Re: [Felvtalk] Dublin woke up from surgery blind - UPDATE
Well I got surprisingly good news when I stopped at the vet around 5:00! Dublin is calmer, he drank and ate well, AND his pupils are showing light reflex now!! They constricted and he even flinched away when the vet shone the light in his eyes. So at least he should be able to sense light and dark, and with this much improvement in one afternoon who knows what there will be in a few days? The vet used inhaled anesthetic, not ketamine. It's still a mystery to him why this happened, and he is *extremely* cutting-edge and educated and experienced, and has never seen anything like this. It's not from hypoxia as the way they do the anesthetic apparently prevents that (the patient is getting oxygen during and after), not hypertension as that would show signs in the eye. Maybe something neurologic related to the FeLV? The vet and I are both frustrated not to know, but it's so hopeful that he is getting -- and feeling -- somewhat better. ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
[Felvtalk] Dublin woke up from surgery blind
I am devastated -- my FeLV boy Dublin had major dental surgery yesterday to remove the rest of his teeth due to severe stomatitis and feline resorptive lesions (his third dental surgery in six months). He came through OK it seemed, and his bloodwork turned out to be very promising (his mild anemia around December had reversed with his hematocrit in the middle of the normal range). But something seemed off with agitation and his eyes and the vet realized that Dublin seems to be blind. He did all the ocular tests they do and nothing physiologically can be found wrong -- no detached retina, no bleed, no evidence of hypoxia, etc. But only his left eye is even minimally reactive to light. The vet believes the blindness to be related to the FeLV, although I'm still totally confused about the suddenness of this all. Dublin has always had something weird about his eyes -- the pupils stay mostly dilated and while they constrict a little it's definitely not like a normal cat. I wondered if he had an eye problem and could see well even before I adopted him and learned he was FeLV+. But he seemed to see fine. While Dublin is physically stable he is apparently extremely agitated and the vet wants to keep him at the hospital until he settles down and begins to adapt. He was with him until 10:30 last night and says that Dubbie has scarcely been out of a tech's arms since. (He is the most loving, people-oriented cat, and is not stressed just from being at the vet -- it's almost a joke how much he likes it there.) I am crazy with distress and also with anxiety about bringing him home (have another cat, pretty rowdy, and a dog), though everyone says blind cats can do well. I'd appreciate any encouragement -- or in particular any insight into a FeLV-blindness link. Anne ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] "Off day" / couple of questions
I had my Dublin to the vet today for full bloodwork. Though I only heard the results on the phone, it apparently looked pretty good. His red blood cells were just below the normal range (29 with 30 as the low end of normal) -- the vet is going to research the protocols for helping to bring it up and check with his supplier about Immuno-regulin. His white cells were low normal. Everything related to organ function was good. The bad news is that when he was inspecting Dublin's mouth (he has just *awful *gingivitis even though he had a dental six weeks ago and I've been using Maxiguard gel every day, which my vet thinks is the best product) he found he has a bleeding growth on his gum. So now we have surgery scheduled for Tuesday to remove it for biopsy. The vet did seem fairly optimistic that it could well be other things than a malignancy (squamous cell carcinoma being the most common source of cat oral tumors :( ) -- in particular he said something about how if they didn't get all of the root during one of his ten dental extractions the week before I adopted him (done by another vet) that could cause such problems. Meanwhile, he got an antibiotic injection to hopefully help clean things up in there. Sigh, sure hope my baby is OK -- and not too thrilled about the huge expenses so soon. And I'm kicking myself -- after researching here I meant to ask about testing for hemobartonella as a possible cause of anemia, but totally forgot when the gum business cropped up. I guess we could test when he has the surgery. Meanwhile, he eats vigorously and is very lively, galloping back and forth across the house with his "brother" C.J.! ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
[Felvtalk] "Off day" / couple of questions
