[Felvtalk] Questioning FELV diagnosis

[Randy Henke]

It's interesting that our vet was very hesitant about even prescribing
Prednisone because he is afraid it will suppress her immunity to secondary
infections. I know that is a risk. Would adding Winstrol suppress her
immune system even further? I'm very confused about how to proceed.

On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 10:23 PM, Ardy Robertson <ardyr at centurytel.net>
wrote:

> If I can chime in on Winstrol, it did wonders on my Tigger to get his
> bloodwork up. I only wish I had started it sooner, along with the
> prednisolone and doxycycline.
>
> Best of luck!
>
> Ardy
>
>
>
> *From:* Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org] *On Behalf
> Of *Amani Oakley
> *Sent:* Thursday, December 15, 2016 8:02 PM
> *To:* felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Felvtalk] Questioning FELV diagnosis
>
>
>
> Randy
>
>
>
> Regardless of the cause of the anemia, I have repeatedly recommended
> Winstrol (Stanazolol) which is used for intractable severe anemia in humans
> and animals. If you are new to this group, you may not have seen the
> difficulty most people face when trying to get Winstrol for their cats. See
> if your vet will prescribe it, but be aware that a vet usually has to order
> it from a compounding pharmacy. I agree that you should also use prednisone
> (or prednisolone, as recommended by others) along with the Winstrol.
>
>
>
> Amani
>
>
>
> *From:* Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org
> <felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org>] *On Behalf Of *Randy Henke
> *Sent:* December-14-16 1:48 PM
> *To:* felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
> *Subject:* Re: [Felvtalk] Questioning FELV diagnosis
>
>
>
> I will keep everyone posted, Katherine. I'm hoping my hunch is correct
> that she doesn't have FELV but she's still very sick right now.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 7:56 AM, Katherine K. <kathstix at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Randy,
>
>
>
> I'm sorry your baby isn't feeling well. What an unusual story you shared.
> Did your vet say anything about hemobartonella? That can cause anemia, but
> I'm not very familiar with it so I can't offer much more information or
> advice there. There is a Yahoo! group called Feline_Anemia. It was pretty
> active a couple years ago, not sure about now, but at least you could
> search the archives. I had an 8 month old kitten die from anemia, but he
> was definitely FeLV positive.
>
>
>
> Talk to your vet about prednisolone, instead of prednisone. My 14 yo FeLV
> cat has been on it for a long time now. He also gets mirtazapine every few
> days, which stimulates his appetite.
>
>
>
> Keep us posted on Curly!
>
>
>
> Katherine
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 8:40 AM, Randy Henke <randy at magicedge.com> wrote:
>
> Our cat, Curly, is ten years old. We found her outside as a kitten and had
> her tested for FELV at that time. She was negative. She's been strictly an
> indoor cat since then and had no contact with any potentially infected cats.
>
> Three months ago, she wasn't acting like herself. Very lethargic and
> moderately dehydrated. We took her to the vet. She was running a low fever
> and her blood test showed severe anemia and low white cell count. The vet
> suspected immune mediated hemolytic anemia. He gave her some fluids,
> started her on an antibiotic for any potential infections and prednisone.
> Three days later she was about the same so we took her back to the vet.
> This time they ran an ELISA test to rule out FELV even though it was
> incredibly unlikely given her history. It came back positive. They drew
> blood at that time for an IFA test to confirm it and told us to discontinue
> the prednisone immediately.
>
> By the next day, Curly was feeling better and she quickly bounced back to
> her old self which I suspect was due to the three days of prednisone
> treatment. The IFA test came back negative.
>
> We were content to think the ELISA was a false positive because Curly
> seemed fine until a couple of weeks ago when she became listless and
> anti-social again. Another blood test showed her to again be very anemic.
>
> We are very confused about what to do. The negative IFA really has me
> wondering. From my understanding, that test is 99.9% accurate in detecting
> the second stage of leukemia.
>
> A negative IFA should mean only one of two things:
>
> 1. The cat is not infected with FELV.
>
> 2. The cat is in the early stages and has not progressed to the second
> stage of the disease where the virus infects the bone marrow.
>
> That would mean that, in order for the anemia to have been caused by
> leukemia, the IFA should have definitely been positive at that point
> because it would need to be actively compromising the bone marrow's
> functioning.
>
> I am leaning toward trying prednisone again, especially since she is
> hardly eating or moving around at this point. If anyone can point out if my
> logic is flawed, please do so. Any suggestions would be very much
> appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Randy
>
>
>
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