Karla
At 08:19 AM 2/22/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello all!
>
>I have a friend who has a beautiful FeLV+ cat. She's having trouble
>with him and she and her vet are not quite sure what steps to take
>next. She doesn't really understand how mailing lists work, so I told
>her I'd act as go-between as far as posting messages and forwarding
>replies. If after reading Darcy's story you have anything you can
>suggest from your own experiences or knowledge, please, please post and
>I'll forward it on to her. Thanks so much for your time!
>
>Tiffany (owned by 8 beautiful indoor-only, altered, non-FeLV+ cats)
>
>Darcy's Story
>
>(I don't know if it's general knowledge, but RAC is Rabies Animal
>Control.)
>
>Darcy was adopted from RAC two years ago. I was told that he was six
>weeks old, weaned and eating solid food, neutered, and "a fat, healthy,
>happy little kitten". Two days later, my vet told me Darcy was only
>four weeks old, malnourished, loaded with worms, and suffering from
>double pneumonia. In short, he was in bad shape, and the prognosis for
>recovery wasn't good. But he was given a dose of droncit and a supply
>of amoxi, and we went home to wrestle the devil.
>
>Within days, he was worse; the amoxi wasn't working. We returned to Dr.
>E. and he took a culture and changed the antibiotic from amoxi to
>panmycin. The culture results wouldn't be back for two-three days, so
>we'd just have to struggle through until then. Those were two of the
>longest days I'll ever know. Darcy stopped eating and drinking, and
>finally curled up in his litter box, sinking deeper into his illness. I
>held him through those endless nights and begged him to keep breathing,
>forcing him to take water and liquefied food from an eye dropper. The
>panmycin had no effect, and each day I called Dr. E's office every few
>hours to ask about the culture results which seemed to take forever to
>arrive.
>
>Finally, the lab report came back: Darcy needed Cefadroxil, the only
>antibiotic that killed the culture. I raced to Dr. E's office for the
>precious fluid, and started Darcy on it the minute I came home. This
>was the point of no return: if he made it through the night, recovery
>was almost assured.
>
>The hours crawled by while my poor little baby struggled for air, but
>finally, right before dawn, his breathing leveled out and he relaxed
>into an even sleep. When he awoke, he yawned and stretched -- and
>tottered into the kitchen toward his bowls. When he hesitantly began
>lapping water for the first time in three days, I burst into tears of
>joy and gratitude. Soon he started to nibble his food, and I knew the
>worst was over. My Darcy would live.
>
>He stayed on the Cefadroxil for two full weeks, and by then it was time
>to take him in to Dr. E. again for a follow-up exam, his FeLV test, and
>his vaccinations. He'd been so sick the whole time I'd had him that
>we'd had to postpone all the routine care until he'd recovered enough to
>draw a blood sample. Now he'd gained weight and filled out, his eyes
>were bright and clear, his coat was kitten-soft and shiny -- he was the
>very picture of health.
>
>When Dr. E. showed me the results of the leukemia test, I felt as though
>I'd been kicked in the stomach. There in front of me were the horrible
>blue dots condemning my Darcy to premature death. Dr. E. surmised that
>Darcy's mother had been infected, consequently infecting the whole
>litter. I was stunned into paralysis, not believing that my exuberant
>little kitten playing happily on the examination table had just been
>given a death sentence.
>
>Compassionate man that he is, Dr. E. explained all the ramifications of
>being leukemia-positive. I listened to the odds, and decided to opt for
>whatever time we could have together. Darcy would have the best life I
>could give him, and when it was time to let go, he would tell me. But
>not until then.
>
>Since that day, Darcy's life has been as normal as I could make it.
>He's gotten all his vaccinations (except for FeLV, of course), and he's
>been retested twice. The readings were both strong positives, so
>there's no longer any doubt. Dr. E. has never disputed or questioned my
>decision, but I know he's become very frustrated at times treating
>Darcy's seemingly endless chronic conditions.
