Hi Sheri As you have seen and referenced, some people have had good results with the Winstrol/Doxy combination, while others have not. In my opinion, it is at least worth a shot given the very limited alternatives out there. Good that you have a baseline reading on the blood results – this will allow you to know if he is moving the right direction on the meds.
10 is a haematocrit value, not the RBCs. 10 is low but my cat (Zander) had dropped down to 5, and I was able to pull him out of the abyss – first with a blood transfusion and then with the Winstrol. When I started the Winstrol, it was after his 2nd blood transfusion, which wasn’t doing more than giving a temporary fix. He had gone up to a 16 haematocrit after the 2nd transfusion, but they had had to stop midway through the second bag of blood because he had had a transfusion reaction and they told me that that was it for being able to give him any more transfusions. I had watched for two months as his haematocrit dropped steadily down from 16 to 10, despite trying all sorts of other options like Interferon and LTCI. I started him on the Winstrol (he was already on Doxy and Prednisone) and within a few days, I noticed a pinkening of his ears and gums, and his weekly blood work showed his haematocrit had gone up to 12. From there, it rose steadily in ones and twos until it finally got back into the normal reference range, as did his platelets and white cells, but it took almost 10 months of treatment and every time I tried to wean him off the Winstrol, his haematocrit and red cells would fall again. I suggest you try the meds, (consider adding prednisone or prednisolone as well), and keep a close eye on his haematology results. Ask for them to run a reticulocyte count with the haematology panel. This should tell you if he is producing new red cells or not. Again, with Zander, his reticulocyte count was basically zero when I started the Winstrol, but it went up almost immediately. I also found the need to give Zander 1/5 tablet of apometoclompromide to get the food to go down. I understand that the virus will often affect the GI tract, including thickening of the intestinal walls, causing food and stool moves very slowly through the GI tract, thus adding to the cat’s malaise, and reduced appetite. Also, this slow down allows more problems to develop in the intestinal walls (with the stool sitting in one spot for a long time). The apometoclopromide increases peristaltic action in the GI tract, pushing food down faster. I found this really helped Zander, since he was also vomiting all the time (including after I would spend an hour getting him to eat or syringe feeding him baby food). The apometoclopromide is given a little bit before feeding, and it worked like a charm. Once I started giving it to him, the vomiting stopped and stool started coming out of him normally. Sadly, however, the meds haven’t worked for everyone. It could be how advanced the condition is before the meds are started, and there is also information online that they have identified a number of strains of the FeLV virus. I suspect that this might also account for the fact that some of us see a great improvement in our cats, while others don’t. I’m crossing my fingers for you and I am very happy that you have a supportive vet. That is often the first big problem, so thankfully, this isn’t an issue you must also deal with. Amani From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Sheri Burbridge Sent: April-05-17 1:29 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: [Felvtalk] New FELV mom Hi everyone! I just joined your board today but I have been reading some of your posts since last week. About 2 months ago we adopted our first FELV cat Violet. 2 weeks later we also adopted her brother Mo. They are amazing, sweet, affectionate cats and we love them so much! Vi is eating every thing in sight, healthy, happy and very playful but poor Mo has really struggled. He lost an eye at 4 months old and is only 5.5lbs. He had a respiratory infection and teeth pulled before he came home with us. The rescue told us they didn't think he had long to live but wanted him to have a home if we would take him. Fast forward 6 weeks and he's been back to their vet twice for tooth roots and non healing gums and to ours when he was obviously in terrible pain while eating. She found sores on his palate and ran bloodwork to check for anemia. I got the bad news last Thurs that he is severely anemic and there is nothing we can do beyond what we were doing (clavamox, prednisone, buprenorphine) and I was devastated... until I finally came across your archives in an exhaustive search on Friday. First, thank you all for sharing, we would have no hope for sweet Mo if it weren't for you. I talked to his vet Sat who hadn't heard of using Winstrol. She agreed to at least switch him to Doxy and research it. I was shocked Yesterday to get a call from her saying she would prescribe it for me!! Luckily, she was having the Doxy compound into a liquid for me and after calling all over, that pharmacy was able to order the Stanozolol. I was able to add the steroid to our Doxy/Pred that we were already doing. I just wanted to ask everyone what their experience has been with this. I know some saw great results, others, not so much. Today Mo was very lethargic and wouldn't eat in the AM but when I came home at lunch he ate quite a bit (for him). His number was 10 last week (I'm not sure if that's just rbc's or not) so I hope I was able to get him the meds in time. Thank you again for the info, it's the only thing that has given me hope to save Mo! Sheri
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