Re: my baby crackers
Had you ever had Crackers tested previously? Was he vaccinated? I think it's highly unlikely Crackers got leukemia from Pokemon. Was Pokeman ever tested? I don't think you should blame yourself for bringing Pokemon in, and I doubt that is how Crackers got felv.If Crackers does have felv he sounds very healthy and could live a very long life. You'll get lots of good advice from this list. tonya[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: About last Oct. we found Pokemon at our local park. She had a pink collor on and was so tame and lovable. But she was skinny. I thought I was doing an excellent thing bringing her home and my son 4 and niece 9 wouldn't have it any other way. She seemed to gain weight when she got here. She was small so i thought she was still a kitten about 4-5 months. Well a few weeks ago Pokemon started "coughing" she got into the basement and had insulation on her nose. So when the coughing was still going on but not as bad I thought she must have sniffed some insulation. Last Monday her breathing semed like a deep hard breathing and she was always so skinny i didn't notice a weight lost. I went down into the basment i live in a triplex...i found rat poisoning in a corner on a shelf. I rushed her to my local animal hospital and they told me that she needed emergency care...so we drove to unniversity of penn animal emergency hospital. They took her right in. I was thinking oh no rat poisoning..we dont even have mice here. Well finally after getting half assed answers and them saying it could be this or that...she told me that Pokemon had an abundancy of fluided in her lungs and finally was told that she had lyphomia and that they estimated Pokemon to be between 5-7 yrs old based on teeth and kidney size. To do the full tests and amit her to the ICU unit would be between $6000-$8000 estimate and we needed to put $1300 down. And they were so kind to let us have 5 mins to decide. Also the dr. said that this lyphomia could have been from Feline Aids or Feline Luekemia and that Cracks may have been affected. Now my mind was shot. I decided to euthanize her when they said she was so sick that they also believed she had this for awhile and was little hope. Ok on to Crackers. On the way home from putting Pokemon to sleep I immediately called my vet to get Crackers tested for FIV AND The luekemia. That was Tuesday and today is Saturday. Last nite Friday cracker had his appointment the dr said looks like he will be negative for both but we still have about 2 mins. Well he said oh we do have a positive. As my heart dropped he got his book and said feline luekemia. The dot that registared was a little very lite blue dot. I told him to send out the other ultra violet test. They should be back Sun morning and with the holiday if not sun then Mon. He said Crackers looked very Healthy and strong. I asked him over and over being in shock if there were false positives and he said that the test didn't have any. Here is a little of Crackers history: he is my big baby 18.6 lbs..he has NEVER been sick ever...no colds nothing and he only had diareahha 1 day when he was a yr old. He is very loving and happy..has never been outside except when he would run out and i was right after him. That he grew out of. He has a hearty appetite. I leave out food and fresh water 24-7 for him. He lives a very stress free life and is a LOVER boy he loves to purr and be rubbed. I am willing to do anything in the world for him and i will. I am open to all and all suggestions. And all I can remember is that the 1st month pokemon came they would fight and he did have a bite mark that bleed..he is all white. So i know he suffered a deep wound puncture for her. What kills me is how dense I was. I based Pokemon like a book by its cover. She was beautiful and so sweet I NEVER realized i should of had her tested and never brought her near my baby. I will never be able to forgive myself for Cracker being a positive Feline Leukemia. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Re: my baby crackers
Hi, My name is Wendy. I've been on this site for about 10 months now and have learned so much. My FeLV+ passed away, but it was so late when I found this group, there wasn't enough time to save him. I think that Crackers has a much better chance. I'm sorry to hear about Pokemon. I find, however, that things happen for a reason, and you did the right thing by loving Pokemon. You didn't know about the risks of taking her in, so please don't beat yourself up. So many of us here have exposed our kitties by unknowingly taking in an FeLV+ before we were educated on FeLV. I exposed three others by taking in Cricket, my FeLV+. They are all negative. Everyone has posted great info. so far for you. One thing I didn't see was how old Crackers was. That is important. If he is older, then it is harder for him to contract FeLV, as Chris said. Or rather, easier for him to throw it off