Jill,
I am really sorry. Simon did once have a PCV of 9 (hematocrit of 11 on
the machine test and PCV of 9 on the handspun test), and came out of it. His
anemia at that point was from lymphoma and chemo and steroids helped him for a
few weeks. He then went from 16.4 to 8 overnight, could not be transfused
because he fought it and was too weak to be tranquilized. They think he
developed
an auto-immune disease and started killing his own red blood cells, because
his other symptoms and blood work were not consistent with the lymphoma growing
in his bone marrow again.
I would call and ask the vet if he would give Gary a shot of
Dexamethasone and some prednisone. These are steroids used to suppress the
immune system
if it is killing the body's own red blood cells. It would help if the anemia
is from that or from lymphoma or from FIP. It would not hurt if it is from
leukemia or most other causes. If it is bacterial, it is possible that it might
make it harder to fight infection, but if I am correct hemobartanella, the
blood problem treated with antibiotics, is actually a parasite and not an
infection per se so maybe dexamethasone would not make that less treatable. I
would
call and ask the vet about this. I have wondered if I had realized the day
before that Simon's HCT was plummeting and given him steroid shots then if it
might have been in time to reverse it. If Gary's HCT is at 9, there may be
little time to try to fight this, and it could be possible that starting
steroids
right away could do something but waiting would make it impossible to recover.
Good luck. I am thinking of the two of you and sending him energy as best I
can.
Michelle
In a message dated 2/9/05 4:24:18 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Gary just got out of the vet's office. This is the
info about her via my boyfriend who was at the
appointment (I was not).
Her hematocrit was 31 a couple months ago. Today it
was 9.
Her temperature was also low (she had a fever a couple
weeks ago).
They are keeping her overnight tonight on IV fluids.
They are ordering blood to be overnighted to give her
a blood transfusion tomorrow (the vet says this blood
will be better than what they can get from the "house
cat" who lives at the office but if they cannot get
the blood by tomorrow, they will take blood from the
house cat).
They have sent a blood sample to an outside lab to
check whether her blood marrow is making enough red
blood cells. My boyfriend said the vet gave the
impression that if Gary is not MAKING blood cells then
she has little chance of survival. If, however, she
is making them but they are not surviving (her body or
a bacteria is attacking them) then we have treatment
options.
They may keep her overnight tomorrow, depending on
results and how she is doing, to give her more IV
fluids.
That's all I know now. The blood test results will be
back tomorrow. I'm leaving work in a couple hours to
take her blanket to the clinic so she'll have
something nice to sleep on. The vet says we can visit
anytime we want.
To answer your previous questions:
Only her nose was pale. Her tongue, ears, and paws
actually looked okay.
We have the best vet in the valley. This has actually
been confirmed to us by other vets. We recently
switched from a vet we loved at the same clinic (left
to pursue ultrasound training) to the owner/vet of the
clinic, who is a regional specialist who consults on
cases for vets in the surrounding area. I'm confident
in my vet, I just think it may be too late for Gary.
She was a shelter cat with unknown history and is 6-8
years old with no teeth and was unspayed. She has
already lived a hard life.
Jill >>
