[Felvtalk] Baby's intro

Fri Feb 22 07:41:51 CST 2019

Thank you, Sandra. I’ve shared your info with my cousin.

- Lorraine

"Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine."  - Alan Turing 

From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Sandra Wachtstetter
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2019 9:54 PM
To: felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Baby's intro

Lorraine - I am part of the group and have the following into - from Amani - so you can see a bit more

From: Amani Oakley 
Sent: June-10-18 3:22 PM
To: 'felvtalk at felineleukemia.org'
Subject: RE: [Felvtalk] Felvtalk Digest, Vol 47, Issue 6

What a very sad story about your blind cat. I understand your heart break. I too have placed cats into what I thought were excellent homes, only to have a sad, and an unnecessarily tragic outcome. I have probably adopted out close to 400 cats in the time my husband and I have been rescuing cats. Thankfully, most of the time, people are just really happy to return a cat to me if things aren’t working out, but I know only too well that once out of my hands, you’re at the mercy of what someone else thinks is the right thing to do.

Your email to FeLV talk goes out to everyone on the list at the same time. I will often answer regarding FeLV because I was lucky enough to have stumbled on a medication protocol (which I was calling Zander’s protocol) which treated my Zander’s FeLV when EVERYTHING else had failed. I used to be a medical lab technologist, so lab results are key to me. When trying Zander on the various medications that were suggested as assisting with FeLV, I got weekly bloodwork done and would study the results to see which direction his bloodwork was going. Nothing worked at all (Interferon, LTCI, combo of prednisone/Doxy) and I kept him alive with several blood transfusions. When that was no longer an option because he had had a reaction during his last blood transfusion and the next one would kill him, I rummaged around in my drawer of cat meds, and had nothing else at all to try but figured what the hell and tried him on Winstrol (Stanazalol) which I thought might at least keep him eating and maybe keep him alive a bit longer. To my complete and utter amazement and disbelief, after just a few days on Winstrol, his ivory white gums and inner ears (signs of his profound anemia) started showing a slight pinkish blush. The next blood work (a few days later) showed the first uptick in hematocrit that I had seen with him since the FeLV crisis had begun, which was not brought on by the artificial increase in red cells from his transfusions.

I kept him on the combination of prednisone/doxycycline/winstrol for more than a year, while his hematocrit climbed from 10 and back into the normal reference range of 25 to 45. Every time I tried to stop or reduce the dosage of winstrol, his blood results would show an immediate drop in red cells and hematocrit, so even though his liver enzymes went way up (the reason Winstrol had fallen out of favour with the vets), I really had no choice but to continue since the vets had nothing else to offer me and the alternative was he was going to die from the FeLV infection. He recovered fully, looked marvelous and amazing, ate well, and his liver enzymes went right back to normal once I discontinued the Winstrol – something like 10 months later.

No one seemed to know this combination, and the vets I spoke with seemed wary or suspicious that this combination would indeed be helpful in FeLV (except mine – who had of course seen the weekly blood work showing a slow and steady rise in red cells and ultimately, in white cells and platelets, until his entire hematological profile looked perfectly fine). At the time, I was understandably extremely excited by the effects of the Winstrol and I believe that the Winstrol was able to cause the production of new bone marrow cells (something it has been found to do in osteoporotic women) and thus, new cells which could produce the red cells. However, I now also think that the combination worked because the Doxycycline was able to retard or slow down the viral replication, to allow the red cell production to move ahead with less risk that the FeLV would attack the new bone marrow cells. I have been told that the prednisone helps protect the liver from the Winstrol, but I also think that it’s anti-inflammatory properties helped in areas like intestinal inflammation (Zander had lots of trouble eating and keeping the food down). So, I think maybe I by accident stumbled on this combination but was able to understand what might be happening and why it might have worked, because of my scientific/medical training.

Zander lived another 7 years and died from a heart condition which I wondered at the time if it was related, and it might have been, but it probably was that the virus had done a fair amount of damage to certain organs before I was able to get it under control. We loved Zander to a crazy extent, and I wanted him with us for longer than 7 years but given that the vets were telling us there was no hope when he was only six months old, I guess I must just be grateful that we had him for so much longer than that.

