Wendy
I was going to comment on that issue earlier, but I thought you had already
gone ahead with the bone marrow testing. I am not sure there is any other
treatment, regardless of the outcome of the testing. I personally agree with
you that I probably would choose not to put my cat through bone marrow testing,
when it really can't affect the outcome. I am glad to hear that he is feeling
better after the two transfusions. Use the Doxy-Pred-Winstrol combination now,
and hopefully, your kitten's haematocrit doesn't end up falling after the
temporary boost from the blood transfusion. The life span of a red blood cell
is 120 days (at least in humans), and the blood transfusions will have red
cells at different stages of their life spans, so you probably already know
that the effect of the transfusions will probably only last 3 months or so.
Hopefully by then the Winstrol would have kicked in to assist the bone marrow
in producing red cells.
Amani
From: Felvtalk <felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org> On Behalf Of Wendy
Sent: September 19, 2019 10:41 PM
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: [Felvtalk] Bone Marrow Testing for FELV positive Cat?
Hello, Thank you all for your replies earlier today. Our cats' red count is
coming back after 2 blood transfusions, and we started doxy today. He is
eating, drinking, purring, has much better energy, is back to talking, etc. We
are awaiting results that we should have tomorrow morning on the test of his
lymphocytes using blood that was drawn before the blood transfusions. If the
test comes back showing that the lymphocytes contain cancer cells, then we have
our answer. If the test comes back showing that the lymphocytes do not contain
cancer cells, then it has been suggested that we do bone marrow testing asap
tomorrow afternoon. My understanding is that the bone marrow test would likely
either show that he has myelodysplasia or cancer in his bone marrow. My
question is: Would the suggested treatment of Doxy + Pred + Winstrol change if
we find out that our cat has myelodysplasia vs if he has cancer in his bone
marrow? If the treatment is the same, then I question putting our cat at the
risk of anesthesia, lowering his red count, infection, etc. The plan is to
start our cat on Doxy + Pred + Winstrol tomorrow afternoon, and we are being
told that if we want to test his bone marrow we need to do it tomorrow morning
before we start giving him steroids. In addition, his chest x-ray today was
clean, and his abdominal ultrasound showed a slightly enlarge spleen and either
a few slightly enlarged lymph nodes or possibly a few small satellite spleens,
all of which seems can be expected with the anemia and / or infection, and
therefore was not cause for concern.
Following are the background facts, which I also posted this morning: Our FELV
positive neutered male cat approximately 1 and ½ years old has gotten very sick
suddenly. He is a house cat, and he was neutered in May of 2019. A few days
ago, he became lethargic and lost interest in eating. We had his blood drawn
yesterday and he had iv fluids yesterday, and today we were told he needed a
blood transfusion (or two) and more iv fluids, and then a bone marrow test
tomorrow. We were told that the first blood transfusion today was not very
effective because he got so many iv fluids at the same time, so now they are
going to give him another transfusion. As background, we rescued him as a
stray from Barbados in October 2018 when he was about 6 months old, and he has
been healthy, active, happy and gaining weight, despite being FELV positive.
Since October 2018, we cured him of giardia and bartonella henselae. On
12/31/2018, he tested positive for the ELISA and IFA, although his blood work
was in normal ranges at that time. In 03/2019, we started giving him 1 t-cyte
shot once per month, and we started giving him 1ml of interferon per days for 7
days on and then 7 days off, repeated. We have continued the interferon and
t-cyte in this manner ever since 03/2019. Just yesterday, here are the results
of his blood work:
Tests Results Ref. Range
Total Protein 6.1 5.2- 8.8 g/dL
Albumin 3.5 2.5- 3.9 g/dl
Globulin 2.6 2.3- 5.3 g/dL
A/G Ratio 1.3 0.35- 1.5
AST (SGOT) 106 (HIGH) 10-100 IU/L
ALT (SGPT) 39 10- 100 IU/L
Alk Phosphatase 40 6- 102 IU/L
GGT 1 1- 10 IU/L
Total Bilirubin 0.1 0.1- 0.4 mg/dL
BUN 15 14- 36 mg/dl
Creatinine 0.9 0.6- 2.4 mg/dl
BUN/Creatinine Ratio 17 4-33
Phosphorus 4.4 2.4- 8.2 mg/dl
Glucose 178 (HIGH) 64 - 170 mg/dL
Calcium 9.3 8.2- 10 .8 mg/dL
Magnesium 2.0 1.5- 2.5 mEq/L
Sodium 153 145-158 mEq/L
Potassium 4.6 3.4- 5.6 mEq/L
NAIK Ratio 33 32-41
Chloride 121 104-128 mEq/L
Cholesterol 94 75- 220 mg/dl
Triglyceride 108 25-160 mg/dl
Amylase 611 100-1200 IU/L
PrecisionPSL(tm) 10 8- 26 U/L Acute
pancreatitis is unlikely. Chronic pancreatitis is not excluded.
CPK 711 (HIGH) 56-529 IU/L
WBC 20.5 (HIGH) 3.5- 16.0 10'/µL
Corrected for NRBCs
ABC 2.5 (LOW) 5.92-9.93 10°/µ L
HGB 4.5 (LOW) 9.3- 15 .9 g/dL
HCT 29-48 % '
The hematocrit in th 27. (Normal range 29-48). A recent study has indicated
that >23% of anemic cats are infected with one or more species of hemoplasma
and several studies confirm that PCR is significantly more sensitive in
detecting hemoplasma.
MCV 57 37-61 fl
MCH 18.2 11-21 pg
MCHC 32 30-38 g/dl
Poikilocytosis Slight
NRBC 9(HIGH) 0-1/100 WBC
Blood Parasites None Seen RBC Comment
Rouleaux Moderate
Platelet Count 78 (LOW) 200-500 10'/µL
Platelet count reflects the minimum number due to platelet clumping.
Platelet Estimate Adequate
Differential Absolute o/o
Neutrophils (LOW) 1640 8 2500 - 8500 /µL
Bands 0
Lymphocytes (HIGH) 17630 86 1200 - 8000 /µL
Monocytes (HIGH) 1025 5 0-600 /µ L
Eosinophils 0 0 0-1000 /µ L
Basophils (HIGH) 205 1 0- 150 /µL
FREE T4 BY EQU ILIBRIUM D IALYS IS (Pending)
UR INALYSIS- C OMPL ETE
Collection Method Cystocentesis
0.8- 4.0 µ g/dl
Color Appearance Specific Gravity pH
DARK YELLOW TURBID
1.056 1.015- 1.060
7.0 5.5- 7.0
Protein 2+ (HIGH) NEGATIVE
Glucose-Strip NEGATIVE NEGATIVE
Ketones NEGATIVE NEGATIVE
Bilirubin NEGATIVE NEGATIVE
Occult Blood NEGATIVE NEGATIVE
WBC NONE 0-3 HPF
RBC NONE 0-3 HPF
Casts NONE SEEN Hyaline 0-3 LPF
Crystals NONE SEEN HPF
Bacteria Epithelial Cells NONE SEEN NONE SEEN
None Seen
HPF HPF
Fat Droplets
>50
HPF
RETICULOCYTE COUNT REFLEX
Reticulocyte Total Abso lute Ret iculocytes
0.6 0-1 %
15000 <45,000 JµL
Would you please let us know what we can do to help our cat?
Thank you again, Wendy
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