Non-regenerative Anemia

The Vet just called, his anemia is non-regerative, we are going back Tursday for more blood work. I'm very worried, espically with his seziure.

Any advice/info would be appreciated, thanks.

I don't have any advice, but I'm sending lots of vibes your way!

Anemia is a broad term and covers from barely out of normal range to almost no RBCs present. What are the lab values?
Did the vet do a bone marrow biopsy or diagnose from a blood smear? Did the vet give you a possible cause of the anemia? That would determine the type of treatment and give you an idea if it is a permanent condition or temporary.

I would think that a stroke would be more likely a result of severe anemia - low oxygen level..... I've never heard of anemia causing seizures, but I don't know everything.

I can't see anemia causing seizures either... I hope you dont have to health issues on your hand right now! Good luck to ya... Good

I have had Cats with Severe Anemia before and 2 needed Blood Transfusions. Coco almost needed a Blood Transfusion from Severe Anemia in 2001. They did all kinds of test to see what was causing and it turned out to be Fia. My Meeko had Severe Anemia when she was 2 months old and weighed 1 pound. She almost died from it but is fine now. Alot fo things can cause it. Stripe had it with Crf. Did the vet check for everything.

The anemia is mild PCV was 24%, there were no significant findings in his chemistiry results

They aren't saying yet what could be causing the anemia

I have only had him for 6 days, he was semingly healthy, he's 5, i got him from a vet clinic, who had 3yrs worth of medical records!

Thanks all for the vibes, we appreciate them

So reticulocytes (immature blood cells) were normal? White blood cell count was normal?

There really are a million things that can cause anemia. Our Tuxie started eating litter (a sign of anemia - but our vet didn't know that at the time, as some cats eat litter and are not anemic). He was tested for leukemia - always the initial concern. When that came up negative, they progressed through the diseases, including tic born diseases. Everything turned up negative.

After calling around to the country's specialists, our vet decided to treat it like he would feline hemolytic anemia, an autoimmune disease. In the meantime, he received a blood transfusion (though cats can usually receive only one - their blood is far more complicated than human blood, and after the first transfusion, when introducing another "new" blood into their little bodies, they usually send out some type of antibodies that cause the blood to coagulate, thus it cannot be transfused ), and shots of Epogen (to boost his red blood cell count) and he also needed Nupogen (to boost his white blood cell count). He was given prednisone (a steroid) to suppress his immune system. This worked - at first. His blood cell count would go up - and then down again.

We fought for two years. We got to a point where his PCV was 7%. He was so anemic he was soooo out of it - he'd walk up to his food bowl and just look at it. It was so difficult to get him to eat. The vet said he had a few days, and that he was out of bullets. My hubby was in hysterics. That's when the vet tried depomedrol instead of prednisone. Thank God it worked!

Our Tuxie needed shots every day - then every two days, then every week. We were at the vet so frequently we actually moved so our drive would be 1/2 hour less for our kitty. This went on, like I said, for two years.

He was worth every penny we spent. The time needed between shots of depomedrol got longer and longer, and has been about every 3 months for the past year and a half. He is our alpha kitty, bounding around here like Tigger, or racing around like Ricochet Rabbit.

Anemia is often very treatable, so learn as much as you can, and get involved in that blood chemistry - and keep your eye on your kitty. Watch the color of his gums and watch for him becoming tired more easily, eating less, or becoming listless. And if your vet doesn't seem to be searching hard enough for answers, get a second opinion.

Sending vibes to your kitty! I hope it's something easily diagnosable and easy to treat!

Laurie

I'm so glad your kitty is now healthy. Thanks for the story, its given me some MUCH needed hope. I hope we are as lucky as you!!

I do not have a copy of the retic. count yet, but since they are saying that its not regnerative I'm saying that its not their wording was "he is not making new red blood cells"

I've read that the seziure and non-regenerative anemia could all be caused by mal nutritoin, i was told he was "still gaining weight" from when he was found, has anyone else heard of this?

If he wasn't getting needed vitamins and minerals from whatever his diet was, it could cause anemia. I don't know if malnutrition can cause non-regenerative anemia. We've got a vet visit for an annual tomorrow for two of our other kitties. If you get as much info to me as I can, I'm happy to ask our vet about it. He's almost a specialist now! He actually diagnosed another kitty's problem from the blood chemistry info a Cat Site friend sent to me.

