Hi Laurie,
I'm not familiar with what is going on with Charlotte, is she anemic
and if so what is her HCT? If she is anemic has she been on doxocycline
for at least 4 weeks? Positive cats commonly get something called
hemobartonella, it is acually recently called something else but it is a
parasite and very hard to get an accurate test for. It causes anemia
and is treated commonly with doxy. Most vets will put a positive kitty
on it if they are anemic just to be on the safe side. I know one person
who had her cat tested 5 times and come up negative and on the 6th test
was positive. Even if she isn't positive the doxy won't hurt her but if
she is positive may save her life.
My Bailey was on epogen when he was anemic, his HCT was at 20% when we
ordered the epogen and down to 18% when we started it. It can take
several weeks for it to kick in and the HCT may continue to go down for
as many as 3 or 4 weeks, Bailey got as low as 15% before his HCT started
going up. In about 6 weeks he as at 40% and on the epogen we maintained
his HCT at 33% to 25%. He was on it for 5 months before he passed of
undiagnosed pancreatic cancer. We found the cancer upon necropsy. I
know many, many CRF kitties who are on epogen and there is an Anemia
list that you many want to look into. Many vet will poopoo epogen for a
positive cat but when the choice is do nothing and the cat WILL die or
try epogen and the cat may live I'll always take the chance, if the cat
is going to die anyway there is nothing to loss and everything to
gain!!! There are other things and some people thing they are better,
aranesp and procrit both help with anemia. Procrit and epogen are
basically the same thing, the aranesp is something new and some say it
has less of a chance of causing an antibody reaction (antibody reaction
means basically that the epogen doesn't work anymore and you are back
where you started), it is estimated between 10 and 30% of cats on epogen
can develope antibodies in 5 or more months. I personally know of
several cats on epogen for much longer with no problems, one cat Jean
Luc was on it for 2 years, he would have been dead long before without
it. He had lymphoma and CRF.
--
Belinda
happiness is being owned by cats ...
http://bemikitties.com
http://BelindaSauro.com
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