10/08/2026
A very long Leopold update for those following at home❤️🐾
Today started with me in an absolute panic.
We were still waiting for the call to book Leo’s CT, and this morning I heard him making some gagging/gurgling noises. My mum senses were screaming at me that I couldn’t sit around waiting any longer, so I packed him up and rushed him straight back to VRH Emergency.
After a bit of a wait, we were seen by a vet who had taken the time to have a radiology specialist review Leo’s previous chest X-rays. She explained that because of the positioning and the fact they weren’t taken fully under sedation, they really couldn’t confidently determine much from them including the suspected mass!
Importantly, her feeling was actually that there may NOT be a chest mass at all, although at that stage she obviously couldn’t completely rule it out.
Because Leo’s symptoms were looking much more neurological, she wanted one of their neurology specialists to assess him.
From there, things started moving pretty quickly.
The neurologist examined Leo and confirmed that both of his trigeminal nerves appear to be affected, which explains why he can’t properly control or close his jaw.
Interestingly, the fact that it is affecting both sides actually makes a tumour in the nervous system involving the nerve much less likely.
His initial feeling was that the most likely diagnosis could be Idiopathic Trigeminal Neuropathy — something that can happen suddenly and can resolve on its own over a number of weeks.
However, he also noticed a couple of other subtle neurological signs involving one of Leo’s eyes and his back legs, so he recommended an MRI to make sure there wasn’t something else going on.
Thankfully, they managed to get Leo into the MRI today. ❤️
The initial MRI results have shown that Leo’s trigeminal nerve is enlarged/inflamed, which confirms there is definitely a neurological issue.
They also found that there is more fluid (CSF) around his brain and that his brain seems slightly smaller than they would normally expect for his age as. At this stage they don’t know whether that is connected to the nerve inflammation — potentially through an inflammatory or infectious process — or whether it may simply be an unrelated finding.
But one of the biggest things we desperately needed to hear today was:
The neurologist does NOT think what he is seeing on the MRI looks like a tumour. 🙏❤️
They have also taken spinal fluid to test for signs of infection or inflammation. If nothing is found, the neurologist actually said that would be the ideal result, as it would mean we could still ultimately be dealing with the idiopathic trigeminal condition we were originally hoping for.
And then we got another piece of absolutely HUGE news…
They repeated Leo’s chest X-rays properly while he was under sedation and we now have a definitive answer:
THERE IS NO MASS IN LEOPOLD’S CHEST. ❤️🙏
Not “probably not”. Not “we don’t think so”.
There is NO mass.
After spending the last few days believing there could potentially be a mass in his chest, hearing that today was an absolutely enormous relief.
We also decided to have a temporary feeding tube placed while he was under. His jaw may take several weeks to regain function, so this allows us to safely keep his food and fluids up while we give those nerves time to hopefully recover. Which means our new full time job for now will be nursing & feeding by hand and closely monitoring him.
So we started this morning terrified, with me rushing him back to emergency because I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to get him seen.
Tonight, we still don’t have every answer — but we are in a very different place than we were this morning. ❤️
We know there is 100% NO chest mass.
We know his problem is neurological and involves his trigeminal nerves.
And, so far, the neurologist does not believe what he is seeing on the MRI looks like a tumour.
Tomorrow we should have the official radiologist report and more information from the spinal fluid testing, which will hopefully bring us even closer to an answer.
But the best part of tonight is that our beautiful Leopold is HOME. ❤️
He is happy, comfortable and resting after his enormous day, with his sister very close by keeping an eye on him. 🥹❤️🐾
I’m so incredibly glad I listened to my gut this morning and took him back in.
There are still some answers we need, but tonight we finally have something we haven’t had much of over the last few days — hope.
Thank you so much to everyone who has messaged, called, checked in and kept our beautiful boy in your thoughts.
Now we let our King rest. 👑❤️🐾