if exposed. From our experiences here, adults almost never contract FeLV. It's the kittens that contract it permanently. So I wouldn't worry too much until you test and retest. The only thing that might be a problem is that Pokemon and Crackers were fighting and the veterinary community doesn't know enough about this virus to know if indirect exposure (sharing water bowls, grooming) versus direct exposure (introducing the virus directly to the bloodstream) plays a part in throwing off this virus. It could. In the meantime, I would change Cracker's diet, as Phaewryn pointed out. I feed mine Innova. You can't get the good stuff at a grocery or discount store, nor can you get it at Petsmart or Petco (although you can buy Eukanueba there, but it's not good food either, imo.) Also, vitamin C and L-lyine (without propyline glycol) are good immune supplements. The other big thing is to keep Crackers stress-free. I would also find another vet. One that does not feel euthanasia is the only option with FeLV+ kitties. One that is educated. You can figure this out by calling different vets in the area and speaking with them directly about their philosophy on treating FeLV+'s. You'll get a good feel for a vet this way. Your vet was wrong about the test not having any false positives. Try not to freak out too much. We all love our furbabies dearly here, and you have found a good place to be while dealing with this. It's a great source of support. If you'd like, I can email you a sick and regular care kitty manual that I compiled. I can't attach it to these postings, but I can send it to you directly if you'd like. It's got a lot of info. in it. Please keep us posted on your kitty's diagnosis, etc. :) Wendy Dallas, Tx P.S. I think $6000-8000 for treatment for Pokemon is RIDICULOUS Just ludicrous!!! And I don't necessarily agree with their diagnosis and what they said should be done. I wouldn't go there again if you can avoid it. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
re: my baby crackers
i looked at my acts food the first 2 things are corn and corn gluten...any suggestions for a better food..he also eats whiskers wet packets...i am waiting for this vet to call me he said he would...i am a wreck and i am going to find a new vet..hopefully there is one around..the vet did the test that checks for FIV/feline luekemia...at the last min a tiny blue dot appearred very faint...he got his book and said it was luekemia...i was so excited that he said looks like its gonna be neg..to a total SHOCK...he said i can send out the other test and i said YES!! he said i will personally call u the results should be in sun but with the holiday...blah blah blahi am waiting and praying..also i noticed on the elisa test that the blood was splattered all messy on it...he said that the confirmation blue came up and that the test was done right...i am new to this board thanks to belinda she hooked me up...i never knew of so many diseases cats could have and i appreciate how much valuable info i have received so far THANK YOU
RE: my baby crackers
Its tough to find a vet who has a realistic attitude about FELV. My first vet, who was wonderful, was upfront with me when my Tucson tested pos. He told me that he had very little experience with FELV. I found a second vet who coincidentally is the vet for a local rescuer who takes in FELV cats and hes been great. Never batted an eyelash when I talked to him about mixing; never treated Tucson any differently. She has a tendency to develop low white blood count he gives her immuno-regulin when that happens. Outside or that, we do nothing special. I changed all their foodthey were all indoor cats a couple of them, including Tucson, got to be real porkos! I give them Wellness wet food and eliminated most of the dry food. There are different foods out there and I know people will give you ideas. Since switching, one of my cats has lost weight and Tucson, well shes lost a bit but its tough with the feline vacumn cleaner! Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 12:05 PM To: Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: re: my baby crackers i looked at my acts food the first 2 things are corn and corn gluten...any suggestions for a better food..he also eats whiskers wet packets...i am waiting for this vet to call me he said he would...i am a wreck and i am going to find a new vet..hopefully there is one around..the vet did the test that checks for FIV/feline luekemia...at the last min a tiny blue dot appearred very faint...he got his book and said it was luekemia...i was so excited that he said looks like its gonna be neg..to a total SHOCK...he said i can send out the other test and i said YES!! he said i will personally call u the results should be in sun but with the holiday...blah blah blahi am waiting and praying..also i noticed on the elisa test that the blood was splattered all messy on it...he said that the confirmation blue came up and that the test was done right...i am new to this board thanks to belinda she hooked me up...i never knew of so many diseases cats could have and i appreciate how much valuable info i have received so far THANK YOU
