Hi Jane The Winstrol is not expensive. It is usually about 50 cents a pill. You give 2 pills a day usually - 1 mg doses.
It is given long term and the cats can stay on it for months if needed. My first cat, with FeLV, was on it for more than 8 months before I felt like he was out of the woods with very good red cell counts, haematocrit levels and good platelet numbers. (His white cells were affected as well but not as dramatically so this wasn't a big concern for me, but others will may see a bigger effect in white cells or the component neutrophil/leukoctyte numbers.) You don't NEED to do weekly serial bloodwork as I did if you don't want to. I had blood work done weekly because I was basically trying to figure out what was working with Zander. When he got his blood transfusions, I had to track where he was in his haematocrit and RBC numbers, to see when he needed more blood. At the same time, though, I was giving him Interferon and the weekly bloodwork also allowed me to analyze if there was any kind of response to the Interferon. There wasn't. I therefore moved on to giving him LTCI. Again, no response in the bloodwork. When I put him on the Winstrol, I saw an immediate response, and I was able to track it to confirm that it wasn't just an initial blip. If I would have graphed his haematocrit and RBC levels, the graph would have shown a beautiful steady gradual increase in both those levels until his values crossed into the normal threshold and stayed there. I was also watching his reticulocyte count which had been "0", showing NO bone marrow production of red cells. That slowly began to rise with the Winstrol. Unfortunately, the downside to monitoring the blood work so closely is that invariably, the Winstrol will likely cause an elevation in liver enzymes. Because the vets have all been told that Winstrol will cause liver damage, this causes a knee jerk reaction and they immediately respond by advising that Winstrol should be discontinued. I never listened to them. With Zander, there were no other options so if the Winstrol wasn't going to work, he was clearly going to weaken and die. With my other cat with the nasal sarcoma, who again had her liver enzymes peak on the Winstrol, she was going to stop eating if not on the Winstrol and I would lose her anyway. I therefore refused to discontinue the Winstrol when the liver enzymes went up. What I did do for the cat with sarcoma, was temporarily stop the Winstrol to allow the liver enzymes to drop, and then started her on it again. Though the enzymes increased once I re-started, they didn't go up to the high levels we had seen initial ly. With Zander who remained on Winstrol for most of his life after his severe anemic crisis, I never had any liver problems - just the rise of the liver enzymes which would subside upon discontinuation of the Winstrol. I would wean him off and let him go for several months without the Winstrol and start him on it again if I noticed his ears, gums and pads were looking pale. I also used it on him when he injured a ligament in his knee when he was about 6 years old, and the vet was recommending surgery. Again, I got a good result with the Winstrol for that. (Repair of muscles and ligaments is one of the reasons athletes use this stuff.) The knee was never 100%, but it was say 85 to 90% better with the Winstrol (just a slight limp remaining which could be seen only from time to time) but Zander avoided the surgery which isn't always effective). I would recommend that you do monitor your cat's bloodwork to confirm that the Winstrol is actually working, but you don't need to do the bloodwork weekly as I did, unless you want to. Though I am obviously a fan of what the medication has done for several of my cats, I expect that it may not work in every situation. However, don't give up immediately if you don't see a bump up in red cells or reticulocyte count, etc. I would give it for at least a month before I would conclude it is not working, and I would only conclude that if the haematology results show no improvement from the initial set of results. Also monitor your cat's food intake and mood, since I also found an excellent effect on those things from the Winstrol. Without the close observation of the haematology values, you can still track the effect of the Winstrol on things like your cat's food intake and general well-being, and check the colour of his pads, gums and inside of the ears for signs of pinking up (unless yours is a black cat, in which case, you are probably limited to checking the gums). There are some comments from others on this chatline, indicating that with anemic cats, you want to be careful of the amount of blood that is being drawn for tests. I agree with those comments, but generally speaking, the amount of blood removed for testing, even weekly, should not have much of an effect on a cat - even one that is anemic. For me, it was important, with Zander to closely monitor the bloodwork, because though I gave each medication lots of time to show a response, I didn't want to keep Zander on stuff that wasn't actually helping. In my view, he didn't have much time to respond, and so I didn't want to be misled into believing that one of the other medications was helping just because he might appear to be looking a bit better or eating a bit more, but his blood counts were not improving. I was just as prepared to move to something else if the Winstrol wasn't going to have any effect. Note, however, that unlike the Interferon and the LTCI, I didn't put Zander on the Winstrol because I actually thought it would help in anything other than appetite stimulation. The effect I saw was entirely unexpected. I therefore thought I had stumbled on something unknown when I got this great response to the Winstrol, and that's why I was so annoyed when I found out a year later that the vets knew about this stuff but were not suggesting it, despite the fact that the alternatives for FeLV were very expensive and not particularly effective in most cases. I also think that having done this close monitoring of his bloodwork helped to convince my vet that the Winstrol was actually helping, rather than my subjective observations. Seeing the steady rise of the red cells, the haematocrit, PCV, reticulocyte and platelet values, that started just days after I put Zander on Winstrol, was extremely persuasive evidence that I wasn't crazy when I reported that Zander was doing better. I think this is one of the main reasons my vet now gives me great support regarding treating my cats. She will ask for my input and is not surprised when I want to try the Winstrol in other situations, and when I report to her that it has been helpful or effective. Please keep us informed of your own experience with Winstrol, so that we can figure out if it is generally effective or whether I just have been particularly lucky with its use. Amani -----Original Message----- From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Jane Gannon Sent: October-31-15 11:36 AM To: felineres...@frontier.com; felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Cats as "property" Last year I noticed that several of my cats had anisocoria (one pupil is larger that the other) and one of them was loosing weight. I researched on line and found that this can happen in FELV+ cats. I had them tested and they were all positive. I have a large cat family and then had everyone tested, half were positve and half were negative. I vacinated the negatives and have let them all live together. After 6 months I had one negative retested and he was still negative. In October I wrote to you that one of my young ones was lethagic, not eating and had a fever. He ended up getting FIP and I had him euthanised last week. HIs brother had to be euthanised in June. He had many problems, but in the end he had severe neurological problems and could no longer walk. I have another one now that is loosing weight, his rbc count is getting lower but he is acting fine. I want to know more info about Winstrol, my vet does not have a problem using it. How long can a cat be on it and how long does it help? Do I have to keep taking them in for blood tests? How expensive is it? ---- Original Message ----- From: "Lorrie" <felineres...@frontier.com> To: <felvtalk@felineleukemia.org> Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2015 5:08 AM Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Cats as "property" > On 10-24, dlg...@windstream.net wrote: > >> It is a shame that cats and dogs, any animal is "just property". >> That reduces them to almost 'nothing in the law's eyes. As >> property, do they not have any value? They deserve respect at the >> very least. Any one tell me my cats are just property and not >> deserving of love, respect and proper care had better be prepared >> to run as fast as he can. Someone once said he would use them for >> target practice. I told him he would be lying on the ground next >> to them. > - > I rescue abandoned cats and kittens and last year I found a calico > kitten about 8 or 9 weeks old. She was walking down the street right > in the middle of town and this creep saw her at the same time and > wanted to feed her to his "pet python". Well you can be sure he > didn't get this poor baby. She is still with us, spayed, happy and > loved. > - > Lorrie > > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