Amani  

On February 21, 2019 at 9:40 PM Amani Oakley <aoakley at oakleylegal.com> wrote: 

Hi Lorraine

What I have suggested to many in this group, for treatment of FeLV, is the following combination of medications:

Winstrol (Stanazolol) – 1 mg twice a day

Doxycycline – 1/5 to ¼ tablet (100 mg) twice a day

Prednisolone – ½ 5 mg tablet, twice a day

If there are problems with the intestines (vomiting, constipation, slow moving stools, stools of large diameters, all of which might be indicative of the effect of the virus on the intestines) you can try adding ¼ tablet of apometocloprimide.

If the haematocrit level is REALLY REALLY low – like below 5-8, you might consider starting the Winstrol at 2 mg twice a day for a week, to try and kickstart things quickly, but given that there is going to be a likely increase in liver enzymes with the use of Winstrol, recognize that this might also increase the liver enzymes faster.

Lorraine, you will very likely encounter great resistance or skepticism regarding the use of the Winstrol. It is an anabolic steroid, associated with some doping scandals in professional athletics, so it has a bad rap in the sports world. I haven’t yet figures out why this should matter in the animal world, especially since NOTHING else works to turn back on the red cell production in FeLV, but I am just warning you that you may get an unexpected reaction from the vet. If not, terrific – carry on. If you do, many people in this online group have managed to procure it themselves.

I also suggest blood work up front, so you can gauge how well the Winstrol is working to address the anemia. The other thing to resist, however, is that Winstrol may well bump up liver enzymes – sometimes dramatically. Vets will get alarmed at this and will often tell you to discontinue the Winstrol, but I would resist this. The liver enzymes almost always go back to normal once the Winstrol is discontinued, with no lasting harm to the liver, and there is really nothing else to use for this disease.

How long you need to stay on this regimen will depend on the lab results. Once the anemia is resolved (haematocrit, haemoglobin and reticulocytes back to normal) you may need to continue with the Winstrol for a more time. My experience was that every time I wanted to wean my cat off the Winstrol, his haematocrit would immediately drop. I kept him on the Winstrol until I didn’t see a drop in haematocrit when I began to wean him off. My cat’s results were horrible, before starting the Winstrol. (His haematocrit was FIVE, with ZERO percent reticulocytes, and I had given him several blood transfusions, which obviously were only a temporary fix.)

I hope this helps.

Amani

From: Felvtalk <felvtalk-bounces at felineleukemia.org> On Behalf Of Lorraine Johnston
Sent: February 21, 2019 7:23 PM
To: felvtalk at felineleukemia.org
Subject: [Felvtalk] Baby's intro

Hello,

I’m a new member. While caring for my cousin’s cat Baby here in my home during his 2-week vacation in Mexico, we had bloodwork done ahead of the dental cleaning that my husband and I agreed to have done for her.  She turned up positive for FeLeuk on ELISA, IFA, and PCR--the triple whammy. She’s already slightly anemic.

Baby was first vaccinated against FeLV in Jan. 2018 before her first-ever stay with us.  But the booster due at week 3-4 was missed. This was followed by a bite puncture in Dec. 2018. So I suspect that first vaccine was worn off by the time of the bite.

Baby is 11 and in otherwise good health, so I hope there’s a good chance she’ll still live her “normal span” --and perhaps even die of something unrelated. But the anemia is not a  good sign, I’m told.

I am putting together information for my cousin to try to take the edge off of the terrible shock this will give him. I’m of course including cautions about keeping her indoors, etc., and following up on any symptoms, etc. I hope to put off telling him until just before he flies back to the US.

I suspect my cousin would prefer treatments that are oral as opposed to IV. But his wife is trained as a nurse, so perhaps they would be willing to try difficult-to-administer treatments. I’m not sure how much room their budget has for expensive, imported treatments like feline interferon omega.

On general principles: in our home, Baby has been kept entirely separate from our own six cats, who are vaccinated against FeLV except for one little guy who has FIV whom we avoid over-vaccinating. We have always hand-washed after handling Baby or her dishes, even prior to this diagnostic info.

I think I’ve drawn the complete picture, but please ask if I’ve left out something important.

FWIW, I have a degree in biology and am a medical writer, so I don’t scare easy, and I understand big words...mostly. (-:

- Lorraine 

"Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine."  - Alan Turing

_______________________________________________ 
Felvtalk mailing list 
Felvtalk at felineleukemia.org 
http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://felineleukemia.org/pipermail/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org/attachments/20190222/c6f013f0/attachment-0001.html>