Anndrea, First, my greatest sympathy for your current situation.
Second, this is the first email I've seen concerning Lydia so I don't know anymore than what's in this email. Here's what I can tell you: 1. felv, especially in younger cats and kittens can be horrible. 2. The main problems Lydia has, according to lab work, are severe anemia (hematocrit of 16%) with a very minimal to almost non regenerative anemia and a lymphocytosis (lots of lymphocytes) Anemia is defined as low red blood cells - red blood cells carry oxygen and carbon dioxide, without them you're in trouble. Regenerative anemia is when your bone marrow is making new red blood cells (this is evidenced by the presence of nucleated red blood cells i.e. NRBCs). The problem Lydia has is that her red blood cell count is very low and her bone marrow is not effectively making new ones. The hard part about felv is that the virus infects the cells of the bone marrow and basically kills their ability to make new cells or causes them to make cancerous cells. Red blood cells only live on average three months. If Lydia does not make new rbcs her old ones will die and she will become more anemic. This is why some people chose to do blood transfusions. You will have to do transfusions multiple times and unless there is some way to inhibit the virus or kill it, the bone marrow will continue to not make healthy rbcs. There are some variations on this theme and nothing in medicine is one hundred percent, but I have seen this stage in a felv cat more than once. I have never successfully beaten it for any decent period of time. 3. The additional remarks at the end of your lab work are really just describing features of rbcs or platelets. Rouleax means the rbcs are sticking together, poikliocytosis means the rbcs are irregular in size and shape. 4. The elevated lymphocytes suggest either they are attempting to kill the virus or that there could be a lymphoma. 5. The bilirubin levels are barely elevated. If higher they could suggest liver problems or a process of hemolytic anemia (felv cats often get this from a hemobartonella infection that infects the rbcs and destroys them) It is barely elevated and there was no mention of agglutination of the cells so I don't think she has this infection. 6. How you chose to proceed is a difficult question. Different people have had different experiences, but mine have never been good once they have gotten to this point. You could try all kinds of things like LTCI injections, mannitol, transfusions, epogen, anemoaid, pet-tinic and others people in this group could suggest. For me, I believe we have to try something new since theses seem to only sporadically work. If they work for Lydia that would be absolutely fabulous and I would love to know, step by step, exactly what you did. 7. There is something that hasn't been tried, to the best of my knowledge, by anyone in this group. It is an herbal tonic comprised of four herbs known to fight cancer and have multiple other medicinal properties. There is no guarantee, but I don't think it would hurt to try. Unfortunately, you don't have a whole lot of time to come to a decision. She is at a low hematocrit and will need some form of intervention shortly. I am sorry I don't have more to offer than this, but I pray that it helps you in some way. God bless you in this one and if I can help you in any other way, please let me know. Jenny On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 12:12 AM, Anndrea DeLozier <unspecifie...@gmail.com>wrote: > I asked some questions a couple days or so ago, and got some wonderful > responses! However, I have not figured out how to reply to messages on > here, > so I am starting a new thread.hope that's ok. > > > > I got Lydia's lab work and it reads as follows (I am only posting the tests > that came up outside the normal range): > > Globulin=2.8 (should be between 3.0-5.6) > > Total Bilirubin=0.5 (should be between 0.0-0.4) > > Direct Bilirubin=0.4 (should be between 0.0-0.2) > > Cholesterol=68 (should be between 82-218) > > Glucose=153 (should be between 70-150) > > Potassium-3.6 (should be between 3.9-5.3) > > A/G Ratio=1.2 (should be between 0.4-0.8) > > RBC=3.44 (should be between 6.0-10.0) > > HCT=16.0 (should be between 29-45) > > NRBC=5 (should be between 0-2/100 WBC.WBC=9.1 - should be between 4.2-15.6) > > Neutrophil Seg=18 (should be between 35-75) > > Lymphocytes=57 (should be between 20-55) > > Monocytes=5 (should be between 1-4) > > Eosinophil=20 (should be between 2-12) > > Auto Platelet=70 (should be between 170-600) > > > > Then there's these, I have no clue what these (and most of the above) are. > > Poikilocytosis - Slight > > Platelet Comments - Platelets appear moderately decreased (50,000-120,000) > > > > Remarks: WBC Corrected for presence of nucleated RBC's > > Acanthocytes - slight > > Rouleaux > > Slide reviewed microscopically > > > > Absolute Neutrophil Seg = 1638 (should be between 2500-12500) > > > > Everything else showed as in the normal ranges listed with them. > > > > At the top of the first page it says: > > Reticulocyte count=0.7 (should be between 0-1) > > Absolute reticulocyte=24080 (should be between 0-50,000) > > "An absolute reticulocyte count greater than 50,000 of blood is considered > evidence of regenerative anemia." > > Degree of regeneration: (aggregate reticulocytes) > > <15,000 - NONE > > 50,000 - SLIGHT > > 100,000 - MODERATE > > >200,000 - MARKED > > > > FeLV antigen (ELISA) - POSITIVE (result has been duplicated) > > > > I hope this isn't too long to post.I had no idea what people would or > wouldn't want to know. These results are of blood that was drawn on 9/17, I > have no idea what her numbers are now. > > > > I did get her eating some stage 2 meat baby food. She's only eaten half a > jar, but that is more food in the last 24 hours than she probably ate the > few days before that.and before the baby food her food mostly consisted of > water. I am not force feeding at this time, since she sniffs it and eats on > her own, and drinks water on her own when she's thirsty. > > > > She does seem to have some difficulty swallowing, but she is still getting > food and water down. > > > > Also, what is the correct dosage of Pet Tinic for her? She is MAYBE 5lbs, > and the bottle says : dogs and cats 2.5 ml per 25lbs of body weight. So she > should get a fifth of that, which would be 0.5ml, right? > > > > Thanks to anyone who has helped and might help in the future.and sorry > again > for making this so long. > > > > ~Anndrea > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org > _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
