Darcy's story (a bit long)

Tiffany ( tiffany@primenet.com )
Mon, 22 Feb 1999 08:19:55 -0700

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