of the mass, which is quite large, apparently (I did not see the CT scan), and the effect it's having on his lungs. The mass extends from his neck area all the way down past his chest cavity into the upper abdomen. One lung is quite impacted and doesn't look to be the correct density. They are thinking he may have some pneumonia there, which is why they took a deep nasal swab for culture. We are going to do some nebulization treatments while we wait for culture results (if we can get our hands on an at-home nebulizer).
He also has calcified tissue in his nose from it being irritated for such a long period of time. If the tissue gets inflamed and stays inflamed, the body will form a bone-like structure there.
That finding and the extent of loss of lung function he has really bothered me because it makes me feel like we've been negligent in getting him the care he needs in a timely fashion. I know there's nothing else we could have done; we treated whenever we saw something was wrong, which was rare. In fact, he still acts like a happy little ball of energy. You would not know he is sick or anything, except for the occasional sneeze/cough. It amazes me that he can still race around the house doing binkies with his reduced lung function.
The fact that he's young and otherwise healthy and in good spirits is why we're going to go on with treatment. It sounds like he's very sick from what the vets say; but it's worth trying to treat him because he's so strong. Honestly when I heard the extent of what the school vets found I thought he was too sick to be treated and that we'd have to have him PTS to save him the stress and trouble of treatment. The vets there do think it is worthwhile to treat him, which is good.
It's a rather emotional thing here! Thanks for letting me spill my guts!
ray:
