Re: [Felvtalk] Merlot

[Lorrie]

I'm so sad for you Maya, the hurt of losing Merlot must be terrible.
I'm now age 82 and I've been rescuing cats for 50 years. I've lost so
many to old age or Felv, and it's heart breaking. The only comfort we
have is knowing we loved those precious cats and made their lives,
however short they might be, as wonderful as we could. So many cats
never know love, the warmth of a home and food. I only wish I could
save them all.

Lorrie with 14 rescued cats at home and 32 in my shelter.



On 11-17, dlg...@windstream.net wrote:

> I have lost 14 due to FELV and old age.  Be it FELV or old age, it
> hurts the same, but you must know that you did all you could and
> Merlot knew that.
> 



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Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes

[Amani Oakley]

Hi Jane

Speak with your vet. He probably uses a compounding pharmacy for other types of 
medication. This is where my vet gets Winstrol. Our vet can get the Winstrol in 
2 strengths: 2 mg and 1 mg tablets. They are hard to cut in half, but for a 
long time, that is what I had to do since originally the compounding pharmacy 
only had the 2 mg size tablets. The tablets are very small and powdery when 
split, and dissolve very quickly with very little moisture. Therefore, it made 
life a lot easier when the compounding pharmacy started providing 1 mg sized 
tablets. If you can only get 2 mg tablets, you also have the option of just 
giving them once a day, but I think it is better to give 1 mg, 2 times a day.

I have no idea where you are located or how big the compounding pharmacy is 
that my vet uses, but it is called Chiron. (I’m in Ontario, Canada, and I think 
this compounding pharmacy is located close to Guelph Ontario, near the vet 
college there).

Definitely start your cat on the Winstrol as soon as possible. I have also 
found Winstrol helpful in a cat I highly suspected of having FIP. She is fine 
now.

Amani

From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Jane 
Gannon
Sent: November-17-15 11:54 AM
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes

I have had the worst nightmare happen to me.  I have a large cat family, I used 
to work at a cat rescue organization and I also help any cats that show up at 
my door.  Last year one of my two outdoor cats started to loose weight.  He was 
12 so I thought maybe kidney or  hyperthyroid.  He started having anisocoria 
(one pupil lager than the other) and then I noticed  3 other cats with the same 
thing. I researched online and found that it can happen to FELV+ cats.  So I 
took them all to the vet and found out they were positive.  I then took the 
rest of my cat family and found out I had a total of 10 positives and  12 
negatives.  I vacinated the negatives and am letting them all live together.  
Since that time I have lost 5. Two older ones actually died from kidney 
disease, I had to euthanise my son's 2 two year olds cats, one developed FIP 
and the other ended up getting neurological problems until he could no longer 
walk.  I euthanised one that was having difficulty breathing and was no longer 
eating.  So I searched for a group that was going through the same thing so 
maybe I could learn about what can be done.  Grayson, who is positive, is now 
loosing weight.  He is 12 so I hoped maybe kidney or hyperthyroid so I had his 
blood tested and he does not have either.  He is starting to have the sylmptoms 
of FELV.  His hematocrit is 19 and he also has an abcess on his face that 
doesn't want to heal.  He is acting like his old self and eating well.  I know 
my vet would not have a problem using winstrol, he has always worked with me.   
Where would he get it from?  Should I start it now before he gets worse.
- Original Message -
From: kat
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 5:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes

Maya - I am so sorry for your loss.

Kat (Mew Jersey)

Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 7:59 AM
From: "Maya D'Alessio" >
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes

Merlot left us yesterday morning. Thank you to everyone for your support over 
the month, it has been incredible.
On Nov 17, 2015 12:48 AM,  wrote:
They sense our love and concern.  I often bring a sick furbaby on my bed and 
stay awake all night because I am afraid they will get worse and I will not 
know in time to do something for them.  People think I am nuts, but I cannot 
not be concerned.

 Ardy Robertson  wrote:
> I think when you really love your cat, you are inclined to observe every
> little thing and try to understand how they are feeling based on their
> actions/behavior. That gives you the insight into knowing what works and
> what does not. They may have the book training, but nothing replaces loving
> and observing.. and of course the love is returned. Our Tigger, when he
> was at his sickest and we thought he would not make it through the night,
> dragged himself into our bedroom during the night and could not get up on
> the bed by any means, but laid on the floor on my hubby's side where he felt
> safer being near his "mommy and daddy". (call me Cookoo)
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of
> Lorrie
> Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 9:02 AM
> To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
> Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes
>
> You got that right! I can tell they hate it that I am so knowledable about
> cats, as it shows them up. Experience is the greatest teacher.
>
> Lorrie
>
>
> On 11-14, 

Re: [Felvtalk] Merlot

[dlgegg]

WOULDN'T IT BE NICE TO HELP ALL THE HELPLESS AND NEEDY.  IF I WIN THE SWEEPS OR 
PUBLISHER'S CLEARING HOUSE SWEEPS, I WOULD BUY A LOT OF LAND AND TAKE THEM ALL 
IN.

