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I agree with you – some suggest
daily dosage as opposed to on/off – I also found some links regarding
interferon dosage – so I will forward it to you. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/9352/interferon.html uman recombinant alpha
Interferon, in FeLV+ cats, is generally administered, orally, according to the
well-established protocol 7-days-on-7-days-off, 30 units per time. Given in this way,
alpha Interferon does not act "interfering" with the replication of
the virus (as it does when given IV at million units), but instead triggering,
through the typical target organs (tonsils and sub-tongue area), the production
of the cat's OWN interferon (omega Interferon). So, the benefits for the cat
come from HIS OWN interferon: oral alpha Interferon is just the
"switch" to promote production of the cat's endogen omega Interferon. Almost all FeLV+
cats, if not given a particular therapy, such as Interferon, show the
"rollercoaster" effect that we all know so well; the cats goes uphill
and downhill, and the "period" of this up-and-down cycle is not
necessarily regular. [ the "period" of
any physical *repetitive* phenomenon is the TIME after which the
phenomenon repeats identically; the period of earth's rotation is 24 hours,
the period of its revolution is 365 days, the period of AC
power from an second is 1/60 =
0.01666 seconds] Now, if we take note
of the period of the rollercoaster in a "non-Interferon" cat, we see
that this period is NOT 14 days (that is the period of the Interferon
administration protocol, 7+7). This means that the two
periods (rollercoaster and Interferon) are "asynchronous" between
them, and would tend to go out of phase. In the example below,
an hypothetical rollercoaster behaviour ("U"= "up" day) is
confronted to the Interferon therapy ("I"= Interferon day)
UUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUU UUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUU IIIIIII
IIIIIII
IIIIIII
IIIIIII IIIIIII We see that, in
certain moments, it happens that the last day of Interferon falls near or at
the end of the "up" period (beginning of the downhill). It means that
the Interferon is removed when the cat needs it more!!! The function of the 7
days "off" in the standard Interferon protocol is to avoid that the
cat develops an immunity, i.e. "insensitivity",
against the oral Interferon that, being *human* interferon, is marked as alien.
So, no problem arises, from this point of view, should the "off"
period be LONGER than 7 days. In this light, we
modified the protocol. Interferon was started only
when I felt that Micia was beginning her "downhill" period (any of us
can notice it from many little signs: drop of appetite, (s)he
doesn't run to us when entering the room, sleepy behaviour...), and, after the
7th day, it was suspended, but NOT re-started after 7 days, but only at the
beginning of the next "down" period. In this way,
Interferon is given the very days the organism needs it more, and removed when
it can walk on its legs. I observed that the
behaviour of Micia, with the modified protocol, was much "smoother"
and more uniform than under the old protocol. Not only. The oral way of
administration spoils Interferon of ALL its *negative* side effects, that, as
you know, can be heavy when given sub-Q or IV; to use someone else's words, in
this way "can't hurt, might help". Consider that about
89% of the ingested Interferon is lost, and that only the Interferon that comes
in contact with tonsils and sub-tongue area "switches on" the cat's
OWN Interferon production: the administration should be SLOW, to prolonge the
time during which Interferon remains in contact with the target organs. Squirting it too fast
makes it useless as squirting it directly down the esophagus. Most cats (and
Micia between them) aren't particularly "willing" to withstand 10
minutes of Interferon drip... Supported in that by
the vet literature, we concluded that the value of 30 units for *oral*
Interferon is not to be considered as engraved in stone. I switched to 60 units
per time, but you could give 200 or 300 units as well. ************************************************************************ From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Leslie Okay, guys, my vet's pharmacy sells Interferon A at 30 international
units per milliliter and she would prescribe a milliliter a day for each of
them, so it would amount to $52.00 a month per cat (or $104.00 a month).
Now I know that you all have found other sources for your Interferon, and it
strikes me that you've mentioned prices a Again, each cat would need to get 30 international units of the
Interferon daily - their pharmacy puts that amount in 1 milliliter of
liquid. Are your Interferon dosages similar to this? I'm really
eager to start them on this, but yowza, that's a little rich for my
blood. Maybe a month or two, but I couldn't keep that up on an ongoing
basis. I asked her about the week on, week off and she said that the sources
she found recommended against doing that now. It had been the protocol a
while back, but some people noticed their cats feeling good the week on and
less good the week off, so they changed the recommendation to be
continuous. Sounds to me, though, like not all of you would agree, or at
least that that is not how you use the Interferon. Do tell! Thank you all!! Leslie |
- Interferon sources Leslie
- RE: Interferon sources Hideyo Yamamoto
- RE: Interferon sources Gary Murphy
