[Felvtalk] Treatment Options

[Amani Oakley]

Miriam

I have no idea how long you have followed the previous posts but if you have, you will know what I am going to say before I say it (and sorry to all the others on this chatline who have heard this a million times).

Don’t wait. Act immediately. I recommend the following regimen:


1.      Do baseline bloodwork – both biochemistry and haematology. Ask them to add a reticulocyte count to the haematology tests.

2.      Ask the vet to weigh him so you have a reliable baseline for that as well, that can be tracked.

3.      Ask the vet to prescribe the following:
Winstrol (Stanazolol) 2 mg a day (either in one go, or preferably 1 mg two times a day);
Doxycycline (not sure the dose – the vet should know this)
Prednisolone (also not sure the dose but I think 5 mg per day – again this can be given in one dose or split up and given twice)
Metoclopromide ¼ tablet before feedings (this may not be needed immediately, but I would get it on hand just in case – FeLV often negatively affects the
                        Intestinal tract and this helps to keep the food moving properly along through the digestive tract)

Of this list, if you have been following my posts, the only one you will have trouble getting is the Winstrol. Your vet will not agree, may never have heard of it, or generally just express scepticism. In any event, the vet will have to order it from a vet compounding pharmacy, and being unfamiliar with it, your vet may not know how to do that. This is the one you need the most to deal with what is obviously significant anemia (with the ivory gums).

Your vet may try and talk you into other treatments or no treatment (ie – euthanasia). I don’t think it will interfere with the Winstrol to use it with other treatments like Interferon or LTCF, etc., and others on this chatline have experienced good results on other treatments. However, (1) I think they are far more expensive; (2) I don’t think you get as fast a response as you do with the Winstrol, and you NEED a fast response or you will be forced to consider blood transfusions; (3) my own experience was that the other treatments I tried (and assessed with weekly blood testing) did not work.

I recommend weekly blood work (or every two weeks at least) to determine if there is a measurable response. If there isn’t, you want to know it ASAP so other options can be considered.

I just recently learned that there are four different viruses or subgroups of viruses that are responsible for FeLV, so I suspect that may well be why different treatments work in different cats.


Amani

P.S. – My apologies to everyone else for truly and completely sounding like a Winstrol salesperson at this point.

From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Miriam Fenton
Sent: May-19-16 2:51 PM
To: felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Tiffany

He is FELV positive and I'm about to take him to the vet.

On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 11:49 AM, Miriam Fenton <m.gabriellefenton at gmail.com<mailto:m.gabriellefenton at gmail.com>> wrote:
HELP! I just noticed my cat has lost alot of weight and his gums are white!

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