 Lorrie  wrote: 
> I'm so sad for you Maya, the hurt of losing Merlot must be terrible.
> I'm now age 82 and I've been rescuing cats for 50 years. I've lost so
> many to old age or Felv, and it's heart breaking. The only comfort we
> have is knowing we loved those precious cats and made their lives,
> however short they might be, as wonderful as we could. So many cats
> never know love, the warmth of a home and food. I only wish I could
> save them all.
> 
> Lorrie with 14 rescued cats at home and 32 in my shelter.
> 
> 
> 
> On 11-17, dlg...@windstream.net wrote:
> 
> > I have lost 14 due to FELV and old age.  Be it FELV or old age, it
> > hurts the same, but you must know that you did all you could and
> > Merlot knew that.
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> ___
> Felvtalk mailing list
> Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
> http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org


___
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Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
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Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes

[Jane Gannon]

Do I just keep him on this indefinetely?  Do I have to keep having his blood 
tested, how often?  How long did this help your cat?  Do you still have this 
cat?
  - Original Message -
  From: Amani Oakley
  To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
  Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 10:38 AM
  Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes


  Hi Jane



  Speak with your vet. He probably uses a compounding pharmacy for other types 
of medication. This is where my vet gets Winstrol. Our vet can get the Winstrol 
in 2 strengths: 2 mg and 1 mg tablets. They are hard to cut in half, but for a 
long time, that is what I had to do since originally the compounding pharmacy 
only had the 2 mg size tablets. The tablets are very small and powdery when 
split, and dissolve very quickly with very little moisture. Therefore, it made 
life a lot easier when the compounding pharmacy started providing 1 mg sized 
tablets. If you can only get 2 mg tablets, you also have the option of just 
giving them once a day, but I think it is better to give 1 mg, 2 times a day.



  I have no idea where you are located or how big the compounding pharmacy is 
that my vet uses, but it is called Chiron. (I’m in Ontario, Canada, and I think 
this compounding pharmacy is located close to Guelph Ontario, near the vet 
college there).



  Definitely start your cat on the Winstrol as soon as possible. I have also 
found Winstrol helpful in a cat I highly suspected of having FIP. She is fine 
now.



  Amani



  From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Jane 
Gannon
  Sent: November-17-15 11:54 AM
  To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
  Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes



  I have had the worst nightmare happen to me.  I have a large cat family, I 
used to work at a cat rescue organization and I also help any cats that show up 
at my door.  Last year one of my two outdoor cats started to loose weight.  He 
was 12 so I thought maybe kidney or  hyperthyroid.  He started having 
anisocoria (one pupil lager than the other) and then I noticed  3 other cats 
with the same thing. I researched online and found that it can happen to FELV+ 
cats.  So I took them all to the vet and found out they were positive.  I then 
took the rest of my cat family and found out I had a total of 10 positives and  
12 negatives.  I vacinated the negatives and am letting them all live together. 
 Since that time I have lost 5. Two older ones actually died from kidney 
disease, I had to euthanise my son's 2 two year olds cats, one developed FIP 
and the other ended up getting neurological problems until he could no longer 
walk.  I euthanised one that was having difficulty breathing and was no longer 
eating.  So I searched for a group that was going through the same thing so 
maybe I could learn about what can be done.  Grayson, who is positive, is now 
loosing weight.  He is 12 so I hoped maybe kidney or hyperthyroid so I had his 
blood tested and he does not have either.  He is starting to have the sylmptoms 
of FELV.  His hematocrit is 19 and he also has an abcess on his face that 
doesn't want to heal.  He is acting like his old self and eating well.  I know 
my vet would not have a problem using winstrol, he has always worked with me.   
Where would he get it from?  Should I start it now before he gets worse.

- Original Message -

From: kat

To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org

Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 5:22 AM

Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes



Maya - I am so sorry for your loss.