RE: my baby crackers
The thing about food is that some of this food can be pretty pricey You sort of have to balance things. Keep in mind that they dont eat quite as much of the better quality food as some of the cheaper brand I order Wellness online from The Hungry Puppy in NJ even though theres shipping charge, it still comes out cheaper than other places. One can goes a long way even with all 5 of them They tend to eat smaller portions. However, not everybody can do that so you shouldnt feel that you have to spend a fortune on food. You can always mix foods with home made sort of---boiled chicken or boiled any meat cut up in little pieces. All my cats like one veg or another they love eggs cheese. Theres a brand called Figaro and once in a while I throw in a can as its just tuna veggies. Basically, I try to give them a balanced diet, to stay away from stuff that fills them but doesnt give them nutrition, and to vary things a bit just so they dont get into a I dont like that cat food anymore mood! Thats just my way of doing it- Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 4:30 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: my baby crackers Where do you buy your cat food? If it's the grocery store, that's the first problem you have to solve. You need to get a phone book, and look up a pet supply store in your area. Once you find one, go to the store, and pick up a bag of cat food, flip it over, and read the ingredients (don't even bother reading anything that's sold in a grocery store, it's all crap). If it doesn't have MEAT as the first (and preferably the first two) ingredients, put it back on the shelf and move on to the next food down. Do this until you find one that DOES have MEAT as the first ingredient. At the same time, you can also look for corn in the ingredients, and try to avoid those too. What you can afford will ultimately tell you how far you can go in buying the best food you can. I personally recommend California Natural or Innova (or Healthwise, for budget-minded people). But there are other good brands too. Others will make brand suggestions, I'm sure. OR, just search our archives, this has been discussed many times in the past on this list. A few other good brands: Chicken Soup, Felidae, Natural Balance, Newman's Own, Pinnacle, Premium Edge Kitten, Wellness, Wysong Archetype Diet, (Eukanuba is an acceptable food is nothing better can be found locally, better than what's sold in grocery stores). Some brands carry several products in their lines. Some are better than others, for example, Premium Edge CAT food is not good, but their KITTEN food is. Wysong's feline diet is not good, but their archetype diet is good. Etc.. Other brands will have good first 2 or three ingredients, but if you keep reading it just gets crazy as you go down the list of ingredients, for example, MANY otherwise good premium cat foods (with meat as the first 2 ingredients and no corn) add garlic, blueberries, and all kinds of other crazy nonsense to their foods. I don't recommend those, simply because they are MORE likely to cause allergies, and garlic is not safe to feed cats at all, I recently learned on this list. Not sure why otherwise good cat foods add something so dangerous to their products, lack of education, I suppose. Anyways, point is, read carefully. There should be NO onion, garlic, or corn, and preferably not a lot of fruit and veggies, as cats are carnivores. Also, herbs add to the chances of allergic reactions too. The more ingredients, the more you're playing with fire as far as allergies go. That's why I prefer the California Natural chicken and rice, VERY basic ingredients! Phaewryn Please adopt a cat from Little Cheetah Cat Rescue!!! http://ucat.us/adopt.html Low cost SpayNeuter services in VT, and Emergency Financial Assistance for cat owners: http://ucat.us/VermontLowCost.html Special Needs Cat Resources: http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html The Sofa Poem: http://ucat.us/sofapoem.html Please shop online through i-give and support the Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program: http://www.igive.com/FVEAP Shop at GREAT stores, like Drs. Foster Smith, Pet Food Direct, Musician's Friend, and LOTS more! It doesn't cost you a single penny more, and it makes so much difference to a sick cat in need!
Re: my baby crackers
thank you for the list...i am writing them down and going out to get the best for my baby...did anyone ever have a problem with a cat switching diets? like not liking a new food? in that case can i wean him off of meow mix by...mixing the new with old at first? any suggestions..my cat loves to eat 18.6lbs but is set in his ways..no house food...or any homemade mushy foods?
