Re: Anemia

[Lernermichelle]

Niki,    The things you are doing (steroids, immuno-regulin) are a good start, but you need to find out what is causing the anemia. If it is lymphoma, he will not get better without chemo (which might or might not put him into remission). If it is hemobartonella, he needs doxicycline (and probably should be on it just in case, as hemobart is hard to diagnose). If he is not producing new red blood cells he may need Epogen.       I would recommend bringing him to an internist, if you can, at a larger clinic or hospital, and seeing if the internist can run the proper tests to try to see what is wrong. There have been several people on this list who have successfully reversed anemia in their positive cats, usually through a combo of Epogen, steroids, doxicycline, and pet tinic, as well as immuno-regulin in one case (seemed to help a lot) and iron shots in another.  My Simon had very bad anemia from lymphoma in his bone marrow, and a combo of chemo and strong steroids got his hematocrit almost back to normal for a couple of months.  So you need to find out what is wrong, or at least try to cover as many bases as possible.   Michelle   In a message dated 5/23/2006 5:22:09 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hello all:   I am not sure if my previous post went out correctly but if it did I have an update on Ziggy and really need some help on what to do.  Went to the vet yesterday who ran Ziggy's blood work which showed him to be "moderately" anemic.  Vet immediately gave him a shot of immon regulin (I believe) and then gave me predisone and and antibiotic along with a liquid appetite stimulant.  What his exact numbers were I am not sure as I was devastated by what the vet said.  Ziggy is still eating but is lethargic at times and shows no interest in playing with any of his toys.  Additionally, he licks the interior walls of my house intermittently and the marble threshold b/w my hall and bath.   I know I am in a daily fight for his life but I just can not seem to stop thinking that he is losing his battle.  My vet has also ordered Interferon for me so that I can start a regime of that.  I don't know what else to do and I do not know if there is any advice anyone can give me to try and ease my fears.  I have lost sleep over this for the past four nights (three when I didn't know what was going on and now tonight).  Will someone PLEASE help me?  Thanks....   Niki