>
>Darcy is two years old now (I estimate he was born in mid-February, so I
>celebrate his birthday on Valentine's Day), and judging only from
>appearance, he's a normal, healthy, happy, classic, charcoal grey
>tabby. But he sounds like he's breathing through a bellows, wheezy and
>asthmatic, and this has gone from an occasional occurrence to a constant
>condition.
>
>Since his first bout with double pneumonia, Darcy's been back to see Dr.
>E. many times, and usually for the same thing, or variations thereof:
>upper respiratory, bronchial, asthma, allergies. Makes sense, I
>suppose, since his respiratory system was whammied from the beginning,
>but I know it's the underlying dormant leukemia that keeps him from
>being able to ever totally recover. He's been on so many different
>types of antibiotics: Amoxi (nothing in the Amoxi family works for
>him); Panmycin (also ineffective); Cefadroxil (formerly the magic
>bullet, but no longer); Baytril (doesn't work); Antirobe (doesn't work);
>Delta Alba Plex (works for a few days, then quits). His last
>prescription was for Cefzil, an antibiotic usually prescribed for
>children with URI. As with most everything else he's taken, it seemed
>to help for about three days, then fizzled out.
>
>Last April, Dr. E. started Darcy on Prednisone to alleviate the asthma
>symptoms. He began with a single .5mg tablet every other day; last
>month, the dosage was increased to two tablets every other day. In
>addition, he gets 1/4 tablet of theophyline daily, which he's been on
>since last August. Every morning and evening when he's fed (Darcy has
>no "appestat", so I feed him controlled portions twice a day), I give
>him 6ml of a nutritional supplement recommended by Dr. E. (Classic
>nutritional powder with betacarotine). Also every morning, he gets 1/2
>capsule of echinacea powder, another suggestion by Dr. E. which we've
>been following since the results of the first blood test.
>
>Late last July, Dr. E. felt it would be helpful for Darcy to have his
>sinuses scoped and a series of x-rays taken to see if there might be
>some kind of obstruction inhibiting his breathing. Even though it meant
>subjecting him to anesthesia, I felt the overall benefits would outweigh
>the risks, so I agreed. There was nothing unusual in the sinus
>cavities, but Darcy does have an elongated palate, which can become
>irritated and then magnifies the wheezy breathing sounds. There is a
>surgical procedure that could possibly correct this, but results aren't
>guaranteed and Dr. E. doesn't think the additional risks of subjecting
>Darcy to another anesthesia are justifiable in this case. Darcy's
>recovery from this anesthesia was very difficult, and I won't put him
>through it again unless there's absolutely no other alternative.
>
>Sprinkled throughout all the various and sundry office visits and
>treatments throughout the past two years were assorted alternative
>approaches, including herbal allergy medications and enclosed sessions
>with humidifiers (both warm and cool mist). The results were negligible
>at best and Darcy hated them all. Sometimes I feel as though I'm
>torturing him, and I can't bear the thought of forcing him to endure
>anything more.
>
>Where we are now: Darcy isn't taking any antibiotics, since they don't
>seem to do him any good anyway. He looks wonderful and behaves normally
>in every way . . . but he sounds hideous; his every breath is audible.
>Sometimes his eyes water and his nose runs a little; I'm convinced if I
>could teach him how to blow his nose and use one of my own asthma
>inhalers that his wheezy-noise problem would be solved. (He only
>wheezes when he's up and walking around, not when he's sleeping.) He
>hasn't seen Dr. E. in over a month, but he'll be going in this week for
>a checkup and so I can get new prednisone and theophyline
>prescriptions. I'm going to ask Dr. E. about immunoregulin, and also
>about using small doses of human allergy medication (like Claritin or
>some such) for Darcy. It doesn't hurt to ask.
>
>Meanwhile, Darcy's still loving his life and having a great time. He
>doesn't know he sounds awful, or if he knows, he doesn't seem to care.
>He still very much wants to live, and as long as he doesn't give up, I
>can't give up on him. We'll both know if that ever changes.
>
>/smg