Brenda, You're an angel for opening your heart and home to Spazzy. Thank you on behalf of all homeless kitties, and particularly FeLV kitts. You've come to the right place for info. My first advice would be to find an informed, FeLV-competent vet. While your vet sounds nice, nice won't help Spazzy if she's uninformed about FeLV. And it's evident from your email that you are better informed than your vet---definitely do not allow her to vaccinate Spazzy. Also, keep Spazzy indoors. It stops him from spreading the FeLV and prevents him from coming into contact with cats that may pass on other illnesses to him. As you already learned, the most important goal is to do everything possible to help his immune system. In my opinion, if a cat is enjoying life--alert, playing, eating, enjoying cuddles etc--there is every reason to help him continue to do so. To that end, buy the highest quality cat food you can afford--ideally, one without by-products, additives or preservatives. (Last time I looked, Iams didn't measure up). Add 500mg L-Lysine--grind it to a powder--to his food morning and night. Add a teaspoon of Anitra Frazier's vita-mineral-mix recipe twice a day. (See recipe below.) Wholefoods or a health store should have all the ingredients, and you can make enough at one time to keep you going for weeks. And provide as stress-free an environment as you can---lots of attention, cuddles and care goes a long way to boosting the immune system. Some cats will throw off the virus--one of my 5 FeLV cats is now negative. (The others succumbed around the age of 2.) The test your vet likely means is an IFA test, to find out if the FeLV is in the bone marrow. Once in the bone marrow, the FeLV is confirmed, and won't be thrown off. Ask her what medication she is referring to--feline interferon? Immunoregulin?
Here's the Vita-Mineral Mix recipe. Into the wet food, morning and night, I mix: 1 tsp Vita-Mineral Mix which is made up of: 1 1/2 cups yeast powder (brewer's yeast, nutritional yeast or tarula). (I use nutritional yeast.) 1/4 cup kelp powder or 1/4 cup mixed trace mineral powder (I found kelp first, so I use that) 1 cup lecithin granules 2 cups wheat bran 2 cups bonemeal. Here's another excerpt from the same book---The New Natural Cat--A Complete Guide for Finicky Owners, by Anitra Frazier-- it's in the Feline Leukemia section on pages 326/327): "When a positive cat---one carrying the virus--comes into contact with a negative cat--one not carrying the virus--the negative, but exposed cat may: *not become affected in any way; *become infected (positive), develop immunity, and revert again to being negative; *become positive, but not become ill and remain positive--thus becoming a new carrier of the virus; *become positive and develop lymphosarcoma, leukemia, or other cancer; or *become positive and be ill from the virus infection, much like flu; and then recover and remain positive or become negative. A positive cat who has not developed cancer can be tested again in three months. If he has been treated by an experienced veterinary homeopath and put on a high-quality diet designed to build general health and strengthen the immune system, chances are good that he will have reverted to negative. "(my emphasis) You will get lots more great advice here. Bless you for loving and looking out for Snazzy. Kerry M. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brenda Waterson Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 2:13 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: [Felvtalk] Stray Kitty I took in tests positive Hello, I recently took in a stray cat that had been hanging around my neighborhood for some time. He's such a nice boy and I had been feeding him for a few months before I took him in. What made me take him in was he became very sick with an upper respiratory infection and I had just felt so bad because the mucous that was coming from his nose was green, not too mention he was having a hard time breathing. I took him to my Vet who said he was a very sick kitty, he was close to pneumonia treated him with antibiotics and sent us home. I was to follow up with vaccinations and a neuter. He did finish his course of antibiotics, and days after I went on a family vacation for 10 days. My pet sitter stopped by daily to feed my animals, and walk the dogs. I received a call from the pet sitter stating she was sorry but the cat (Spazzy) had ran past her when she was taking the dogs out. I told her not to worry just try calling him and he should come back. Well that went on for days and no Spazzy. When I finally got home from vacation I was worried about him because he had been gone for about a week, I looked around the neighborhood but couldn't find him. Well about a month and a half had passed one morning while I was heading out the door to work, he was sitting at my back door. I was happy to see him, but was concerned because it seemed his upper respiratory infection was back. I brought him in the house, feed and watered him and off to work I went. I called my Vet who was booked for the weekend and couldn't see him until Monday. I was too concerned to wait so I figured it would be best to see a different Vet. Well Mr. Houdini as I like to call him (Spazzy) had gotten out. I was heartbroken and worried because he was sick . I again searched the neighborhood for him but had no luck at finding him. About a week had passed and I spotted him while I was walking my dogs. I was able to grab him, brought him back home and called the Vet. I took him in the following morning but seen a different Vet at the practice. Dr. McGinn had said he was sick but she wanted to check for Feline Leukemia because where he was treated not that long ago chances are he probably did have it. Not too mention he also had ulcers in his mouth which she stated is common for cats with feline L. Well those 10 minutes were very long just waiting, I hoped and prayed it was negative but it turned out he was positive. He was seen 10/13/08 was treated with Amoxi drops, twice a day until gone. Initially he seemed to be getting better, but a week and a half after I noticed he was sneezing but this time no mucous was visible just blood. I called the Vet's office once they opened, I had explained what was going on and was told Dr. McGinn would call me back by the end of the day. She did return my call and said she's changing his antibiotic to something stronger. She put him on Clavimox drops twice a day until gone. She also stated there are new meds for cats with feline L. but she would need to research it more before she would start using it at her practice. Have any of you heard of or maybe your cat is currently using this new medication? I guess it helps build the immune system. He started the Clavimox drop Saturday 10/26/08 and he seems to be doing better now, no drainage from his eyes, no sneezing blood, but still sounds very stuffy. Have any of you experienced these types of symptoms with your cats? He's gaining weight and thriving but from my understanding they can take a turn for the worse at any given time. Also once he's better she wants him to get his vaccines, however with a compromised immune system will the vaccine's harm him? Dr. McGinn seems to be a very caring Vet, but she doesn't seem to know too much about Feline L. I have done some research on the Internet and found that the Elisa test can sometimes produce a false positive, and it can tell what stage the feline L is at. I guess the preliminary stage (1) is where the cat has come in contact with it, but it's immune system is trying to fight off the disease. The secondary stage (2) is yes the cat does have it, it's gone past the cat's immune system fighting the disease and has moved into the cats bone marrow. Well Dr. McGinn stated the only way to find that out is by doing a bone marrow biopsy. The different websites I've viewed never stated that just that the Elisa test was able to determine what stage the cat was at. Have any of you ever heard of such a thing? At this point I don't know if I should keep trying to treat the sickness every time they appear, or if I should end all suffering for Spazzy and have him euthanized. I don't want him to suffer, and I feel by my keeping him around is being selfish because I love him. Is there anything I can do to help boost his immune system? The Vet recommended feeding him Iam's which he is now on. But is there something more I can do for him? I'm sorry this is such a long email but I thought it was best to start from the beginning so everyone could see the whole picture. _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _____________________________________________________________________________ IRS CIRCULAR 230 NOTICE. Any tax advice expressed above by Mayer Brown LLP was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any taxpayer to avoid U.S. federal tax penalties. If such advice was written or used to support the promotion or marketing of the matter addressed above, then each offeree should seek advice from an independent tax advisor. This email and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. 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