If you don't feel comfortable posting it in pubic, you can send me a private message (click on my user name and then chose Send Private Message) - or an e-mail. We leave to see him at 3:00pm (US east coast time) tomorrow.

Laurie

Chestnut has only had one known seziure.
All of his organ function levels were in the normal range. as here his sodium, potasium and... okay I can't remember wat Cl stands for... but it was fine too

From his hematology report the following were significat findings...
EOS was high, i can't read the ammt on the copy because its so faint, bit it was just over normal

HTC was 24.5 confirmed with PCV

and PLT was high (again cannot read the acutal reading) - this was about half way up the high scale

the notes were

Differential algorithim issues. Confirm with blood film. (DB1/2)
MCHC out of reportabple range (RB9)
PLT aggregates detected (PB5)
Hgb sheath timing varibility (HI 1)

PCV/B 24%/6.2

then then ran another CBC and a retic count for the anemia, today they called and said "non-regenerative" - i do not have a copy of these tests yet

mind you if it weren't for the seziure I would know none of this, as he is acting compeltly normal, eating fine, drinking fine, using the litter box appropriately.... though he does seem to be a "lazy" cat, I havn't known him long enough to know if that is normal for him or not

AND THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

If there's any way you can call the vet (or someone there) tomorrow to ask him/them for the:

WBC (white blood cell count)
RBC (red blood cell count)
Hemoglobin
Hematocrit (which I believe is the 24 number you referred to)
MCV
MCH
Reticulocytes
Platelettes

...and then the Neutrophils and lymphocytes.

This will be the most important info for the vet to have any idea what's causing the anemia, and it'll all be a part of the CBC results that caused them to call you today.

Fortunately, he's right on that borderline of anemic. A hematocrit of 24 or below is considered anemic. A normal hematocrit is 30 - 45 - it's a pretty big range. At 24, you wouldn't notice anything wrong. At 17 - 18, you'd probably notice kitty isn't as active as he normally is, and you'd be wondering about it.

At 12 and below, they're very listless, and they lose their appetite.

We've lived with the anemia for a long time now, and we can tell just by looking at his pink nose whether he needs his depomedrol or not. If your kitty's nose is black, you can look at the pads of his feet - or, if those are black too, you can look at his gums. After playing, they shoud be bright pink. After sleeping, they'll look WAY less pink - something about vasoconstriction. If your kitty gets Epogen, or steroids, and his hematocrit goes back up to somewhere around 35, you'll be able to look at his gums and say "Wow - I can see the difference!"

Bear in mind - I can't promise anything! But based on the numbers, he most likely will have suggestions for what to look for. He is a really dedicated vet, and he put in literally two years of work on Tuxie. He did a lot of research, and he really did talk to the country's feline blood specialists. But no promises - it's just the last one the numbers just jumped out at him.

Laurie

WBC - 13.34
RBC - 5.16
Hemoglobin - (HGB?) - 10.3
Hematocrit - (HTC) - 25.4
MCV - 49.2
MCH - 19.91
Reticulocytes - the one thing i don't know the exact value of yet
Platelettes - (PLT?) 786.. maybe its hard to read on my copy
LYM - 3.17
%LYM - 22.1
NEU - 9.06
%NEU - 63.2
PCV - 24
the other significat fiding was a hight EOS... it MIGHT say .93... again hard to read

If you PM your e-mail address I can try to scan and e-mail you the lab report

thank you again

We're back from the vet! I took the info along. Because everything looks so normal except the red blood cell count, the low-end hematocrit and the EOS, our doc - just from the paperwork alone - thinks the seizure and the anemia are most likely unrelated.

It most likely isn't anemia due to malnourishment, or other body chemistry values would be off.

Given all of the above, he would go looking for some type of parasite. Hookworm, fleas - a parasite that lives off of kitty's blood.

I was a total dope and forgot to focus on the seizure - which was your reason for bringing kitty to the vet. But I'm pretty sure that for that kind of thing it's like with people - they have to do imaging studies.

But you're seeing your vet tomorrow, so please keep us posted!

to you, and scritches to your kitty,

Laurie

Thanks again! I will def post an updates ASAP tomorrow AM after the vet!

I hope your Cat gets better. Coco was 9 when she had Severe Anemia. She is almost 16 now and Meeko was 3 Months and she is 7.5 Years old now.