As I mentioned, Sheri, I will dab baby food on their mouths - on their upper 
lip even – beneath their noses. They will usually automatically lick that off. 
Sometimes that encourages them to eat a bit more because the pureed baby food 
is easy to lick up, high in protein and vitamins, and very easy on the 
digestive tract.


Amani


From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Sheri 
Burbridge
Sent: April-05-17 10:20 PM
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] New FELV mom


I've struggled with Mo since he came home, literally, the only thing he will 
eat on his own is the Temptations treats. I count them so I know he's gotten 
more than his basic needs every day but he's never bowled us over with his 
appetite, even on mirzapine (definitely misspelled that). He will lick the gel 
off his feet still, I feel lucky to have found anything he likes but a bit 
stuck as he won't try anything else!

On Wed, Apr 5, 2017, 5:30 PM Amani Oakley 
<aoak...@oakleylegal.com<mailto:aoak...@oakleylegal.com>> wrote:
Good luck Sheri. I understand all too well the reluctance to add stress by 
syringe feeding, but I think that the “gas in the engine” is also dependent on 
getting in those calories. I rely on baby food. I find that it is usually 
palatable enough that you can usually syringe a wee bit of it on their lips or 
just inside their lips – if they sit or lie down beside you or in your lap (my 
preferred position), and they will lick at what is in or on their mouth. I 
think this helps to stimulate their appetite. The Winstrol will often also help 
improve appetite, strength and a sense of feeling better so that they want to 
eat a bit more.

Amani

From: Felvtalk 
[mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org<mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org>]
 On Behalf Of Sheri Burbridge
Sent: April-05-17 3:22 PM
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org<mailto:felvtalk@felineleukemia.org>
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] New FELV mom


Mo was already on Prednisone so I've just continued that daily while adding on 
the Doxy and now the generic Winstrol. My vet gave me an rx for 60 days of the 
Winstrol. I hope to run bloodwork again after 30 days. I don't want to check 
too soon and unfortunately I think we will find out all too soon if it's not 
helping. She did mention his reticulocyte count was nonexistent last week.

I'm currently only able to get him to eat Temptations treats and I put the high 
calorie gel on his feet when he hasn't eaten at least 100 calories a day. I was 
syringe feeding him for awhile but I don't want to do that unless he won't eat 
at all.

I'm trying as hard as I can to turn this around for him. I work in healthcare 
and am very science minded so the theory behind all of this makes sense. I just 
hope he's got enough gas left in the tank for his body to recover.

Sheri

On Wed, Apr 5, 2017, 1:56 PM Amani Oakley 
<aoak...@oakleylegal.com<mailto:aoak...@oakleylegal.com>> wrote:
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<mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org>]
 On Behalf Of Sheri Burbridge
Sent: April-05-17 1:29 PM
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org<mailto: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
_______________________________________________
Felvtalk mailing list
Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org<mailto:Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org>
http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
_______________________________________________
Felvtalk mailing list
Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org<mailto: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

Reply via email to