Oh my gosh Amani! What an incredible story. The chances that he could survive from where he was. I cannot imagine the joy you felt when you saw his gums were pink. What a long road for the both of you. Says so much about you. So your vet knew of the treatment but was afraid of it. Hopefully the next FELV cat they saw in their office, they remembered the success that you experienced and prescribed accordingly. How lucky that you had the knowledge you did, the confidence to respectfully challenge the ones telling you there was no hope. Zander was one lucky kitty.
I can¹t say that I don¹t worry about the side effects of the drugs Bogey is taking. But I understand that he has to survive THIS first. I am not so sure that my vet has anything against using Doxycicline as much as he just doesn¹t see a need for it yet. What test was run on Zander to check the liver enzymes you mentioned? Getting the message out about this drug and it¹s positive response in FELV anemic cats is something I truly hope happens. When my vet gave me this pill for Bogey, I had no idea what it was. He told me it was a steroid that body builders take. I ran home, gave the cat the pill, sat down at my computer and Googled ³Felv Stanzolol² and this site came up. I have written a bit about my experience thus far here, and on a Facebook page for FIV and FELV cats. But it makes me feel bad for the people that read it and get hopeful, go to their vets and get the ³doesn¹t help², ³bad for livers² or just ³No². I know it is very early in Bogey¹s treatment and she may not continue to get better with just what she is taking. But I am glad for every moment that I have with her. I hope I have hundreds and thousands more. Thanks for sharing the story about Zander. Amazing. From: Felvtalk <[email protected]> on behalf of Amani Oakley <[email protected]> Reply-To: <[email protected]> Date: Friday, September 30, 2016 at 6:11 PM To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] FW: Continued Improvement for Bogey on Stanzolol Yes, Sherri. There¹s no question this is a frustrating, devastating disease, made far far worse by vets lacking in knowledge, and committed to just putting down FeLV cats. Sherri, Zander¹s haematocrit was actually down to 5 initially, and he had to be placed in an oxygen tent because his haemoglobin was so low his body would have had trouble transporting oxygen to the cells in his body. I gave him blood transfusions initially, but could see that they were only temporary stopgaps, and after the second one, he had a reaction, so I was told he couldn¹t have any more transfusions, as the next one would kill him. As a former medical technologist, I knew that to be true. (In Canada, they didn¹t test for blood type at the time don¹t know if they do now.) After trying Zander on a course of Interferon and a course of LTCI (or whatever it is called I always mix up the letters), I totally by chance, opened up my drawer and rummaged through it in desperation because his haematocrit had dropped from a high of 16 after his second blood transfusion, back down to 10, and I knew I was going to lose him soon. He was on Doxycycline and Prednisone, but it wasn¹t doing a thing for his cell lines, which were all depressed with the most critical being the red cells/haematocrit numbers. Imagine my total surprise when, after I gave him some old Winstrol I found in the drawer, I started noticing his ears and gums taking on a pink hue and when I tested him 3 days after starting the Winstrol, the haematocrit had gone up instead of steadily down. My surprise grew, and finally overcame my skepticism (I mean, really, what are the odds that I discovered a cure???) and Zander¹s results kept slowly but steadily rising for months and months until he was finally out of danger and then into the normal reference range for all his results. Then, after a year, when I told the internal specialist who had very kindly told me there was no hope with this disease, imagine my shock that he KNEW about Winstrol and said that I had gone ³old-school² and this has been something they used to use for this disease until ³word² spread that the drug could cause liver damage! Frankly, after reading about all the experiences of so many people in this situation, I realize how lucky I am. Because of my background in health care, my very long relationship with my vet clinic (which I would often diagnose things before them and/or I would identify problems they hadn¹t seen) AND very likely, my prickly personality/refusal to take no for an answer, my vets were good enough to back off and let me do my thing. They recognized that, OBVIOUSLY, they had nothing to offer me if the Winstrol didn¹t work. They faithfully tried the Interferon and the LTCI at my request, and ran the weekly bloodwork, and agreed that there were no positive effects. They saw the positive effects with the WInstrol. They tried on a few occasions to talk me into discontinuing or reducing the Winstrol when the liver enzymes increased, but after what Zander had been through being on the brink of death I was not open to discussing this option. On a few occasions I would reduce the Winstrol briefly, only to see his haematology drop. I would then hold my breath for a few days or weeks, to let the liver enzymes settle a bit, before getting him back on the WInstrol. However, I don¹t think any of the vets were prepared to argue with the obvious success. They had seen the unbelievably low haematocrit and red cell count, for themselves. I just don¹t know how we can get this message across to mainstream vets. This is NOT an evil drug which must be avoided at all costs. I wish I could address a vet convention. If I had LITTLE TIME, I would write a paper and submit it for publication in a vet publication. I get angered when I hear about all the trouble everyone has, getting some Winstrol for their cats, despite the desperate circumstances the cats are in. Sherri, the odd thing for you is that your vet is okay with the Winstrol but not the Doxycycline. Really bizarre! No wonder underground markets flourish. It just shouldn¹t be this hard to be at least given an opportunity and a bit of hope to save our cats. Amani _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
_______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
