RE: Winstrol, leave it up to humans to mess things up, over using drugs.
----- Original Message -----
From: Amani Oakley <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sat, 01 Jan 2022 16:08:57 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] My 11 and 1/2 year old indoor only male cat was
diagnosed with FeLV....
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-->Jason, if your baby is only ½ a year old, he may have been born with it or
had it before you took him in. I have written many times on this chatline about
my own success with Zander, my baby who had FeLV and we were told there was no
hope and to just put him down. What worked for us was Winstrol (Stanozolol), an
anabolic steroid – the “Ben Johnson steroid”. Unfortunately, because many many
athletes use Stanozolol to improve their performance and to heal injuries
faster, the scientific community has
labeled this steroid as “evil”, and stupidly ignore it and will not use it on
either humans or animals. It used to be regularly given to cats, because cats
in particular, really respond well to it. There was a really poorly-researched
vet paper years ago,
which suggested Winstrol causes liver failure in cats, so vets just abruptly
stopped using it. In my case, after trying EVERYTHING including interferon and
LCTI. We tried each for 4 to 6 months, while monitoring blood work every week.
There was no change or
improvement in red cell count, haematocrit, reticulocytes, etc. Here is my
original post on this chatline, from 2015, and I have repeated this advice many
times over the years. Several people have reported success using “Zander’s
protocol” which I describe
below: I had a cat with leukemia as a kitten, and he lived to the age of 7
and died from something else that I don’t believe was related to the leukemia.
When
the vets told me that they could do nothing for him as a kitten dying with
leukemia (and he WAS dying - his red cells were dropping down to nothing and I
had given him TWO blood transfusions that weren't holding up his numbers to any
great degree) then as
a last ditch effort, I tried some Winstrol I had in the cupboard that a
previous vet had given to me for another cat.
This medication turned him completely around. To monitor his condition, we
were performing weekly blood tests on him - CBC, liver function, etc. After
being put on the Winstrol, his red cells and white cell counts began to climb
very quickly and steadily. It was totally amazing and the vets couldn't believe
the lab results either. My beautiful little boy was out of the woods in about
six months. We were
obsessively checking the pinkness of his ears, gums and pads to check the
status of his profound anemia, and to our unbelievable joy, he began to get
pink and his lab results just kept getting better. After about a year, I called
back the internal medicine
veterinarian we had seen, and who had told us there was no hope, and told him
of our beautiful cat's recovery. To my surprise - and a little bit of anger -
he said that I had gone "old school" and that Winstrol used to be used but then
there were rumours of
possible liver damage associated with it, and vets stopped prescribing it.
This REALLY annoyed me. My cat was dying and no one thought that maybe, just
maybe, some treatment - even with a potential side effect - was better than no
treatment??? In our experience,
on a few occasions the liver enzymes would indeed rise, but would drop back
down to normal fairly quickly after a short break from the Winstrol. We
monitored our beautiful Zander very closely during and after his initial
crisis, and if I thought that maybe
he was looking pale again, or if the CBC came back with a significantly
dropping red cell count, we would put him back on the Winstrol for a 4 to 6
week period, and it would fix him right up.
The Winstrol also really helped to increase his appetite so I could get him to
eat when he was so very sick.
I used it at a level of 1 mg two times a day when he was really sick, and when
he started to recover, I cut it back to 1 mg a day, or even 1/2 mg a day for a
maintenance dose. I would often pair it with prednisone as well (5 mg a day)
and Doxycycline (50 mg
a day).
I have looked after a very large number of strays over the years and I have a
science and medicine background in science and microbiology and laboratory
medicine, so I tested and analyzed the lab results we were getting, using this
knowledge. I have since used
Winstrol in my cats in a number of other situations where vets have told me
there is no hope, and I have to say that it has come through more often than
not.
I therefore could not understand the reluctance of the veterinary - and medical
community for that matter - to consider Winstrol, especially in circumstances
where vets are telling pet owners that there are no other options and their
kitten or cat will die.
