[Felvtalk] Please help! Anemic felv kitty, what can be done??

[N. E. Juskowich]

Time is of the essence for us and I need to know if there's something else
that can be done for my sweet little just-turned-one-year-old boy.  He had
a PCV of 12% and received a blood transfusion, his PCV went up a little,
then back down, then up to 17% over the course of 24 hours.  He was put on
7.5 mg. prednisone, 25 mg. mycophenolate, 18.75 mg. plavix (to prevent
clots from the pred/mycophenolate combo), 25 mg. doxycycline (in case of
mycoplasma infection), and 5 mg. famotidine to prevent GI issues from the
pred.

His anemia is currently non-regenerative with two most likely potential
causes: he was agglutination positive, a sign of immune mediated red blood
cell destruction; he may have leukemia in the marrow.  We did not do a bone
marrow aspirate because cancer would be too advanced at this stage, the
severe anemia indicating this to be the case.  The doctor said it could
take a few days of immunosuppressant therapy for the bone marrow to
respond.

Two days after the PCV of 17% we had a recheck and it is now down to 14%.
He is going to receive another transfusion.

I need to know as quickly as possible: Is there anything else that can be
done at this stage?  I was looking into treatment with TCyte (LTCI), but my
vet said it would be a waste of time and money.  I'd read on a forum that a
severely anemic felv kitty responded very well to the drug and I would've
been willing to give it a shot.  My vet is of the opinion that I should not
have bothered with this second transfusion (he had to go to emergency
hospital for it) and the TCyte is "hogwash".  I'm sitting here feeling
hopeless and wondering if this really is the end and what do I do now if he
doesn't respond to the transfusion.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  No sugar coating necessary, but
please be gentle.  If nothing can be done, what can I do for him to keep
him happy and comfortable?  Will he need euthanized or will he pass
peacefully?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://felineleukemia.org/pipermail/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org/attachments/20150227/382fb2d1/attachment.html>