Thanks
-----Original Message-----
From: Connie [mailto:wufn...@stargate.net]
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 1:46 PM
To: silver- list
Subject: CS>FW: Cat Fancy article/treating FeLeuk with CS
----------
Here is the preamble to the Cat Fancy Article:
Positive Outlook, Positive Environment
Veterinariana find cats with the leukemia virus can enjoy life?
By Steve Friess
Most people try to avoid FeLV positive cats. However, Ron and
Debbie Reinstedler will drive hundreds of miles to adopt them.
The Louisville, Ky., couple rescued a pair of stray kittens
found by friends in 2000 and soon discovered both cats contracted FeLV.
To protect their FeLV-negative cats, the couple converted the apartment
above their printing business into an FeLV-positive cat haven. Another
friend then told them of six other FeLV-positive kittens at a shelter in
Indiana, and a colony started to develop.
Today, the Reinstedlers usually host approximately 50
FeLV-positive cats ranging in age from four months to 12 years old, some
believed to have lived with FeLV for 10 years. On one occasion, they
drove to St. Louis to meet someone from Topeka Kan., who wanted to turn
over FeLV-positive cats and contacted tham via the Internet.
The Reinstedlers turned their veritable cattery into an
unofficial laboratory, splitting the animals into three groups and
administering different treatments to observe any difference in
outcomes. All receive Interferon alpha in the common week-on, week-off
schedule, but one set also takes the antibiotic Baytril and another
third take the liquid colloidal silver, a homeopathic remedy. The
experiement, that started in May, could take eight months or more to
yield conclusions, if any.
While the effort is expensive---the Reinstedlers sometimes spend
as much as $650 a month in veterinary bills---they believe it to be
worthwhile.
''They all deserve a chance to live,'' says Ron Reinstedler, 58.
''Many people, as soon as they find a cat is FeLV-positive, they want to
put it down.
Why? They can live good lives for six months, a year, 18 months
and sometimes much longer. They deserve the same as everyone else
does.''
Steve Friess is a free-lance writer in Reno, Nev., whose
contributions have appeared in The New York Times, U.S. News and World
Report and Dog Fancy.
