Re: [Felvtalk] Introducing Cliff
Hey Renee Welcome to the US. Not a great start finding out you have a little bundle of joy with a deadly virus. You do have an advantage, however. You have a chance to fight this early. I would not let this window of opportunity close. Felv cats are susceptible to secondary infections as their immune system is not up to par. Not only because of the virus but also because of his age. I have a number of suggestions although I may be too late to interject. 1. Do not vaccinate your felv cat with conventional vaccinations. Vets may recommend it, but don't. (You could try the alternative vaccinations if you are concerned.) They don't have the proper immune system to fight it. You put them in jeopardy of lots of other problems. If you keep him inside away from the possibility of picking up the viruses the vaccinations protect against, you should be okay. 2. Start any treatment now. Whether that means LTCI (from imulan), interferon, Acemannan or alternative immune boosters like high dose vitamin C, wei qui booster etc. Please please please start now. Right now you are fighting the secondary infections (the upper respiratory infections, oral and eye infections). You need to be more concerned about what's happening underneath - the felv virus working it's way into all the cells of his bone marrow leading to severe anemia, neutropenia, leukemia or lymphoma - these things will kill him. Granted some cats can clear the virus or simply hold it at bay for life but some will die from it. It's not known how to predict who will do well and who won't so if you want to be on the safe side, treat now. If you start early enough sometimes you can reverse the viral status. It may be too late now, but it may be worth trying. 3. The acute issue of diarrhea may be secondary to antibiotic use (in which case try a probiotic like acidophilus, you can get it at any vitamin store or walgreens), may be a parasitic/bacterial/viral infection (bring stool sample to vet - you don't have to bring him in for that), may be stress or secondary to food change (change foods slowly by mixing foods, a raw diet or high protein diet is generally considered the best for these cats), may respresent something more serious but I would try the aforementioned first (if there is not an explanation or improvement with the above, I would follow with blood work (CBC - complete blood count, BMP - basic metabolic panel, viral panel - includes feline corona virus and multiple other causes of these types of symptoms) I would not be idle with a felv cat that displays symptoms of illness. With respect to the other cat, I am happy she is negative, I would probably retest in a few months as she also would have been exposed. Given that she has been vaccinated and exposed without acquiring the virus you are probably safe to mix them, but there is always a chance in this. Younger cats are more susceptible to acquiring and dying from the disease so it is a chance. The vaccine is pretty good but not 100% effective. That is decision only you can make. Good luck and may God bless you. Jenny ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
[Felvtalk] Introducing Cliff
Hi everyone, My name is Renee and I am an Aussie who has recently married a US citizen and relocated to Iowa. I have had cats my entire life and the only time I cried leaving Oz was saying goodbye to my little brother cat Milo who is 14 years old and lives with my parents. So obviously one of the first things I did when arriving here in the US was adopt 2 kittens from the local animal shelter, Cliff (at the time approx 8 weeks) and his cage mate at the shelter, Sasha (approx 10 weeks). Both seemed to be in good health when we took them home from the shelter, however there had been a kitty cold going around and Cliff started to show symptoms a few days after arriving home - violent sneezes, coughing, flying snot etc. He had one especially bad night where the poor little thing could barely breath and was only happy when he was being held in my arms. I stayed up all night with him afraid that he wouldn't make it through the nightthe next morning (it was a Sunday) I took him to an emergency vet clinic at the local vet med school and he was diagnosed as having an upper respiratory infection and also feline herpes virus. He spent the night at the vet's on a drip to help re-hydrate him and came home the next day on a course of antibiotics (Clavamox) and it took him a few weeks to finally kick off all the sneezing and coughing. (Meanwhile his sister Sasha just suffered from a few sneezes and that was all.possibly she fought it off since she was a little bit older then Cliff). A few weeks later I took both kitties back to the vet to get their 2nd lot of shots and to get tested for FELV and FIV and Cliffy's ELISA test came back as positive for FELV :-( Sasha however was thankfully negative..the vet and vet students were s lovely and so upset as well considering they had basically fallen in love with these 2 extremely social kittens over the past hour. There was no way we were going to do anything other than give Cliff the best life possible so for the next month we kept the kittens in separate living areas (very difficult in a small 2 bedroom apartment!) and had Sasha retested for FELV and she was still negative so we the vet's started her on her FELV vaccinations...it was sooo sad keeping them apart for so long, they are truly BFF's and missed each other alot, they would sit on either side of our bedroom door and sniff and cry for each other :-( We haven't started Cliffy on any special med's as we really can't afford it right now but to help keep his immune system boosted he gets Vetri-Science Lysine tablets twice daily, as well as PetGuard Yeast Garlic Powder mixed into his breakfast each morning. To keep his mouth healthy he gets a CET dental treat each day and I also try to clean his teeth at least once a week. (Sasha gets all this as well, I figure I may as well keep her as healthy as possible as well). He seemed to be absolutely thriving..every vet visit he is putting on weight (he is currently 6 months and about 5.5 pounds), he is so playful and loving, LOVES his food so much he tends to get annoying always screaming for food! A few weeks ago we took the kitties in to get spayed/neutered...unfortunately we had to put it off for a week as the vet's could hear a slight infection in Cliff's lungs and given his health history wanted to have it cleared up before putting him through surgery. During this time he also developed several viral plaques on his upper and lower lips apparently due to his herpes virus, so he was sent home on Clavamox again. He did begin to develop diarrhea so the vet suggest lowering his dose from 1ml twice daily to 0.5 ml, which did seem to help a little. We took the kitties back in a week later to get fixed and Cliff recovered brilliantly...didn't seem to have any problems at all! However in the last few days he has been suffering from extremly watery stool and last night I watched him do his business twice and both times it had a significant amount of red blood in it :-( Is this something that is directly related to his FELV status or something else like parasited? He is acting normally in every other way, is never off his food and I have been adding water to his food to make sure his water intake is ok due to the water loss from the diarrhea. The only reason I am reluctant to take him straight in to the vet is that the last time we brought him home from the vet he was so stressed out and scared he wet himself while in his pet taxi and was generally just freaking out, it was so sad :-( I don't want to upset my little man or stress him out but then I don't want to leave this too long and risk his health either...is this something I should be really concerned about Thanks for listening! Renee, Cliff Sasha _ Looking for a date?