Kat (Mew Jersey)



Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 7:59 AM
From: "Maya D'Alessio" 
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes

Merlot left us yesterday morning. Thank you to everyone for your support 
over the month, it has been incredible.

On Nov 17, 2015 12:48 AM,  wrote:

They sense our love and concern.  I often bring a sick furbaby on my bed 
and stay awake all night because I am afraid they will get worse and I will not 
know in time to do something for them.  People think I am nuts, but I cannot 
not be concerned.

 Ardy Robertson  wrote:
> I think when you really love your cat, you are inclined to observe every
> little thing and try to understand how they are feeling based on their
> actions/behavior. That gives you the insight into knowing what works and
> what does not. They may have the book training, but nothing replaces 
loving
> and observing.. and of course the love is returned. Our Tigger, when 
he
> was at his sickest and we thought he would not make it through the night,
> dragged himself into our bedroom during the night and could not get up on
> the bed by any means, but laid on the floor on my hubby's side where he 
felt
> safer being near his "mommy and daddy". (call me Cookoo)
>
>
> -Original Message-
> 

Re: [Felvtalk] Questions from a Newby

[Amani Oakley]

Hi Rain

I too tried the immunoregulin with my FeLV cat, but I was also doing weekly 
blood testing to monitor if there was truly any positive change in things like 
the red cell count, platelet count, white cell count and reticulocyte count, 
and I did not find any difference at all with the injections. I tried the 
injections for a number of months to ensure they had time to take effect, but I 
saw no evidence of a positive effect in my cat's haematology results. In fact, 
the opposite. We had obtained blood transfusions for our cat, because when he 
had his crisis, his red cell count, retic and haematocrit plummeted to critical 
levels. After the blood transfusions, we could tell that he wasn't producing 
his own red cells. (I just answered Jane in another email, so I won't go into 
all the detail again.)

If your cat is doing well, that's great. My only concern is that my Zander was 
also doing well until he had his life-threatening crisis and if I was able to 
do it all again, I would have started him on the Winstrol BEFORE the crisis 
(but I didn't know anything about it, and my vets didn't tell me). It is my 
personal theory that it was the crisis and the hell his body went through 
because of the crisis, that ultimately scarred his heart, causing his premature 
death at the age of 7. 

Winstrol is an anabolic steroid. Athletes use it for bulking up, but it has 
also been used in medicine for severely anemic patients because it boosts red 
cell production. It also boosts appetite and muscle production, so it has been 
used in AIDS patients, patients with COPD, patients with cachexia from cancer 
(wasting away), etc. Athletes report that it helps heal muscle damage faster, 
etc.

It is my belief that because of Winstrol's involvement in doping scandals, it 
has been blackballed by the scientific, medical and vet community. Vets say 
that they don't use it because it causes liver damage, but the research shows 
this not to be true (though it can cause a significant but temporary bump up in 
liver enzymes). However, I find that this answer makes no sense at all. If your 
cat is going to die from this insidious FeLV virus (especially one in crisis 
like what happened to my cat Zander) then it makes no sense AT ALL to worry 
about preserving his liver, don't you think?

I get a lot of cats who are on death's door, and the vets will often tell me 
that there is no hope. This is why I have tried Winstrol in a few different 
situations. If there is no hope, and my options are a quick euthanasia or a 
slow wasting away, what could possibly be the downside of trying the Winstrol? 
I figure that the worst case scenario is no effect at all. Instead, I am often 
stunned at the excellent results I am getting with seriously debilitated cats, 
when the vets have basically tried to pressure me to bring the cat in to be put 
down.

Amani

-Original Message-
From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Rain 
Tyler
Sent: November-18-15 8:10 PM
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Subject: [Felvtalk] Questions from a Newby

I am not familiar with Winstrol. Is it for anemia?  I feel like I have a lot to 
learn so I am glad I found this group.  

Background info:  about 18 months ago friends gave us a three day old tuxedo 
kitten that they found on a roadway.  After some initial difficulties, she 
thrived and became a beautiful healthy kitten.  We named her Penelope.I 
never thought to have her tested for FeLV because I figured that if she had it 
then she contracted it in utero and I didn't think an infected kitten would 
thrive like she did.  But when she was spayed at 5 months we found out she was 
FeLV+.   A month later, a six week old orange tabby cat appeared by our 
mailbox.  We had him tested immediately and he was also FeLV+.  His name is 
Tarzan.   Our other cats are all negative and have all been vaccinated. 

