[Felvtalk] My Leuk + kitten and disgraceful vet

Sherri Godschalk skgodschalk61 at gmail.com
Wed Aug 17 11:48:06 CDT 2016


Thanks for accepting me into the group.

The stray kitten that I adopted tested positive for Leukemia two weeks ago.
I was so heartbroken to hear this news. And just as heartbroken to get the
response I did from my vet.

My Bogie, she was always small, playful and a terror, which I loved. She
also was going in and out of heat quite often and was waiting for a break in
the action so I could get her spayed. Before I could I noticed she had
slowed down someŠstopped knocking things off all of the tables and shelves
and started sleeping more. I took her to my vet right away. I asked them
right away to do a FELV test as well as the exam. Before they would even
look at her really, they gave her rabies and distemper vaccines. Vet said
she was healthy and just small and that I should spay her soon. I was making
the appointment at the front desk when Dr told me to come back into the
room. She said Bogie scored a faint positive for Leukemia and we should do a
total blood evaluation and send out some blood to a lab in Indianapolis to
verify. In the same breath she told me to consider putting my girl to
sleepŠeven without knowing for certain. Shocked me a little about her. I
said no. The diagnosis was confirmedŠpositive. And that she was severely
anemic. RBC 13. They put her on Prednisone and an antibiotic and had me come
back next week for another blood test. I had them also run the FEVL again,
just to make sure. Still positive. Her count went up to 17. So not much
improvement. We set up another appointment for the next week for a recheck.
The vet called me later the same day and said that the count had dropped to
15 so it this wasn¹t working. So I asked her what the plan was and what do
we try next. She said there was no next. She would give me pills to keep
Bogie comfortable but there was nothing else she was WILLING to do. ³There
are plenty of healthy cats out there that need homes² was her advice to me.
I said ³This is my cat and she deserves a chance² and hung up. I was
furious. 

I was able to get into see a vet that I used to take my pets to. I asked the
woman making the appointment if I could leave the kitten at home for this
appointment as she was just getting over the prior visit just 2 days before
and they agreed. I thought that was nice of them. He explained so thoroughly
what was going on with Bogey. Why things were not working. He prescribed
Stanzolol 2mg once a day along with the Prednisone once a day. He said if my
baby doesn¹t respond to this in a couple of weeks then we will know that she
will probably not be able to make red blood cells anymore and the only thing
left would be transfusions. That he would be willing to try with her. She
was infected at birth and has lived a year with it, she is one strong kitty.

I ran home and gave Bogie her first dose.

Hoping and praying that this will help jump start her immune system.

I was led to this site when I Googled the name of the drug and FELV. I
haven¹t been able to stop reading these posts and all the information here.
I was curious, what food you all feed your cats? The vet told me to keep her
on kitten food but make sure it is high quality. I told the dr that Bogie
like boiled beef liver and he told me to give her as much as she wants.

Is there anything else I can do to help Bogie¹s immune system become
stronger?


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