[Felvtalk] Just tested positive

[Amy]

First of all,  I'm so sorry about your loss of Yang.  I've been through it so many times and it NEVER gets any easier.

The good news is that I have two adults, 10 and 11, that have had leukemia since I got them, almost 10 years ago.  They have been healthy all along.  I've had my share of ones that made it less than 2 years and some that made it 4 or 5 years.  You never really know.  Just take it one day at a time and cherish every minute. 

We don't do anything special here.  We tried lots of stuff at the beginning but it never seemed to help for us.  I just try to keep stress levels low and love them and that seems to work :)

Best of luck.  Hope you have many years with Merlot.

Amy


________________________________
 From: Maya D'Alessio <mdelow at gmail.com>
To: felvtalk at felineleukemia.org 
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2014 3:12 PM
Subject: [Felvtalk] Just tested positive
 


Hello everyone,

My cat Merlot, just tested positive for FeLV yesterday afternoon.  We had him tested, because my three year old cat Yang (female) started acting ill at the end of June, the next morning I took her in to the vets and we discovered she was anemic, jaundiced and had a high fever.  They checked her blood levels and found she was anemic (about 13, vs 26 in a healthy cat).  She stayed at the vet during the day  and her blood levels didn't get any worse, and our vet was optimistic.  They transferred her over to the emergency clinic which was open all evening and in to the weekend.  They monitored her overnight and her red blood cells decreased, her fever lowered but she went past normal to too cold.  That morning the blood tests came back and she was positive for FeLV.  We were shocked.  Even worse was that her detailed blood work showed no uptick in blood cell production, where she should have increased production, she actually had almost no
 production.  We then got to see her before we had to put her down.  That was the hardest day of my life.

Now, with Merlot testing positive I am terrified of losing him so quickly, and I am still grieving for Yang.  I know the statistics are not great for long term prognosis, but he is currently healthy (just a tiny bit of gingivitis - we are going to start brushing his teeth).  What can I do to keep him healthy?  How do I live with him everyday without starting to grieve him already?  I know we all are going to die someday, but this just feels like it is going to hang over me.  I am still doing reading on the disease and newer treatments and such, but do these all start after the cat becomes noticeably ill, or are there things I can be doing now to help keep him healthy?  Are probiotics helpful in this case?

For those who have or have had a healthy FeLV cat, how long did they stay healthy for?


-- 

Maya D'Alessio

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