Cherie,
I, too am so sorry to hear about what you went through losing your daughter. You are obviously a very strong person to survive that and still have the wonderful attitude you have toward saving pets and your dealings with your son.
tonya
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dear Cherie...
I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear about what happened to your daughter,
and after going through that kind of personal hell, I can understand why the
manner in which Snowball passed was particularly excruciating for you. Her
symptoms were not typical of what happens to kittys with FeLV, however. I've
never heard of another FeLV kitty who had such a bleeding anomaly, but my
experience with FeLV is not extensive.
No matter what the illness, when you are in the middle of having to deal with
a terminal situation, it is the WORST. I guess I was just trying to put
things in perspective...whenever you think your situation seems unbearable, if you
will but look a little further you can find someone else whose situation is a
lot worse than your own. I am sure the people who experienced the torrential
rains and ! mudslide in La Conchita, CA would tell you that was the worst
possible experience to endure, but just two weeks before could be thankful they
weren't vacationing in Thailand or Sri Lanka.
Someone else mentioned that their idea of the WORST was feline distemper
(Panleukopenia), which has got to be one of the most horrible ways I have ever
witnessed for a cat to die, with the excruciatingly painful crouching over the
water bowl yet unable to drink, the vomiting of frothy yellow bile and the
horrible bloody end-stage diarrhea that smells like something dead...the poor cat
is literally shedding the lining of its intestines. Dogs with parvo go through
similar torture and have that same awful smell. Both are corona viruses. As
it is most devastating for young kittens and takes them out so quickly, at
least death usually comes quickly for them. But the afflicted dogs and cats are
in obvious agony while it is ravaging their bodies. I've on! ly managed to save
one kitten, at 10 weeks, from that horrid virus. With aggressive hospital
treatment, the odds are somewhat better, I understand, though still not good.
Thankfully the vaccine for the P-virus is effective and relatively safe,
especially if administered in a single valent dose, and it is much less common than
it once was. But it is easily transmitted and hard to eradicate, so if it
breaks out in a shelter or unprotected multicat environment, it can wreak untold
havoc and rapidly.
I wasn't saying FeLV isn't an absolute nightmare, or that FIP was THE worst
virus of all time, I was just saying that having dealt with FeLV and seen
someone else and their kittys suffering through FIP and the frustration of there
not being a test and no way to tell what you are dealing with in the early
stages, worrying about just how contagious it really is, with the vaccine
considered neither safe nor reliable, I'd choose deali! ng with FeLV over FIP. I've been
there and done that and lost two precious furkids and my heart still aches,
but I've also been on the other end with a miracle baby clearing the virus.
And many kittys, for whatever reason, are lucky enough to become infected with
FeLV and the virus never mutates to one of its more virulent forms and they go
on to lead relatively normal lives for years. Most vets consider FIP to be
100% fatal, however. I've read that some holistic vets claim to have saved some
cats from FIP if diagnosed early on, but still admit there is no way of
knowing if the cat has truly been cured, or if it remains a carrier of the virus
because there is no reliable testing for either the active virus or its latent
state. You have to do a necropsy on a dead cat to know for certain. The
testing we have for FeLV does seem to have its vagaries, but it is less of a
crapshoot than for FIP.
Guess I should have kept my philosophi! cal musings to myself...I did not mean
to stir up painful memories for others or start a debate. My apologies. I
agree that all the serious viruses which can kill our beloved furkids are
something we wish no one had to deal with. I, for one, am looking forward to
pigging out on cheesecake with the rest of you before I cross over to be reunited
with my furkids who have become angels.
Sally in San Jose
Sally in San Jose
Certainly
