Re: [Felvtalk] Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Good evening, I don't know if anyone currently active remembers me, I first signed up for this list in April of 2007, when one cat (Chewie) was diagnosed with FELV after getting sick. I haven't been really active on here since, but I thought I'd post again with an update. My original introduction message is copied below. It is with sadness that I report that Stitch, who I mentioned originally has having been tested shortly after Chewie died has now left us, almost exactly 3 years after Chewie did. Stitch has done great these last few years, we never had any problems and had some hopes that she might have fought the virus off. Sadly, this was not the case. She started acting sick this weekend and we brought her to the vet on Tuesday. She'd lost a few pounds since her last visit, and a blood test revealed that she was very low on red blood cells, the Vet thinking that she had a bone marrow disease as she didn't seem to have any new red blood cells at all (could this be myeloproliferative leukemia, which I've seen mentioned in other places?). Given that she was FELV positive and was clearly suffering, we decided to have her put to sleep. Anyway, though I haven't been really active here, folks were very helpful after my initial post and the info and support I did get here were instrumental in keeping Stich as healthy as she was for as long as she was. It's still really hard, but I know that we did everything that we could for her. She was a very special kitty, and she'll be greatly missed. These are direct links to photos I have stored on my Facebook stage, I'm not sure if they'll work like this, but we shall see. These are both very recent photos of Stitch: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs417.snc3/25118_384112819913_539489913_3684055_4308847_n.jpg http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs437.snc3/25118_384111604913_539489913_3684051_7341747_n.jpg Thanks, Joe Reil redshar...@yahoo.com _ Howdy all, This is my first post to this list, thought I'd do a bit of intro. We had three cats in our family. The older two were both castaways that were adopted as adults. Zoro was the oldest and I adopted him from a co-worker when I lived by myself. He died several years ago. The remaining two were Stitch and Chewie. Chewie was the next oldest. She had a really hard start to life, she was originally found, as a stray by some friends of ours. She was probably two or three at the time and she had evidence of being abused - she had some suspicious scars on her underside. She lived with them for a while, very shy/nervous and eventually came out of her shell. A couple years later, they had to move, and couldn't take her with them so we took her in. We had her for several years as well and while we don't know her exact age, best estimate put her at 8-10 years old when she died last month. She had a loss of appetite and started losing weight. She had two trips to the Vet - after the first visit she took a serious turn for the worse so we had her back at the vet only a few days later. A blood test on the second visit revealed that she had FelV. So, considering she was very sick and was suffering from a pretty serious disease we opted to put her to sleep then. :( I didn't know much about FelV then (and I'm still learning about it), but information from both our Vet and online resources I found indicated that it was contagious so we decided to have our third (and youngest) cat tested for it. Stitch is the only one we got as a Kitten and she's about 3.5 years old. I brought her to the vet this weekend and she tested positive for FelV. :( I do intend to learn as much as I can about the disease so we can keep her with us as long as possible. I know that it will eventually catch up to her and our main thing will be to put that off as long as possible. She's still young and healthy so hopefully that'll be a long time still. :) We had been planning to get a second cat, but we've put that plan on hold now. I know it is possible to inoculate against FelV, but given that the vaccine takes a while to take effect, we'd either have to quarantine the new cat until the vaccine took effect or find it someplace else to live for a month or so, and on top of all that I don't think we want to put Stitch through the stress of another housemate at the moment (she doesn't react well to strangers). Thanks, Joe ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Hi Joe She is beautiful and she will remain forever in your heart and memories. Sally -- Sally(me), Eric (not a cat),Junior(angel), Tiny(angel) Fluffy(soul mate angel), Lionel(angel),Speedy, Grey and White, Ittle Bitty, Little Black(MIA), Lily, Daisy, Pewter, Junior Junior, Hotdog (newest) Silver, and Spike ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] Felvtalk - introduction - Chewie and Stitch
Joe, I am sorry to hear of your great loss! My Gray Kitty, who did test positive and currently test negative for FeLV, battles anemia. He has been on very high dosages of Pred for almost 2 years. This seems to keep his hematocrit in normal range. His story is a very long one someday, I will write a book on it. Our hopes is that he will set presidence for future FeLV cats give pet owners hope! Sent from my iPhone On Apr 8, 2010, at 3:50 PM, Joe Reil redshar...@yahoo.com wrote: Good evening, I don't know if anyone currently active remembers me, I first signed up for this list in April of 2007, when one cat (Chewie) was diagnosed with FELV after getting sick. I haven't been really active on here since, but I thought I'd post again with an update. My original introduction message is copied below. It is with sadness that I report that Stitch, who I mentioned originally has having been tested shortly after Chewie died has now left us, almost exactly 3 years after Chewie did. Stitch has done great these last few years, we never had any problems and had some hopes that she might have fought the virus off. Sadly, this was not the case. She started acting sick this weekend and we brought her to the vet on Tuesday. She'd lost a few pounds since her last visit, and a blood test revealed that she was very low on red blood cells, the Vet thinking that she had a bone marrow disease as she didn't seem to have any new red blood cells at all (could this be myeloproliferative leukemia, which I've seen mentioned in other places?). Given that she was FELV positive and was clearly suffering, we decided to have her put to sleep. Anyway, though I haven't been really active here, folks were very helpful after my initial post and the info and support I did get here were instrumental in keeping Stich as healthy as she was for as long as she was. It's still really hard, but I know that we did everything that we could for her. She was a very special kitty, and she'll be greatly missed. These are direct links to photos I have stored on my Facebook stage, I'm not sure if they'll work like this, but we shall see. These are both very recent photos of Stitch: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs417.snc3/25118_384112819913_539489913_3684055_4308847_n.jpg http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs437.snc3/25118_384111604913_539489913_3684051_7341747_n.jpg Thanks, Joe Reil redshar...@yahoo.com _ Howdy all, This is my first post to this list, thought I'd do a bit of intro. We had three cats in our family. The older two were both castaways that were adopted as adults. Zoro was the oldest and I adopted him from a co-worker when I lived by myself. He died several years ago. The remaining two were Stitch and Chewie. Chewie was the next oldest. She had a really hard start to life, she was originally found, as a stray by some friends of ours. She was probably two or three at the time and she had evidence of being abused - she had some suspicious scars on her underside. She lived with them for a while, very shy/nervous and eventually came out of her shell. A couple years later, they had to move, and couldn't take her with them so we took her in. We had her for several years as well and while we don't know her exact age, best estimate put her at 8-10 years old when she died last month. She had a loss of appetite and started losing weight. She had two trips to the Vet - after the first visit she took a serious turn for the worse so we had her back at the vet only a few days later. A blood test on the second visit revealed that she had FelV. So, considering she was very sick and was suffering from a pretty serious disease we opted to put her to sleep then. :( I didn't know much about FelV then (and I'm still learning about it), but information from both our Vet and online resources I found indicated that it was contagious so we decided to have our third (and youngest) cat tested for it. Stitch is the only one we got as a Kitten and she's about 3.5 years old. I brought her to the vet this weekend and she tested positive for FelV. :( I do intend to learn as much as I can about the disease so we can keep her with us as long as possible. I know that it will eventually catch up to her and our main thing will be to put that off as long as possible. She's still young and healthy so hopefully that'll be a long time still. :) We had been planning to get a second cat, but we've put that plan on hold now. I know it is possible to inoculate against FelV, but given that the vaccine takes a while to take effect, we'd either have to quarantine the new cat until the vaccine took effect or find it someplace else to live for a month or so, and on top of all that I don't think we want to put Stitch through the stress of another housemate at the moment (she doesn't react well to strangers). Thanks, Joe
