I decided not to do a bone marrow aspirate on Monkee to determine the type (non-regenerative, etc.) of anemia he had and if the anemia was being caused by the FelV virus becoming activated, or from cancer. My vet led me to believe that if we could determine the anemia was from cancer (only via a bone marrow aspirate), then we could try more chemo. However, chemo itself can cause anemia and also cause the FelV virus to become active because of the stress and immune suppression (killing of white blood cells). But Monkee had a tumor so it was possible the cancer came up because of FelV becoming active first. And it was such a chicken or the egg debate that I felt it didn't even matter anymore. All I knew was he had anemia and it was bad and that any further procedures that would stress him, like a bone marrow
aspirate, would not be good. Plus, he didn't even have enough RBCs to be put under anesthesia for the aspirate to even be performed (without first having a blood transfusion). We opted for no more procedures, no more chemo, and just a blood transfusion to give us two more weeks with him and that is what happened.
I took him to a Holistic vet for treatment for those two weeks and he did really well for about 10 days- I really feel her treatments helped extend the transfusion just a little bit and definitely eased his stress. You may want to consider looking into a Holistic vet. The great thing is that their treatments work in conjunction with your vet-- it's not one or the other.
As for blood transfusions, it doesn't have to come from one of your other cats. Sometimes they use real cat blood, but they also have a synthetic type of blood they can use that works the same. I am not sure which one Monkee got. But for him it was merely a stop gap procedure...it delayed the inevitable so I had more time with him. You have to keep that in mind. If it can be determined that Olive is not making her own RBCs, then you will be faced with the same dilemma of "how long can we keep this up?" as I was.
Good luck.
-Caroline
From: Megan Heikkinen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: Treatment for Nonregenerative Anemia (Olive)
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:26:38 -0400
>I figured making a separate thread for this might be a good idea, because
>right now this seems to be Olive's biggest threat. I will hopefully be talking
>to someone at the university's vet school either today or tomorrow, but
>getting everyone's suggestions here is really helpful.
>
>I guess my biggest concern is whether or not there really is any way to help
>treat NRA. You all have given me many options for FeLV in general, but the
>anemia is what I'm really worried about.
>
>Thanks,
>Megan
>
>
>
Puzzles, trivia teasers, word scrambles and more. Play for your chance to win!
