November Braveheart Award at Heathside Veterinary Surgery

Vasco is a young, ginger cat who was taken on after being a stray on the streets of Portugal. Other than needing ear treatment, he was settling in well to his new pampered home in England.

Vasco's owners became worried when mid October Vasco seemed lethargic and was having difficulty breathing. His bloods were checked and then he went under a general anaesthetic to have a bronchoscopy—this allowed the vets to have a look inside his airways to see why he was struggling to breathe. A sample was taken and sent off to an external lab.

To everyone's surprise it turned out that Vasco had Aelurostrongylus abstrusus — a lungworm infection!

This is very rare in cats but  shows how important it is to investigate labored breathing thoroughly in cats.

Vasco is currently under treatment for the lungworm, is able to breathe comfortably and is back to his normal mischievious self!