Blood transfusions really are emotionally taxing. Olive was only given one, because at the time I took her to the vet, I had no idea what was wrong with her. The vet discovered she was extremely anemic, but didn't know why, and said that if I wanted her to live, she needed one. I didn't know until a couple days after the transfusion, when she was doing so much better, that she was positive. And only a day or two after that, when she had become her normal, extremely playful, semi-annoying self once again, she started going downhill. It was the most heartwrenching thing I've ever experienced. I thought I had saved her life, but I had only given her an extra few days of feeling better before fading again. I considered another transfusion, but after doing extensive research, I figured it would be a lost cause. I didn't want to put her through any more pain. Transfusions are good in live-threatening situations, but with non-regenerative anemia, they only postpone the inevitable, and not for long.
-Megan -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Caroline Kaufmann Sent: Wed 10/17/2007 11:46 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: RE: blood transfusion I know, you are also right. But I didn't want to make Monkee go through the bone marrow aspirate because he'd already been through so much, since we did Chemo on him (which, in hindsight, I will NOT do again with another animal). I'm sure it's possible the chemo itself brought up the anemia, but he had the lump on his leg that was only getting bigger with chemo (which the Dr. was shocked by) and by the time we did the transfusion, he had lumps in his stomach and groin area, so the cancer was clearly spreading- despite chemo. The Doctor was almost positive it was the cancer causing the anemia and at the time, I was so disenchanted with her, I didn't really listen. But I'm sure now that she was right. We felt like a bone marrow aspirate would just tell us what we already knew, but didn't want to admit. I guess my point was really that the blood transfusions are so emotionally taxing. -Caroline Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:27:21 -0700From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: blood transfusion Caroline, I remember Monkee and all the heartache you guys went through.I would be doing all positives a disservice though if I didn't make a point about what my vet told me and I have personally seen happen with some cats on the lists I'm on.Sometimes for what ever reason it takes 2 or 3 or more transfusions to kick start a cats blood production, my vet told me she has done up to 5 transfusions on the same cat with no ill effects. Of course you still need to find out what is causing the anemia so you can hopefully fix it. Baileys anemia was his first symptom of the cancer we couldn't find until after he passed BUT we did reverse the non-regenerative anemia with epogen and prednisolone, his HCT was normal (33% from a low point of 15%) when the cancer took him. I didn't need to do a transfusion with Bailey because I did a bone marrow aspirate to find out what was causing the anemia and treated accordingly.Every cat I've lost has taught me something in hindsight that I and my vet missed at the time, I wish my guys weren't the ones that had to pay with their lives but I know one thing, if I ever hear of a cat having the same symptoms or God forbid I have a cat with like symptoms, I will know what to tell them to look for, doesn't mean they will but I will make the effort to let them know.-- Belinda happiness is being owned by cats ... Be-Mi-Kitties http://bemikitties.com Post Adoptable FeLV/FIV/FIP Cats/Kittens http://adopt.bemikitties.com FeLV Candlelight Service http://bemikitties.com/cls HostDesign4U.com [affordable hosting & web design] http://HostDesign4U.com ------------ BMK Designs [non-profit animals websites] http://bmk.bemikitties.com _________________________________________________________________ Boo! Scare away worms, viruses and so much more! Try Windows Live OneCare! http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/purchase/trial.aspx?s_cid=wl_hotmailnews
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