[Felvtalk] Questioning FELV diagnosis

Randy Henke randy at magicedge.com
Fri Dec 16 15:22:14 CST 2016


Thank you so much for that info, Sherri. I'm going to continue with the
interferon and the Prednisone and talk to my vet early next week about
Winstrol and Doxycycline. She's hanging in there for the moment. Drinking
well, eating quite a bit of Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers which is the only
thing she is interested in at the moment, grooming herself again and
beginning to want attention.

On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 10:51 AM, Sherri Godschalk <skgodschalk61 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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 don’t 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
> didn’t 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 clean…disposable 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 didn’t 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 don’t 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 don’t think you will find one person on this
> forum that isn’t 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
>> <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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