Oh my Teresa, thank you so much for doing all you do for these kitties.
I just can't imagine abandoning any cat on the side of a busy road in
winter, let alone one that is sick and blind. I'll never understand how
people can be so cruel. Thank goodness little Timmy found his way to
you. I'm sorry to hear of your recent loss of Inky. I've said it
before, I'll say it again, rescue is not for the faint of heart.
I wouldn't worry too much about getting in to the Cornell site. Imho,
they are behind the times on much of their information and end up
confusing more people than enlightening them. Tell us more about
Timmy's symptoms. We have a huge reservoir of experience,
(unfortunately), to draw from, perhaps we'll have suggestions for what
he and the others are dealing with at the moment.
As Susan says, steroids like Pred suppress and weaken natural immune
response. Maybe I read your post wrong, but you make it sound like you
and your vet think it's some type of benefit to felv to use Pred.
That's not the case. There are some ailments that steroids can be
beneficial for, but they should always be used sparingly if you are
trying to nurse someone back to health. Long term effects of steroids
can be very damaging, esp to a cat with felv. I've never heard of using
Pred, or dex for that matter, to combat URIs. Kelley, Susan and others
just had a thread going about the benefits of Zithromax in treating
stubborn URIs, (working better than Baytril). Why don't you ask your
vet about that?
Let us hear more, we're here to help in any way we can,
Nina
Susan Hoffman wrote:
Prednisone and prednisolone SUPPRESS the immune system. I would not
use it with a cat who already had a compromised immune system. (Out
of curiosity, what did your vet say about this?)
My favorite supplement is transfer factor feline complete. It has an
incredible array of vitamins and minerals, may actually enhance immune
functioning, and is in a cheese flavored powder that is easy to add to
foods.
*/Teresa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>/* wrote:
I recently have acquired several felv+ cats, the one who is sick
at the
moment is a pathetic case who was dropped off on the highway "near" a
farm, a very popular dumping spot I've been monitoring for the
past few
years. Many or most of them end up at home with me if they seem
not to
be faring well at the farm. Anyway, turns out this poor thing is
totally
blind as well as felv+. I mean he sees NOTHING. I've had many cats
who
were "legally blind" but this one doesn't even react to bright
light. He
was dumped, in winter no less, along a highway roaring with 18
wheelers
night and day. How this critter ever lived this long, he's
probably 4-5
years old, is totally beyond me.
Well I did not mean to get harping that, I'll never get off it. It
just
makes me sick to my stomach. Timmy is the most loving, slobbering,
kissable, hugable, sweet thing to come along for a long time. But
I have
to guide him to his food dish and this is inside his cage. I mean,
how
has he LIVED? I suspect whoever dropped him didn't realize he was
blind.
Cats can sure fool you. But then again, seems it would be hard for
him
to fool anyone when he has to be shown his food dish. My
understanding
is that this farm only "feeds" cats that are dumped off "dog food and
cow milk", so the daughter told me a couple years ago. And the
night I
picked him up, Timmy's stomach was making very loud growling
noises for
several hours, and seemed distended. That all went away in a day
or so
and I attributed it to drinking milk
Ok, what I was checking the list for was, some time ago I thought
I saw
some info on prednisone use in felv+ cats but I don't find it now.
(Also
several of the links from the felv site do not work at the moment,
including the Cornell info one.) I haven't been giving Timmy pred, or
anything solely for his felv, but he's gotten this upper respiratory
that is going through my flock and got real sick with it and is now
improving with baytril spiked with some dexamethasone just to
allow him
to breathe better etc. But I understood that pred can be
beneficial in
felv. Actually I think I snatched him from the jaws of death this
time,
my fingers are still crossed. Another felv+, Inky, that I picked
up at
the same time, just died last night from this virus, in spite of the
most intensive treatments we could give him.
I do have a wonderful vet. But of course I still like to double
check up
to put into context, what he might be saying about this subject or
others. But he has won my confidence over the past 5 years but again,
YOU GUYS are the real experts.
So can anyone tell me where the pred info is or any thoughts on
building
Timmy up for future battles? I've been sort of subconsciously
switching
him over to people food, first as a means of enticing him to eat
but the
more I've been thinking about this pet food adulteration
situation, the
more it seems to answer my questions for such a long time now,
about why
kidney failure seems to be such a big issue with cats these days.
What
have we been feeding our cats lately? I guess we have no way of
really
knowing. At least people food is usually more recognizable, you
can SEE
a piece of meat or a carrot. With cat food, who knows? And now
they say
even fish meal is contaminated, and that seems to be used in
almost all
cat foods. He loved chicken noodle soup (low salt kind) and went nuts
for some chicken ala king awhile ago, also a little tuna. Oh yes,
he is
very very hard to pill! He will crouch in the far part of his big
cage
where I can't reach him and hold it against me for a few days if I
even
try it. I try to stick to injectible baytril. So it would seem
giving a
lot of vitamins and supplements would be out.
Thanks for listening.
