Hi Sandra,
My Bailey is FeLV+ and is anemic, his kidney's are perfect in fact
all of his organs are in great shape.
His anemia is due directly to the FeLV virus replicating in the bone
marrow, and preventing the bone marrow from producing the red cells. He
is diagnosed with myeloid dysplastic anemia which we found by doing the
bone marrow aspirate. Bailey's HCT was 19% when we got his bloodwork
results on January 3rd, we started the epogen on January 6th and his HCT
went down to 15% in a few weeks, but was at 23% when we last checked it
on Feburary 5th, this is a direct result from using the epogen, Bailey's
HCT was continually going down, and I am positive without the epogen he
wouldn not be alive today. Epogen can take up to 3 weeks to start
working and in the meantime the HCT can and in many cases does go lower
as it did with Bailey. You need to get your vet to try the epogen or
get it yourself, it isn't that expensive atleast here in the US. The
vial I got was about $300.00 but should last me 4 months.
Please if you haven't already done so join the anemia group they are an
excellent resource for this and can help with the dose strength if you
do decide to try the epogen. My vet uses a larger strength than most
vets do, but it is the same dose wise. Most vets perscribe the 2000IU
strength which I think averages 3 or 5 doses, cost averages between $28
to $32 dollars, mine was the 10000IU strength X2 which was 300.00
(although the pharmacy made a mistake and it wil cost me $330.00 for my
next vial), they gave it to me at their misquoted price this last time.
Honestly if his kidney's are fine and he has been checked for internal
bleeding and for hemobart (even if he tested negative for the hemobart
he may still have it, it is VERY tricky to find and if it were me I
would put him on doxycycline for 21 days just to be on the safe side)
then I would do the bone marrow aspirate to find out exactly what is
causing the anemia, there are so many things that can cause it. I get
the very distinct feeling your vet doesn't want to bother with Tabbs
because he is positive and if it were me I'd be looking hard for another
vet.
Bailey was 5 months old when I found him and tested FeLV+ then, so he
has been positive most of his life, he is 10 years old now. He has been
healthy up until last year when we had teeth problems and now this
anemia so we have been pretty lucky.
--
Belinda
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