I very very strongly disagree with this advice to euthanize her because her PCV is at 21.7. There are some processes that can cause moderate anemia that can be addressed. If she is terminal, sometimes high doses of steroids can give them a very good quality of life for a few months. I had an FeLV+ cat who was literally running around and jumping even when his PCV was down to 6, because he was on high doses of steroids (on a shot of 1/2 dexamethasone and 1/2 depomedrol repeated as necessary, at first every week or two and at the end daily) and because his blood count went down slowly enough for him to adjust. Dying from anemia itself is not painful, if that is all that is wrong-- I just had a cat with hemolytic anemia who killed his own rbc's off very fast and as gone in 10 days and he died at home while we were still trying to save him, and he went very peacefully, anemia is just like very extreme exhaustion. I am not saying not to euthanize, but you will have plenty of time to make that decision when they get bad enough, it's not usually very fast and if it is it is not usually bad if it's really soley anemia and not something like cancer in their liver or something.
If it's from lymphoma in the bone marrow, steroids in high doses will actually resolve the anemia for a while and control the lymphoma. Not for a long time, a few months at most, but it can be good time. If it's FIP-- my FeLV+ cat who was running around at PCV of 6 had dry FIP, it can take longer, it took 6 months with him. And now there are drugs that help with dry FIP sometimes. So I strongly recommend trying to figure out what is going on and at the very least trying high doses of steroids and see if it gives good quality of life for a while. Michelle -----Original Message----- From: Lorrie <felineres...@frontier.com> To: felvtalk <felvtalk@felineleukemia.org> Sent: Fri, Feb 28, 2014 9:31 am Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] newly diagnosed woth non-regenerative anemia Susan, I have had a lot of experience with FelV having a shelter with several FelV cats. I wish I could give you more encouraging news, but if she is at the point of eating litter she is desperately sick. With noregenerative anemia a blood transfusion will only buy her a very small amount of time. The virus is in her bone marrow will be unable to make more red blood cells. This lack of red blood will affect her heart, liver, kidneys and all internal organs as her lungs cannot get enough oxygenated blood to them. It will be a painful death as she deteriorates. I saw one of our FelV cats die like this and I will never allow it to happen again. My advice is to have her euthanized before she gets in this shape. I know it's a terribly difficult, decision, but better too soon that later. Most of the When kittens are born wth FelV they almost always die, as their immune systems are too immature to fight the virus. My last rescued litter of 4 FelV kittens died at 7 months 9 months 11 months and one made it to a year old. Older cats seem able to fight it off sometimes. Lorrie > From: Susan Loesch <pipercat...@yahoo.com> > To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org > Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 12:56 PM > Subject: [Felvtalk] newly diagnosed woth non-regenerative anemia > Hello, folks...I haven't had any Felv kitties in a while but now have a > positive who is close to a year old. She was just pulled from a local > shelter...she had begun eating litter and wasn't going to get any vet > care. She had been tested when she came to the shelter a few months ago > and they knew she was positive but no followup care or testing was > done. > We immediately took her to our vet for bloodwork...she is anemic but > not bad enough yet for a transfusion, and the anemia is definitely > non-regenerative. > We think that she was probably born positive...the group of cats she > came in with...30 or so...had a number of positive adults, none > altered. So her life will likely be quite short, and already being > anemic doesn't bode well. > SO...those of you who have dealt with a kitty in this situation...what > do you recommend to give her the best chance at the most quality time? > I have always found that info from this list was better than from vets > who deal only marginally with Felv. > Thank you! _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
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