Diagnosis - Feline Leukemia

Sorry for your loss. You made him as comfortable as possible and eased his final days.

Sorry for your loss. Dealing with much the same here. Lab tests come back Monday, Had a friend drive me to the vet with Buddy on my lap, he hates the carrier.

May your memories be good and your grief short. Bob J.

Aww, sorry for the loss of your friend. It's wonderful, however, that Missy never suffered. It's a tough position to be in, but you did good!

Unfortunately, Missy didn't make it and went to the Rainbow bridge. He was comfortable until the end and we sure miss him. I know it was for the best.

Missy came to us 9 years ago, we heard him meowing in the empty lot next door, cold, hungry and alone. He was a feral cat but was always around to keep us happy.

Now, Little Bit who is fifteen, has been found in the mornings on the front porch looking around. I think he wonders when Missy is coming back.

So now all my kids are there waiting and it is a long list of rescues that allowed us to live with them. So long Missy, wait up for us!

6 years ago our cat was sick like yours and we brought it to the vet.

the initial blood test indicated serious things. they advised we put her down.

However we wanted to know what was wrong. they did the test for the next most likely thing-negative.

so we did another more expensive test for next most likely.-negative.

this went on for 2 more tests and a total of 3000 dollars so far-negative.

she had an autoimmine disease response but none of the actual diseases that usually cause it.

about 20 percent of cat's that get autoimmune disease and underlying cause is not found.

so with no definite cause we treated her with prednisolone for 2 months and her blood count returned to normal.

however she developed diabetes from this drug course( we were told this would likely happen).

6 years later our cat is still around. However it did cost us plenty of money. i figure at least 5 thousand from the initial incident and of course the constant lantus insulin and 2 shots a day.

my wife is very happy our cat is still around.

ironically we have now had Brinn for 15 years and she still hates me. Oh well.

toedtoes wrote:

dturm wrote:
Feline Leukemia

Unfortunately, there is no cure. Sometimes we can get a cat through an acute episode, but eventually almost all die early.

Very often it is the immunosuppressive effects of FeLV that cause them to die from other diseases.

Really tough situation and no easy answers.

Doug, DVM

That's been my experience. For me, I have done everything to make the cat comfortable for as long as humanely possible and then took action when necessary.

Double ditto. I'm sorry to hear of Missy's illness predicament.

Thanks everyone for your information and advice. We go back to the vet this morning and I will post an update.

If it was me, I would bring her home and try colostrum capsules. Give mega doses and see if you can get the leukemia in remission. I am finding that it is a miracle drug for many diseases. I like the Vitacost brand (good quality at a good price)

I lost the favorite cat of my whole life, Romeo, to Feline Leukemia years ago, before the vaccine was available. By the time he was showing symptoms, it was clearly too late to save him. That was really hard, but of course we let him go. We had a very practical, country vet at the time and he saw no point in prolonging a terminal, painful disease, past comfort measures. I appreciated that the doc was honest with me. Be strong.

doxiemom11 wrote:
If it were mine with an incurable disease, I would have them home with me, make them as comfortable as possible, including feeding them if they want it and then when they no longer have any quality of life or are in pain, help them with one final visit to the vet.

That sounds like the nicest thing to me.

Damn I hate cancer.