Thanks Nancy. Aphrodite was a cat like no other, and she was only 10 when she died. It nearly killed me that she had been absolutely fine and it was a bloody infection from taking her in for her annual check-up that did her in. I picked her up on the side of the highway one day and she was just the most snuggliest cat I have ever ever had. I was plagued with all kinds of guilt after her death because she used to come up to our faces when we were sleeping in bed, and if you didn’t pretend to be asleep, she would smoosh at your face and purr and drool and generally not let you breathe or sleep. But, oh my lord, I was just so heartbroken that I had pretended to be asleep so often instead of welcoming her adoring love.
Amani From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of gidge...@aol.com<mailto:gidge...@aol.com> Sent: November-30-15 6:33 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org<mailto:felvtalk@felineleukemia.org> Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Grieving, and need to understand about felv Amani, So very sorry for your loss! Nancy -----Original Message----- From: Amani Oakley <aoak...@oakleylegal.com<mailto:aoak...@oakleylegal.com>> To: felvtalk <felvtalk@felineleukemia.org<mailto:felvtalk@felineleukemia.org>> Sent: Mon, Nov 30, 2015 3:21 pm Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Grieving, and need to understand about felv I think that the last set of lab results had poor Aphrodite’s creatinine at 1094 and her urea at 113.2. Amani From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org<mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org?>] On Behalf Of Marsha Sent: November-27-15 9:46 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org<mailto:felvtalk@felineleukemia.org> Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Grieving, and need to understand about felv How high was Aphrodite's creatinine level? Peaches' WBC had been scary low 5 days before I took her in for support over the weekend. Tried clavamox and orbax for preventive reasons to tide her over the low point, but both made her feel ill. They gave her enrofloxacin at the university, in case a kidney infection had taken hold, but no way to know. I considered a necropsy of at least her kidneys, but opted out for a couple of reasons: 1) they wouldn't sew her back up, and I would not be allowed to directly pick up her remains, the cremation place would have to pick them up. I would have no say in asking that they treat her remains with respect while doing the necropsy.; 2) the information would be for me only, not put in a database anywhere where it could help others or expand the body of knowledge of outcomes of her very rare multiple myeloma. If it's not part of an official study, they don't care. That really irks me. That should be a given, that they would want to find out what happened. There is very little literature on multiple myeloma in cats, and its treatments and outcomes. DUH, I wonder why. NOT. Here they have this perfect opportunity to gain valuable knowledge, but there's no money attached, so they are done. Marsha On 11/27/2015 8:09 PM, Amani Oakley wrote: Marsha At 2 mg a day, a person would need a whole lot of vet pills to use on themselves. The normal dose for humans is 10 to 12 mg a day, and athletes use it at way higher levels to enhance performance. In any event, I would think that a vet could reassure themselves by just limiting the number of pills given over to a client to 50 or so at a time unless the vet knows the client very well, as mine do. Winstrol would hardly be the only vet medication that could be abused or sold if someone was of a mind to do that. Zander was the only FeLV cat I have had, that I knew about anyway. I wouldn’t be so adamant about the Winstrol if it hadn’t been for my serial blood testing throughout the time I was treating Zander, first with other treatments and then with Winstrol. The Winstrol was absolutely tied to his steady rise in red cell, haematocrit, platelets, and retic count and whenever I stopped for a time, his results would tumble. However, I have mentioned on a few occasions that I used the Winstrol on a cat with nasal sarcoma who was 16. Again, I had tried a number of other medications and treatments for her to keep her eating and to keep the mucous being profusely produced by the sarcoma, under control. She underwent radiation therapy, and the vet who was looking after her at the time was amazed at how well the Winstrol worked to keep her eating, and keep the mucous production reduced, and commented that the cats are often lost because of loss of appetite, both with this condition and with the radiation therapy. She lived for 3 more years with the sarcoma. I used it on a kitten who had come from a feral colony, who was very very ill – running eyes, nose, incredibly high temperature, not eating, laboured breathing, swollen belly, with a number of others from her colony being diagnosed with FIP and dying. I had her on a number of things for a while, like antibiotics, prednisolone, fluid therapy, etc. and was not getting any good response until I added the Winstrol. Within days, she began to eat, play, her nose and eyes stopped running, her belly deflated and she was left with some laboured breathing but nothing else. I used it on a kitten who had been given to me because he was considered to have a touch of the “wobbles” – thought to maybe be some cerebellar hypoplasia. Instead of that, I noted that his anal sphincter didn’t seem to be working properly – it was “relaxed” and stool not properly formed and “falling out” and problems urinating (wrong places, but also retention and crying when he went into the litter box). In humans, these symptoms are consistent with cauda equina syndrome, which is the result of damage to the nerves in the lower part of the spine. Then my husband and I noticed that he carried his tail straight out and didn’t seem to be able to lift it straight up and there was a large bump at the base of his tail. I took him in to the vet – surprise – there was nothing they could recommend because the apparent spinal injury wasn’t significant enough to show on xray. I put him on Winstrol, and a very short time after that (2-3 weeks) his anal sphincter tightened up and his urinary control improved. We thought he was over whatever problem there was but we found that he would occasionally do something that would seem to reinjure his spine – eg – trying to jump on the table and missing – and then the symptoms come back. Another few weeks of Winstrol clears him right up. We took him in for an MRI and they found a very very small lesion in the spinal column, exactly where I told them to look. They are unable to tell right now if the lesion is potentially cancerous or is the remains of healed injury, and they have asked us to videotape him the next time he starts having neurological symptoms (which include an almost drunken walk at his back end) and to NOT put him on the Winstrol so they can assess the lesion when it is at its worst. In the meantime, he is doing just fine. I wonder what would have happened to this kitten had he landed in almost anyone else’s house – he peed on our bed about 2 weeks after we got him, and just kept peeing on the bed and on the couch, etc. All the while, I had the distinct feeling he didn’t WANT to pee there (crazy, right??! Try telling the vet that you have the FEELING that the cat DOESN’T WANT to pee in the wrong place). I have used Winstrol in a few other situations where a cat hasn’t been feeling well or eating well, and I have gotten good responses every time. I didn’t get any response from the use of Winstrol on one of my cats who seemed to contract some kind of virus from the vet’s office, and developed kidney failure. Despite being prepared to dialyse or try paracentesis, she passed away. Very very recently, I came across an article that described a newly discovered virus named feline morbillivirus, which causes tubulointerstitial nephritis in cats, which results in potentially fatal kidney disease. I think that this is what happened to my beautiful Aphrodite. She was fine until I took her to the vet one day for a regular check-up. She and a second cat I had taken in, both came down with a flu-like condition, and both seemed to finally recover after a month (but it was a serious infection, needing fluids, etc.) when Aphrodite relapsed and her creatinine shot through the roof. WInstrol didn’t have any effect on her condition, after everything else was tried and found ineffective. So, this is hardly a great number for a scientific assessment, but by count, I have found it has helped in 6 cats (4 of whom had no other options at all for treatment), and didn’t help in 1 cat. Also, because of the close monitoring of the blood work I did with Zander, there is absolutely no question in my mind that it boosts red cell, platelet, and white cell production, in a case of nonregenerative severe anemia which required blood transfusions to keep him alive. Amani
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