At a Vet's suggestion we started a series of nine IV injections of 
ImmunoRegulin for both FeLV+ kittens according to the protocol.  We were hoping 
to boost their immune systems so that they could fight off the FeLV and 
possibly convert to negative.  During the early treatments Penelope had a bad 
respiratory infection and then a possible herpes infection.  I gave her 
L-lysine chews on a Vet's recommendation.  By the last IR injection, both cats 
seemed very healthy.  Tarzan tested negative but Penelope was still positive. 
So we tried once weekly ImmunoRegulin injections for twenty weeks. 

 Penelope was recently retested and is still positive. Since she has been 
perfectly healthy since last February, I've asked to continue the ImmunoRegulin 
on a once a month basis.   I really think that it has helped.  She is now 18 
months old and is a pleasantly plump, active and happy cat.  I'd appreciate any 
suggestions on how to keep her that way.

Sorry this is so long and thanks to anyone who takes the time to read it and 
respond. 

Sent from my iPad

> On Nov 18, 2015, 

[Felvtalk] Questions from a Newby

[Rain Tyler]

I am not familiar with Winstrol. Is it for anemia?  I feel like I have a lot to 
learn so I am glad I found this group.  

Background info:  about 18 months ago friends gave us a three day old tuxedo 
kitten that they found on a roadway.  After some initial difficulties, she 
thrived and became a beautiful healthy kitten.  We named her Penelope.I 
never thought to have her tested for FeLV because I figured that if she had it 
then she contracted it in utero and I didn't think an infected kitten would 
thrive like she did.  But when she was spayed at 5 months we found out she was 
FeLV+.   A month later, a six week old orange tabby cat appeared by our 
mailbox.  We had him tested immediately and he was also FeLV+.  His name is 
Tarzan.   Our other cats are all negative and have all been vaccinated. 

At a Vet's suggestion we started a series of nine IV injections of 
ImmunoRegulin for both FeLV+ kittens according to the protocol.  We were hoping 
to boost their immune systems so that they could fight off the FeLV and 
possibly convert to negative.  During the early treatments Penelope had a bad 
respiratory infection and then a possible herpes infection.  I gave her 
L-lysine chews on a Vet's recommendation.  By the last IR injection, both cats 
seemed very healthy.  Tarzan tested negative but Penelope was still positive. 
So we tried once weekly ImmunoRegulin injections for twenty weeks. 

 Penelope was recently retested and is still positive. Since she has been 
perfectly healthy since last February, I've asked to continue the ImmunoRegulin 
on a once a month basis.   I really think that it has helped.  She is now 18 
months old and is a pleasantly plump, active and happy cat.  I'd appreciate any 
suggestions on how to keep her that way.

Sorry this is so long and thanks to anyone who takes the time to read it and 
respond. 

Sent from my iPad

> On Nov 18, 2015, at 1:39 PM, felvtalk-requ...@felineleukemia.org wrote:
> 
> Send Felvtalk mailing list submissions to
>felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
> 
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> 
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
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> 
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> 
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Felvtalk digest..."
> 
> 
> Today's Topics:
> 
>   1. Re: Lymph nodes (Amani Oakley)
> 
> 
> --
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2015 18:38:56 +
> From: Amani Oakley 
> To: "felvtalk@felineleukemia.org" 
> Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] Lymph nodes
> Message-ID:
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> 
> Hi Jane
> 
> Speak with your vet. He probably uses a compounding pharmacy for other types 
> of medication. This is where my vet gets Winstrol. Our vet can get the 
> Winstrol in 2 strengths: 2 mg and 1 mg tablets. They are hard to cut in half, 
> but for a long time, that is what I had to do since originally the 
> compounding pharmacy only had the 2 mg size tablets. The tablets are very 
> small and powdery when split, and dissolve very quickly with very little 
> moisture. Therefore, it made life a lot easier when the compounding pharmacy 
> started providing 1 mg sized tablets. If you can only get 2 mg tablets, you 
> also have the option of just giving them once a day, but I think it is better 
> to give 1 mg, 2 times a day.
> 
> I have no idea where you are located or how big the compounding pharmacy is 
> that my vet uses, but it is called Chiron. (I?m in Ontario, Canada, and I 
> think this compounding pharmacy is located close to Guelph Ontario, near the 
> vet college there).
> 
> Definitely start your cat on the Winstrol as soon as possible. I have also 
> found Winstrol helpful in a cat I highly suspected of having FIP. She is fine 
> now.
> 

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Re: [Felvtalk] Winstrol

[dlgegg]

I don't need a valid study to tell me this worked, Zander is sufficient proof 
it works.  I think doctors get hung up on the studies and cannot see the proof 
in front of their faces.  My old vet kept quoting studys.  I said what about 
proof that it worked for one person so it might work for others.