My Dublin seems to be doing quite well over all, happy and playful most days and eats anything that isn't nailed to the floor. Once or twice, though, he's had an "off day," most recently Sunday. On Sunday, he kept his eyes shut or barely squinted them open, and he seemed lethargic. He did eat normally. By Sunday night he seemed to be coming around and was fine yesterday and today, with normal activity. Any insight into this? He does sort of squint one or both eyes at time, but I've had his eyes examined by the vet (with the machine that looks into the back of the eye) after the last day he squinted badly and no signs of disease were found. His pupils are not as reactive to light as most cats' and tend to stay (evenly) dilated, but they do react some and the vet didn't seem worried about it. No signs of eye infection or URI then or now. I'm also noticing he drinks quite a bit of water. I read that FeLV can cause kidney disease? Is this something I should be concerned about? I'm thinking of taking Dublin to the vet Friday (when I have a little more time) even if he acting fine and asking for bloodwork so we can see where we are. Is there anything I should ask my vet particularly to look into or examine? He's an excellent vet and very supportive about Dublin but I'm not sure whether he'll be thinking about all the things he should look for in a FeLV+ cat. ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] New needle-less vaccine for FeLV
This is the vaccine my C.J. just got in the past month. It's supposed to be about 99% effective according to the literature and much safer in regard to the chance of vaccine-related sarcoma. My understanding is that it's what vets who keep up with the cutting edge are using now. I don't know what you mean about "buy it outright" ... it requires a special tool called a VetJet to administer -- kind of shoots it through the skin at high velocity with a big pop. It looks like a cordless drill! ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
[Felvtalk] New member (correcting an error)
I meant to write, of course, that I was told that false POSITIVES are common but false negatives are virtually unheard of. My vet kind of shrugged when I told him that, though no one can give me a good account of why Dublin had a negative ELISA on his re-test when he is very clearly positive. Anyway, he's a lucky, lucky little kitty, as that false negative landed him in a home. ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
[Felvtalk] Hi, new member here
Hi, wanted to introduce myself and my cats. I adopted two new adult kitties from a rural no-kill shelter in my area a little over a month ago, after my 15-year-old cat passed away. Little orange Dublin and hunky white and tabby C.J. are both about two years old males -- Dublin more of an estimate since he was found as an adult at a TNR station covered in oil on St. Patrick's Day (C.J. was in rescue since he was about five months old). I adopted them both as being FeLV negative, though I'd found out that Dublin had initially had a positive ELISA, then a negative when he was retested after six weeks in quarantine. The woman who runs the rescue swore to me (as her vet told her) that false negatives are common but false positives are not. Well, so much for that; I know better now. I had them retested after three days at my house, because I learned that Dublin had had ten teeth removed at a dental a few days before he came home and my vet's office said that such bad teeth at a young age was a common sign of FeLV. And yup, Dublin's third ELISA was a strong positive, as was a follow-up IFA. C.J. tested negative, and got his first Purevax vaccination that day, followed by the booster two weeks later. I agonized for a few days about sending Dublin back to the rescue, where he'd go to a FeLV+ cat sanctuary, but he is such a special, amazingly sweet cat (gives hugs and kisses, just amazingly social) and was so thrilled with me and my home and is absolutely crazily besotted with my greyhound! I couldn't break his little heart. So I've kept him, and he and C.J. (also a wonderful, loving boy) mix, since C.J. was already exposed to him at the rescue (along with most of their other cats!!). I am really heartened by what I've read in the archives about how many of you have mixed cats without the negative ones converting. I manage to keep their food separate and change their water and scoop their litter twice a day, but these guys play and wrestle a lot, which is nervous-making. Except for the bad teeth, Dublin seems really healthy. He did have a bad case of chin acne when he came, but it's healed up really well. He eats voraciously and has gained some weight, has a lovely silky coat, and is becoming quite a rowdy little troublemaker too, always pouncing on C.J.'s tail (he never played at the rescue). It's not unreasonable to hope he might have a few good years, is it (though I know there's no way to predict)? I've also seen mention of various supplements you give, and I wish someone could give me a lowdown on what you essentially recommend (that is reasonably affordable) and exactly how you dose it. Lots of pictures of the cats here if you want to see them: http://s511.photobucket.com/albums/s357/PrairieProf/New%20cats/ Anne ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