Re: my baby crackers
I am sorry for your terrible experience, but it is absolutely not true that there are no false positives. I had a false positive on a kitten just a few months ago. The first thing I would do is to find a different vet. There are people here who will be able to give you more and better information, but I can tell you there are absolutely false positives.-- Vist the Austin Siamese Rescue store and save a kitty life! http://www.cafepress.com/austinsiamese
RE: my baby crackers
First off, its very hard for a healthy adult cat to catch FELV. There are two testsone is an in-house test, Elissa. Then theres an IFA, blood sent out to lab. Be sure the vet specifically says he did IFA. Now having said all of this, believe me there are tens of thousands of cats who test pos for FELV and nobody ever knows it. My own didnt test + until she was 4I had her since she was a kitten and shes never been outside. False + are not uncommon and further testing retesting is in order Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kelley Saveika Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 1:11 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: my baby crackers I am sorry for your terrible experience, but it is absolutely not true that there are no false positives. I had a false positive on a kitten just a few months ago. The first thing I would do is to find a different vet. There are people here who will be able to give you more and better information, but I can tell you there are absolutely false positives. -- Vist the Austin Siamese Rescue store and save a kitty life! http://www.cafepress.com/austinsiamese
Re: my baby crackers
At 09:48 AM 9/2/2006, you wrote: In addition to the IFA test. Any test should be repeated in 2 months or so. Some cats have a transient positive after exposure and then are able to completely clear the virus because of a good immune system.. I am eagerly awaiting my 8 weeks on this new juvenile I am caring for, Kelly
re: my baby crackers
thank you all so much who have posted so far your advice is keeping my family in excellent spirits THANK YOU so much and bless all your furry friends:)
Re: my baby crackers
Well, first off, find a vet that isn't so uneducated. The in house ELISA test has a very high rates of inaccurate results. Next, take another look at the food you are feeding, read the ingredients, it should have meat as the first ingredient, preferably the first two ingredients, and there should be NO corn in it at all. Good nutrition is the best thing you can do. Next, once you find a better vet, make sure they run a second IFA, because if your first vet did such a poor job running the ELISA, he could have messed up the sample being sent offfor the IFA you had done through his office (good bedside manner dictates that you DON'T say "Oh it looks like he might be ok" TWO minutes before the test is complete, just to say "Oh, nevermind, he's infected" That's HORRIBLE bedside manner, it's just terrible)! Then, wait 3 months, and retest again. In the meantime, read about all the possible treatments on our main website, and consider trying one, or more, of them, in a hope that he can "throw" the virus. That does happen, cats can test positive, and then later become negative, if they mount an effective immune response to the initial infection. You also might consider a vitamin C supplement, to boost his immune system, and a good multi-vitamin supplement in general. Now, about your not testing prior to adding another cat, well, mistakes happen, All you can do is learn from it, and try to do better next time. Don't blame yourself for things you didn't know, and can't change now, that's pointless, and doesn't help anyone. Besides, FELV is not like FIV, it's not as contagious, it depends really very much on a cat's immune system, unlike FIV, which is almost always spread by a bite wound. Was Crackers ever tested in the past, before you adopted Pokemon? He might have had it all along. You didn't specifically say he tested positive for FELV, you said they did a combo test and he came up positive (and the doctor only knew that by looking in a book?), so I assume since this is a FELV group, he has felv, but does he have FIV too? I worry also, because if the vet had to look up how to read a combo test in a book, how many of these tests has he actually run? How OLD is the batch of test kits he is using? Has he been using the same pack of kits for the past 5 years? Are they expired? How could he possibly know ANYTHING about FELV if he doesn't even know HOW to run the test without reading the book? Scary, all put together. Phaewryn Please adopt a cat from Little Cheetah Cat Rescue!!! http://ucat.us/adopt.html Low cost SpayNeuter services in VT, and Emergency Financial Assistance for cat owners:http://ucat.us/VermontLowCost.htmlSpecial Needs Cat Resources: http://ucat.us/domesticcatlinks.html The Sofa Poem: http://ucat.us/sofapoem.html Please shop online through i-give and support the Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program:http://www.igive.com/FVEAP Shop at GREAT stores, like Drs. Foster Smith, Pet Food Direct, Musician's Friend, and LOTS more!It doesn't cost you a single penny more, and it makes so much difference to a sick cat in need! No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.7/436 - Release Date: 9/1/2006