 Amani Oakley  wrote: 
> Hi Jane
> 
> Our little Zander had his crisis when he was about 12 to 18 months old. He 
> was close to death and under an oxygen mask to help him breath because his 
> red cells and haematocrit were so critically low, he couldn’t move oxygen 
> around his body via his blood circulation. We first tried giving him blood 
> transfusions which helped with the immediate crisis, but didn’t “hold”. Two 
> units of blood only bumped his haematocrit up from 5 to 16, which was still 
> about half of the normal range. Over the subsequent weeks, as we tested his 
> blood, it was clear that his red cells and haematocrit continued to drop, 
> because red cells only have a life span of 120 days and then they die. His 
> retic count was basically zero, showing he wasn’t producing any of his own 
> red cells.
> 
> We gave him a second blood transfusion when his haematocrit dropped back down 
> to 10 from 16. They had to stop after a single unit of blood, because Zander 
> had a reaction to the blood transfusion. They don’t cross-match as thoroughly 
> as they do with people, and we were told that this meant that any more blood 
> transfusions would probably kill him as he had developed a reaction.
> 
> So with his haematocrit once again dropping from 16 down to 10, I knew it was 
> just a matter of time before it would drop down to dangerously low levels 
> again and nothing we had tried (Immunoregulin, interferon, LTCI) had worked. 
> I therefore did a hail Mary and rummaged through my drawers and found some 
> Winstrol meant for another cat years before, who had not survived long enough 
> for me to use it. Within 2-3 days (SERIOUSLY!), my husband and I noticed a 
> slight blush in Zander’s gums (where they had been ivory white before) and 
> when we took him in that week for testing, his haematocrit had gone up to 12. 
> Though we were very skeptical that it could possibly be the Winstrol, (so, so 
> simple, we thought it couldn’t be that the vets didn’t give us this), we kept 
> him on it and lo and behold, all his cell lines began a slow and steady climb 
> back into the normal ranges. It took 6-8 months to get him into the normal 
> range and I kept him on the Winstrol the whole time, but cut the dose from 
> the original 2 mg 2 times a day to 1 mg 2 times a day. Whenever I would try 
> to discontinue the Winstrol, there would be an immediate dip in his weekly 
> blood work, so there is no question in my mind that the Winstrol was keeping 
> his red cells in the normal range.
> 
> After about 10 months, I did wean him off to give his body a break, and he 
> was doing phenomenally well. His appetite had immediately increased, right at 
> the outset of the Winstrol usage, and his activity level also increased. The 
> technician at the vet’s office who took his weekly bloodwork, told me that 
> after about 3 months, she could feel the difference as he was feeling very 
> solid and strong to her.
> 
> Zander lived to about the age of 7. He died from a heart condition that 
> appears to have been caused by the initial FeLV infection, since I have since 
> heard others on this chatlines describe the same type of heart problem that 
> Zander ended up with. (No question I queried if it might have been the 
> Winstrol but as much as I can reassure myself, I believe that it wasn’t, both 
> from my research and from the fact that other people whose cats have FeLV 
> also describe unusual heart problems later in their lives.) In any event, 
> even if I had any doubt about the Winstrol, I also had no choice. There is no 
> question at all that Zander was going to die before he even turned two. The 
> vet specialist who saw Zander, told me that there was zero hope, since I 
> couldn’t keep giving him blood transfusions. When I called him a year later 
> to report on Zander’s condition, he was absolutely stunned that Zander was 
> still alive.
> 
> I don’t think you need to do much blood testing with the Winstrol, but you 
> may want to, to convince yourself (or more likely, your vet) that it is 
> working. If my vet hadn’t tracked the blood results with me, I doubt she 
> would have believed that the Winstrol could do this. The only think I caution 
> about, and have indicated it many times on this chatline already, is that 
> Winstrol can shoot up your cat’s liver enzymes. This freaks out the vets who 
> insist on discontinuing the Winstrol. In Zander’s case, I obviously had to 
> ignore this. He was going to die without this medication, so being worried 
> about his liver was secondary to me, until he recovered. What I learned is 
> that the enzyme increase is transitory in 

Re: [Felvtalk] Questions from a Newby

[dlgegg]

Unfortunetaly, that is sometimes how we learn, going through a crisis, we learn 
to trust our instincts and not modern medicine.  Zandor thought you so you 
could help others in the future.  In the meantime, you did all you could for 
him and gave him love.

