Hello all.....I am new to this list and this will be my first post. I've been corresponding with Michelle Lerner and she suggested that I post what she and I have been discussing to the group as a whole, that some of you might be interested in what I have to say here.
Lulu was a pretty little feral kitty that I took into our home about 41/2 years ago, she was young and has adjusted well to living with us. After a short time I suspected that Lulu had leukemia but she continued in a healthy state until just a few months ago at which time my local vet confirmed my leukemia suspicions and we began Lulu on subcutaneous Immuno-Regulin Propionibacterium Acnes, Immunostimulant injections.
I spoke to my vet at length today as to m-reg therapy as I was concerned with posts that I had seen on the listserve that said the drug was only to be given by IV,. My vet said that he commonly treated his cats with subcutaneous shots and that in his practice he'd had quite a few cases of complete remission with sub-Q injections. I asked specifically as to whether it was better to give it IV, IM or subQ, he poo-poohed IV and said that it mainly blew veins and gave vetrinarians a chance to charge a lot for the procedure, IM was painful and destructive to tissues, but that with subQ, the medicine was getting to the same tissues with less trauma and an additional benefit that the same amount of medicine was absorbed slowly by the tissues over a longer period of time. The recommended dose is 0.4cc for a 10 lb cat.....Lulu was started at 0.4cc bi-weekly for the first two weeks
then we went to 0.4cc once weekly and I have continued to give her the injections at home up till now. (She is still testing positive after having been on treatment for about 4-5 months.) He mentioned a study that had shown a 77% remission rate over a period of 6 yrs and confirmed to me that long term therapy would be possible with this drug without risk of side effects; in fact, he said that there were no harmfull reactions over the long term. He mentioned a vet that used m-Reg with horses in controlling warts....this vet injected 0.25cc subQ directly underneath each wart.....this vet guarantees results with this treatment and says that he's never had to administer a 2nd dose.
We'd taken Lulu to the vet initially because of sudden itchy, running, crusted, eyes with open sores which simply would not resolve with anything that I'd tried. She'd had persistent moist lungs from time to time and this had given me the nagging feeling that she was leukemia positive; in combination with the eyes, there was no longer any doubt that she was infected. As I said, she'd been a feral cat when we took her in but by now had become a beloved member of our family---we couldn't just put her down or let her die on the vine. Under the vet's direction we initially treated the eye condition with an opthalmic ointment and the chest with an oral suspension ALBON, (sulfadimethoxine, a sulfonamide).....I also gave the cat 500mg of crushed up lysine/H20 daily by mouth as I was worried that we were dealing with herpes eventhough it didn't look like it. Lulu improved dramatically over the next few weeks. I continued to give her the
Lysine even after discontinuing the opthalmic ointment figuring that if it was working I didn't want to rock the boat and that it probably would't hurt her...the vet agreed...finally it just became too much of a battle giving her this most hated liquid---at medicine time she'd be nowhere to be found and it was afffecting our friendship, so I let it go. Lulu has been none the worse for discontinuing those meds, so the mReg has apparently helped her immune system enough that she doesn't need the additional therapy.
As I indicated she is still positive test-wise but looks seems to feel so much better that we are not really worrying about the the continued positive test. As long as she is looking well we are happy and are prepared to continue giving her Immuno-Regulin for as long as she needs it. The vet indicated that because Lulu was a young, healthy cat with minimal symptoms, no wasting, and little or no signs of other serious organ systems involvement that she stood a very good chance of sero-converting at some point.
At any rate, my vet is charging me $12.50 for 0.4cc for shots that I am administering at home---at $31.25 per cc I figure he is making about $15.60 per each 50cc bottle that I see listed tor $159.00 at Revival Animal Health. We just don't have that kind of money so have I begun checking into the prospect of buying the drug myself over the internet. The next hurdle will be to acquire syringes without a prescription, but I'll tackle that when I have to. I haven't had a chance to check with Revival yet as to ordering, but I sure am hoping that it is available without prescription...I think that this might be a natural or herbal remedy so am hopeful that an Rx is not required.
The vet gave me an article from a vetrinary magazine round table discussion about m-Reg and it is quite interesting....would be glad to scan it and forward or fax it along page by page to anyone that is interested, or perhaps I could try posting it to the listserve. He also told me that Immunovet had sent him literature about the drug but that he didn't have copies of that anymore, probably could get hold of that article by contacting the manufacturer directly.
So that's the story here I sure hope that this information might be helpful to someone out there. Thanks for your patience in reading this long long post.
Claras
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