Wolfie is on pred twice daily and has been for several months. I have talked to Cornell University numerous times and have made several trips there. The internist I work with has done tons of literature searches for me. I have inquired about every treatment option that I have ever read about to see if there is anything I can do to help this cat. She has researched each one and told me that if it was her cat this is the course of action she would take (leaving Wolf on pred and monitoring him).
We are keeping Imulan LTCI in the back of our minds but I just don't have the money to spend on something ($90 a dose here) that probably won't help. I would, however, spend that in a minute if one person had success with saving a non-regenerative leuk positive. I've yet to hear of one case. My vet actually called the company because she said in theory it sounds great but the study has so many holes and problems that it just gives them no credibility. She asked if she could see the actual data so that her and her colleagues could review it and make their own interpretations and they said thanks but not thanks. They skewed their findings and I don't know why they would do that if the results showed it actually worked. I asked the vet if she had unlimited funds if she would try it and she said no, not at this point. She said if Wolfie starts to crash, we might, but she would not want to upset the balance. She told me that leukemia is a really tough disease and she thinks that by trying some of these other options that I could do more harm than good since all the research shows they don't help and it is still introducing a foreign substance into an immune compromised cat. I know other people have claimed great success with LTCI and some other options and I totally respect people trying all of them. In this case, I just feel I agree with my vet and this is what works for us. She treats lots of leuk positives because she is at a teaching hospital and I really believe if there was something out there that worked, she'd be aware of it. I actually tried to locate any vet hospital in my area that has used LTCI with any success and can't find one so again I'm still skeptical. I hope I'm wrong and this become the cure! I really do! Anyways, Wolfie was initially treated with doxy and pred and was on it for 11 weeks. I know that's a long time but we needed to be sure the hemobart was gone (he tested positive for the more uncommon form). We retested him at Cornell and he is negative now. We didn't use a smear because every cat in my home has tested negative on smears every 6 months since coming here and when we did the actual test that we sent out to the lab, all but one of my cats tested positive for the more uncommon form). None of the others ever showed any sign of illness the entire time they have been and bloodwork was fine. I did a lot of research on the hemobart and this less common form can be tied to leuk positive cats and can be a sign of progression of the disease. I now wonder if I had actually had the blood test done on every cat I ever lost to anemia if every one of them would have shown this positive. That said, we also tested for numerous other causes of anemia and I learned more than I could ever imagine about anemia. I'm so glad Casper is still slightly regenerative. I'll never forget finding out that Wolfie was non-regenerative. It was awful. I think each person needs to make their own decision about what path they want to take. My only suggestion would be to eliminate every possible cause of anemia and make sure it's nothing you can treat. If you want to write me off list, I'd be more than happy to list all the things we tested for and ruled out. Then if you find out that the anemia is from the leukemia being in the bone marrow and not from something else, I think you have to follow your heart as to how to treat. Please let me know how things go and I'd love to know what treatments your vet suggests, if any. I'm crossing my fingers for Casper and hoping the anemia is from something that can be easily treated. Amy --- On Fri, 3/5/10, Frank & Sue Koren <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Frank & Sue Koren <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Casper is positive > To: [email protected] > Date: Friday, March 5, 2010, 1:43 AM > Casper's anemia is "slightly" > regenerative according to the vet.. What kind of meds > is Wolfie on? > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Amy" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 9:34 PM > Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Casper is positive > > _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
