I know, you are also right. But I didn't want to make Monkee go through the
bone marrow aspirate because he'd already been through so much, since we did
Chemo on him (which, in hindsight, I will NOT do again with another animal).
I'm sure it's possible the chemo itself brought up the anemia, but he had the
lump on his leg that was only getting bigger with chemo (which the Dr. was
shocked by) and by the time we did the transfusion, he had lumps in his stomach
and groin area, so the cancer was clearly spreading- despite chemo. The Doctor
was almost positive it was the cancer causing the anemia and at the time, I was
so disenchanted with her, I didn't really listen. But I'm sure now that she
was right. We felt like a bone marrow aspirate would just tell us what we
already knew, but didn't want to admit. I guess my point was really that the
blood transfusions are so emotionally taxing.
-Caroline
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:27:21 -0700From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL
PROTECTED]: Re: blood transfusion
Caroline, I remember Monkee and all the heartache you guys went through.I
would be doing all positives a disservice though if I didn't make a point about
what my vet told me and I have personally seen happen with some cats on the
lists I'm on.Sometimes for what ever reason it takes 2 or 3 or more
transfusions to kick start a cats blood production, my vet told me she has done
up to 5 transfusions on the same cat with no ill effects. Of course you still
need to find out what is causing the anemia so you can hopefully fix it.
Baileys anemia was his first symptom of the cancer we couldn't find until after
he passed BUT we did reverse the non-regenerative anemia with epogen and
prednisolone, his HCT was normal (33% from a low point of 15%) when the cancer
took him. I didn't need to do a transfusion with Bailey because I did a bone
marrow aspirate to find out what was causing the anemia and treated
accordingly.Every cat I've lost has taught me something in hindsight that I and
my vet missed at the time, I wish my guys weren't the ones that had to pay with
their lives but I know one thing, if I ever hear of a cat having the same
symptoms or God forbid I have a cat with like symptoms, I will know what to
tell them to look for, doesn't mean they will but I will make the effort to let
them know.--
Belinda
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