I have had to do a fair amount of internet research and spoken to a number of
veterinarians about this. I have personally concluded that due to the
association of Winstrol with athletic doping scandals, the scientific community
as a whole has decided to abandon
what might indeed be a promising drug. This saddens me but I simply can see no
other explanation. I mean really - does it make sense to hear from vets that
the drug MAY cause liver disease, when your animal is dying???? Wouldn't you
give that option in those
circumstances, and let the pet owner understand the risks??? Personally, I
think that the risk of permanent liver damage is not a significant risk. The
information I have been able to find - buried so very deeply as to be almost
unable to be found on the Internet
- points to any change in the liver enzymes as being transitory and not
representing any lasting liver damage. That was certainly our experience.
Because Zander's condition was so dire, even when his liver enzymes started to
go up, I decided to keep him on
the Winstrol because I could see that his bone marrow had turned back on again
and he was producing red cells (with his reticulocyte level starting to go up
from basically a zero level). He was eating and looking better, so I grit my
teeth and proceeded with
the Winstrol. I suspect that many vets might have abandoned ship at that
point, and pulled the Winstrol before it had had an opportunity to really have
the desired effect, but my vet was at least good enough to recognize that if
this treatment didn't work,
my cat was out of luck, and she allowed me to continue on with the Winstrol
since Zander was doing better in so many other ways.
This was also our experience when I used Winstrol in another very elderly cat
who had a large and aggressive sarcoma in her sinus cavity, and again who was
not expected to live very long. She lived another 3 years after the diagnosis
(she was around 19 when
she passed away), and I believe that the Winstrol helped immensely in getting
her to keep eating, and to keep the swelling under control. With her, we
definitely found that her liver enzymes spiked dramatically with the use of the
Winstrol, but settled down
immediately with a brief discontinuance of the drug.
Zander died at age 7 from cardiomyopathy - nothing to do with his liver. I
tortured myself with thoughts that maybe the Winstrol had caused the
cardiomyopathy, and for all I know, it did. However, again, I did a fair amount
of research and initially, I found
references to a link between Winstrol and cardiac damage, but the link was
pretty tenuous at best, and seemed to be suspected in athletes who had taken
Winstrol at 100 X the recommended dosages for years and years. My guilt has
never gone away because of course,
you never know, but what I do know is that I would have lost him when he was
only a year old. If the Winstrol managed to give me 6 more very good years with
my cat, who played and was exceptionally affectionate and showed an extreme
happiness with his life,
then I would have to say I have no hesitation in doing it again. What I find
truly bizarre is that given the death sentence that this disease represents to
cats, it should be very simple indeed to (a) have vets try
the Winstrol and see what their experience is with it (with the proviso that
they shouldn’t pull a cat off the Winstrol just because the liver enzymes start
to go up) and (b) why haven’t there been some decent clinical trials with this
stuff? The cats are
given zero probability of surviving this disease. Even if Winstrol only works
sometimes, that is better than the odds we are given for these cats at the
moment. Amani From: Felvtalk <[email protected]>
On Behalf Of JASON VOGT
Sent: January 1, 2022 10:09 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Felvtalk] My 11 and 1/2 year old indoor only male cat was diagnosed
with FeLV.... Hello, My 11 and 1/2 year old indoor only cat, Kitty, was
diagnosed with FeLV this past Monday at my Veterinarians. I am not sure when
or how he contracted it. He was very sick
and threw up 4 times in about 4 hours last Saturday morning (a white foam
throw up), then stopped eating and had trouble breathing and could not sleep.
Vet. gave him IV fluids (he was dehydrated) and the antibiotic shot (Convenia
injection). He has been
doing really well since then though. He is back to his regular self. I have
another 11 and 1/2 year old female cat indoor only also. She has been fine.
No symptoms. I have a large barn outdoors, and in the past several years I
have let
other cats and kittens into the house in a separate room (but Kitty likes to
go in and smell around after I put the cats/kittens back outside). He played
with one kitten a few months ago, too. My Vet. says there is nothing she can
do. I plan on keeping things very clean inside and not stressing him out any.
I plan on going back for another Convenia injection
or Amoxicillin drops in the future if necessary. I am not sure if she wants
to prescribe him any other medicines in the future or not? Any tips for me?
When/how do you think he got it? How long ago? Which drugs that the Vet. may
give him help the most? Any that are bad for him? Any holistic or over the
counter things I can purchase to boost his immune system or help him? Any
Holistic Veterinarians that can help me? Thank you very much for any help you
can give me, Jason
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