Megan,
My Bailey was my positive, he came to us at 5 months of age, he was
positive then, my other 4 at that time were all negative and
vaccinated. I had Bailey separate but found out my Joey was sneaking
under the door to play with him while I was at work, he was Bailey's age
and we lived in a Mobile home so the door gaps were big enough for him
to squeeze under.
We decided to keep Bailey and let him interact with all the others and
in 11 years nobody got it from him, I kept the others all vaccinated and
nobody ever got it, I tested them occasionally to be sure, they are all
still negative today, although I lost my little Bailey last May to cancer.
He too turned up anemic and we conquered that with epogen and
prednisolone but it turns out he had cancer somewhere and we tested and
did ultra sounds but couldn't find it. It finally took him after 6
months of trying to figure out what kind and where. We did a necropsy
and he had pancreatic cancer.
Since they have all been living together it's a good bet they have all
been exposed and either never gotten it or have and fought it off, a
healthy adult cat has a very, very slim chance of getting it and if they
do would most likely fight it off themselves. Bailey and his house
mates played, groomed, ate out of the same dishes, drank out of the same
bowls and on occasion had little squabbles and nobody ever got it from him.
Stress is the biggest trigger for FeLV activation so keeping the stress
to a minumum is the most important thing you can do. Supplements are
something you can do that generally aren't too expensive. Any or all of
these - Mega C plus, COQ-10, Wild Salmon Oil and lysine are all immune
boosters that are good to give.
One thing with anemia is to find out why they are anemic, with Bailey we
did a bone marrow aspirate and found that the virus was surpressing his
immune system and not allowing the blood to mature, he was considered
non regenerative. We got him on epogen and a high dose of prednisolone
and doxocycline. The doxy was in case he had hemobartonella, a very
common virus FeLV+ cats get, which he tested negative for 3 or 4 times,
hemobartonells will kill them if it isn't put into remission and the
most commonly used drug for that is doxy. I insisted Bailey get this
even though he tested negative for hemo because hemo is extremely hard
to test for and many times cats will test negative when they are in fact
positive so the cat dies, when they could easily have been saved by
giving doxy, so in my opinion giving doxy to be safe is a good thing to
do. It may just save a cat who is testing negative when they are in
reality positive for it. The high dose of pred and the epogen is very
likely what saved Bailey from dying from anemia, anemia will kill them
if is isn't reversed period!!
Epogen is something most vets don't even think about using with positive
cats, especially if their anemia is non regenerative, thank God my vet
was willing to try things that are not textbook, if Bailey had not had
cancer or if we could have found it, I know he would still be here today ...
--
Belinda
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