Re: [Felvtalk] Introducing Cliff
Please do not give garlic or onions to kitties, it can cause Heinz body anemia and it is deadly: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/ask-the-expert/ask-the-expert-pet-nutrition/how-bad-is-garlic-for-cats.html http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/humanfood.htm http://www.care2.com/greenliving/cats-garlic-and-onions.html# Some think a tiny amount of garlic is OK, but why take a chance, better safe than sorry as far as I am concerned. -- Belinda happiness is being owned by cats ... http://bemikitties.com http://BelindaSauro.com ___ Felvtalk mailing list Felvtalk@felineleukemia.org http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
Re: [Felvtalk] Introducing Cliff
Renee, for the trip to the vet, try Feliway spray. use it in carrier and car. most vets have it or a petstore. most of the time it works for me. And then, there is always the one who says No all the way to the vet. You could also use Rescue Remedy, an herbal product for same thing. Most important for his health, give him lots of love, good food and keep his stress levels down as much as possible. It is good that you have started him on Lysine, that will boost his immune system. Even tho he tested positive for felv, don't give up on him. Renée Phipps littlephi...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi everyone, My name is Renee and I am an Aussie who has recently married a US citizen and relocated to Iowa. I have had cats my entire life and the only time I cried leaving Oz was saying goodbye to my little brother cat Milo who is 14 years old and lives with my parents. So obviously one of the first things I did when arriving here in the US was adopt 2 kittens from the local animal shelter, Cliff (at the time approx 8 weeks) and his cage mate at the shelter, Sasha (approx 10 weeks). Both seemed to be in good health when we took them home from the shelter, however there had been a kitty cold going around and Cliff started to show symptoms a few days after arriving home - violent sneezes, coughing, flying snot etc. He had one especially bad night where the poor little thing could barely breath and was only happy when he was being held in my arms. I stayed up all night with him afraid that he wouldn't make it through the nightthe next morning (it was a Sunday) I took him to an emergency vet clinic at the local vet med school and he was diagnosed as having an upper respiratory infection and also feline herpes virus. He spent the night at the vet's on a drip to help re-hydrate him and came home the next day on a course of antibiotics (Clavamox) and it took him a few weeks to finally kick off all the sneezing and coughing. (Meanwhile his sister Sasha just suffered from a few sneezes and that was all.possibly she fought it off since she was a little bit older then Cliff). A few weeks later I took both kitties back to the vet to get their 2nd lot of shots and to get tested for FELV and FIV and Cliffy's ELISA test came back as positive for FELV :-( Sasha however was thankfully negative..the vet and vet students were s lovely and so upset as well considering they had basically fallen in love with these 2 extremely social kittens over the past hour. There was no way we were going to do anything other than give Cliff the best life possible so for the next month we kept the kittens in separate living areas (very difficult in a small 2 bedroom apartment!) and had Sasha retested for FELV and she was still negative so we the vet's started her on her FELV vaccinations...it was sooo sad keeping them apart for so long, they are truly BFF's and missed each other alot, they would sit on either side of our bedroom door and sniff and cry for each other :-( We haven't started Cliffy on any special med's as we really can't afford it right now but to help keep his immune system boosted he gets Vetri-Science Lysine tablets twice daily, as well as PetGuard Yeast Garlic Powder mixed into his breakfast each morning. To keep his mouth healthy he gets a CET dental treat each day and I also try to clean his teeth at least once a week. (Sasha gets all this as well, I figure I may as well keep her as healthy as possible as well). He seemed to be absolutely thriving..every vet visit he is putting on weight (he is currently 6 months and about 5.5 pounds), he is so playful and loving, LOVES his food so much he tends to get annoying always screaming for food! A few weeks ago we took the kitties in to get spayed/neutered...unfortunately we had to put it off for a week as the vet's could hear a slight infection in Cliff's lungs and given his health history wanted to have it cleared up before putting him through surgery. During this time he also developed several viral plaques on his upper and lower lips apparently due to his herpes virus, so he was sent home on Clavamox again. He did begin to develop diarrhea so the vet suggest lowering his dose from 1ml twice daily to 0.5 ml, which did seem to help a little. We took the kitties back in a week later to get fixed and Cliff recovered brilliantly...didn't seem to have any problems at all! However in the last few days he has been suffering from extremly watery stool and last night I watched him do his business twice and both times it had a significant amount of red blood in it :-( Is this something that is directly related to his FELV status or something else like parasited? He is acting normally in every other way, is never off his food and I have been adding water to his food to make sure his water intake