 Amani Oakley  wrote: 
> Hi Rain
> 
> I too tried the immunoregulin with my FeLV cat, but I was also doing weekly 
> blood testing to monitor if there was truly any positive change in things 
> like the red cell count, platelet count, white cell count and reticulocyte 
> count, and I did not find any difference at all with the injections. I tried 
> the injections for a number of months to ensure they had time to take effect, 
> but I saw no evidence of a positive effect in my cat's haematology results. 
> In fact, the opposite. We had obtained blood transfusions for our cat, 
> because when he had his crisis, his red cell count, retic and haematocrit 
> plummeted to critical levels. After the blood transfusions, we could tell 
> that he wasn't producing his own red cells. (I just answered Jane in another 
> email, so I won't go into all the detail again.)
> 
> If your cat is doing well, that's great. My only concern is that my Zander 
> was also doing well until he had his life-threatening crisis and if I was 
> able to do it all again, I would have started him on the Winstrol BEFORE the 
> crisis (but I didn't know anything about it, and my vets didn't tell me). It 
> is my personal theory that it was the crisis and the hell his body went 
> through because of the crisis, that ultimately scarred his heart, causing his 
> premature death at the age of 7. 
> 
> Winstrol is an anabolic steroid. Athletes use it for bulking up, but it has 
> also been used in medicine for severely anemic patients because it boosts red 
> cell production. It also boosts appetite and muscle production, so it has 
> been used in AIDS patients, patients with COPD, patients with cachexia from 
> cancer (wasting away), etc. Athletes report that it helps heal muscle damage 
> faster, etc.
> 
> It is my belief that because of Winstrol's involvement in doping scandals, it 
> has been blackballed by the scientific, medical and vet community. Vets say 
> that they don't use it because it causes liver damage, but the research shows 
> this not to be true (though it can cause a significant but temporary bump up 
> in liver enzymes). However, I find that this answer makes no sense at all. If 
> your cat is going to die from this insidious FeLV virus (especially one in 
> crisis like what happened to my cat Zander) then it makes no sense AT ALL to 
> worry about preserving his liver, don't you think?
> 
> I get a lot of cats who are on death's door, and the vets will often tell me 
> that there is no hope. This is why I have tried Winstrol in a few different 
> situations. If there is no hope, and my options are a quick euthanasia or a 
> slow wasting away, what could possibly be the downside of trying the 
> Winstrol? I figure that the worst case scenario is no effect at all. Instead, 
> I am often stunned at the excellent results I am getting with seriously 
> debilitated cats, when the vets have basically tried to pressure me to bring 
> the cat in to be put down.
> 
> Amani
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: Felvtalk [mailto:felvtalk-boun...@felineleukemia.org] On Behalf Of Rain 
> Tyler
> Sent: November-18-15 8:10 PM
> To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
> Subject: [Felvtalk] Questions from a Newby
> 
> I am not familiar with Winstrol. Is it for anemia?  I feel like I have a lot 
> to learn so I am glad I found this group.  
> 
> Background info:  about 18 months ago friends gave us a three day old tuxedo 
> kitten that they found on a roadway.  After some initial difficulties, she 
> thrived and became a beautiful healthy kitten.  We named her Penelope.I 
> never thought to have her tested for FeLV because I figured that if she had 
> it then she contracted it in utero and I didn't think an infected kitten 
> would thrive like she did.  But when she was spayed at 5 months we found out 
> she was FeLV+.   A month later, a six week old orange tabby cat appeared by 
> our mailbox.  We had him tested immediately and he was also FeLV+.  His name 
> is Tarzan.   Our other cats are all negative and have all been vaccinated. 
> 
> At a Vet's suggestion we started a series of nine IV injections of 
> ImmunoRegulin for both FeLV+ kittens according to the protocol.  We were 
> hoping to boost their immune systems so that they could fight off the FeLV 
> and possibly convert to negative.  During the early treatments Penelope had a 
> bad respiratory infection and then a possible herpes infection.  I gave her 
> L-lysine chews on a Vet's recommendation.  By the last IR injection, both 
> cats seemed very healthy.  Tarzan tested negative but Penelope was still 
> positive. So we tried once weekly ImmunoRegulin injections for twenty weeks. 
> 
>  Penelope was