I just got information from one of my vets on where to get Winstrol /
stanozolol in the US. Roadrunner compounding pharmacy does an oral
liquid version. $98 for a 60 day supply. The vet has to order it for
you from the compounder, but if you want it shipped directly to you,
then you pay the pharmacy directly. Some vets only work with one
specific compounding pharmacy due to a contract with them. I assume
that gets them special deals on prices, but I don't know. I will be
checking around some more, because I don't think they use Roadrunner
where I am taking Peaches to see the oncologist.
Marsha
On 10/31/2015 11:56 AM, Amani Oakley wrote:
Hi Jane
The Winstrol is not expensive. It is usually about 50 cents a pill. You give 2
pills a day usually - 1 mg doses.
It is given long term and the cats can stay on it for months if needed. My
first cat, with FeLV, was on it for more than 8 months before I felt like he
was out of the woods with very good red cell counts, haematocrit levels and
good platelet numbers. (His white cells were affected as well but not as
dramatically so this wasn't a big concern for me, but others will may see a
bigger effect in white cells or the component neutrophil/leukoctyte numbers.)
You don't NEED to do weekly serial bloodwork as I did if you don't want to. I had blood
work done weekly because I was basically trying to figure out what was working with
Zander. When he got his blood transfusions, I had to track where he was in his
haematocrit and RBC numbers, to see when he needed more blood. At the same time, though,
I was giving him Interferon and the weekly bloodwork also allowed me to analyze if there
was any kind of response to the Interferon. There wasn't. I therefore moved on to giving
him LTCI. Again, no response in the bloodwork. When I put him on the Winstrol, I saw an
immediate response, and I was able to track it to confirm that it wasn't just an initial
blip. If I would have graphed his haematocrit and RBC levels, the graph would have shown
a beautiful steady gradual increase in both those levels until his values crossed into
the normal threshold and stayed there. I was also watching his reticulocyte count which
had been "0", showing NO bon
e
marrow production of red cells. That slowly began to rise with the Winstrol.
Unfortunately, the downside to monitoring the blood work so closely is that
invariably, the Winstrol will likely cause an elevation in liver enzymes.
Because the vets have all been told that Winstrol will cause liver damage, this
causes a knee jerk reaction and they immediately respond by advising that
Winstrol should be discontinued. I never listened to them. With Zander, there
were no other options so if the Winstrol wasn't going to work, he was clearly
going to weaken and die. With my other cat with the nasal sarcoma, who again
had her liver enzymes peak on the Winstrol, she was going to stop eating if not
on the Winstrol and I would lose her anyway. I therefore refused to discontinue
the Winstrol when the liver enzymes went up. What I did do for the cat with
sarcoma, was temporarily stop the Winstrol to allow the liver enzymes to drop,
and then started her on it again. Though the enzymes increased once I
re-started, they didn't go up to the high levels we had seen initi
al
ly.
With Zander who remained on Winstrol for most of his life after his severe
anemic crisis, I never had any liver problems - just the rise of the liver
enzymes which would subside upon discontinuation of the Winstrol. I would wean
him off and let him go for several months without the Winstrol and start him on
it again if I noticed his ears, gums and pads were looking pale. I also used it
on him when he injured a ligament in his knee when he was about 6 years old,
and the vet was recommending surgery. Again, I got a good result with the
Winstrol for that. (Repair of muscles and ligaments is one of the reasons
athletes use this stuff.) The knee was never 100%, but it was say 85 to 90%
better with the Winstrol (just a slight limp remaining which could be seen only
from time to time) but Zander avoided the surgery which isn't always effective).
I would recommend that you do monitor your cat's bloodwork to confirm that the
Winstrol is actually working, but you don't need to do the bloodwork weekly as
I did, unless you want to. Though I am obviously a fan of what the medication
has done for several of my cats, I expect that it may not work in every
situation. However, don't give up immediately if you don't see a bump up in red
cells or reticulocyte count, etc. I would give it for at least a month before I
would conclude it is not working, and I would only conclude that if the
haematology results show no improvement from the initial set of results. Also
monitor your cat's food intake and mood, since I also found an excellent effect
on those things from the Winstrol.
Without the close observation of the haematology values, you can still track
the effect of the Winstrol on things like your cat's food intake and general
well-being, and check the colour of his pads, gums and inside of the ears for
signs of pinking up (unless yours is a black cat, in which case, you are
probably limited to checking the gums).
There are some comments from others on this chatline, indicating that with
anemic cats, you want to be careful of the amount of blood that is being drawn
for tests. I agree with those comments, but generally speaking, the amount of
blood removed for testing, even weekly, should not have much of an effect on a
cat - even one that is anemic. For me, it was important, with Zander to closely
monitor the bloodwork, because though I gave each medication lots of time to
show a response, I didn't want to keep Zander on stuff that wasn't actually
helping. In my view, he didn't have much time to respond, and so I didn't want
to be misled into believing that one of the other medications was helping just
because he might appear to be looking a bit better or eating a bit more, but
his blood counts were not improving. I was just as prepared to move to
something else if the Winstrol wasn't going to have any effect. Note, however,
that unlike the Interferon and the LTCI, I didn't put Zande
r
on the Winstrol because I actually thought it would help in anything other
than appetite stimulation. The effect I saw was entirely unexpected. I
therefore thought I had stumbled on something unknown when I got this great
response to the Winstrol, and that's why I was so annoyed when I found out a
year later that the vets knew about this stuff but were not suggesting it,
despite the fact that the alternatives for FeLV were very expensive and not
particularly effective in most cases.
I also think that having done this close monitoring of his bloodwork helped to
convince my vet that the Winstrol was actually helping, rather than my
subjective observations. Seeing the steady rise of the red cells, the
haematocrit, PCV, reticulocyte and platelet values, that started just days
after I put Zander on Winstrol, was extremely persuasive evidence that I wasn't
crazy when I reported that Zander was doing better. I think this is one of the
main reasons my vet now gives me great support regarding treating my cats. She
will ask for my input and is not surprised when I want to try the Winstrol in
other situations, and when I report to her that it has been helpful or
effective.
Please keep us informed of your own experience with Winstrol, so that we can
figure out if it is generally effective or whether I just have been
particularly lucky with its use.
Amani
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