[Felvtalk] Questioning FELV diagnosis

Sherri Godschalk skgodschalk61 at gmail.com
Fri Dec 16 10:51:34 CST 2016


Randy,

So sorry to hear about your Tigger.

I will also add my experience for the Winstrol, Doxy and Prednisolone. This
combination of drugs is saving the life of my cat. I don¹t understand all of
the science of how the medicine works on creating new red blood cells. Amani
does though! But when my cat was diagnosed as anemic (due to FELV) she was
prescribed both of the steroids initially and she, within weeks, got more
energy, ate more (important), played more. Her numbers didn¹t raise much but
she felt better and adjusted to the lower counts. I feared too about the
suppressed immunity. Get her blood tested often. I kept her box
cleanŠdisposable pans, Secondhand News litter. Washed her dishes all the
time. She was a stray and yearns to be outdoors but we never let her. Added
supplements. We really didn¹t see a noticeable change in the numbers until
they added Doxy a couple of months later. This kitty cocktail has allowed my
cats numbers to rise to normal levels in 4 months. Without out I don¹t think
she would still be with us. The benefits certainly outweigh the risks as far
as I am concerned. She is struggling with something unrelated right now but
is recovering because these drugs made her strong enough to do so. I don¹t
think you will find one person on this forum that isn¹t thankful that they
could get, or wish that they could.

Just my 2 cents. Wishing you the best.

Sherri

From:  Felvtalk <felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org> on behalf of Randy
Henke <randy at magicedge.com>
Reply-To:  <felvtalk at felineleukemia.org>
Date:  Friday, December 16, 2016 at 9:14 AM
To:  <felvtalk at felineleukemia.org>
Subject:  Re: [Felvtalk] Questioning FELV diagnosis

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] 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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>  
> 
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> 
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