looking for some advice

cards222002

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So I have posted on this site before about my cat Trust. He is going through a battle with anemia, over three months in still no idea what's causing it. Well long story short my vet is leaning towards it may be leukemia in his bone marrow just because treatment of predisone, has not really helped him. Like most owners when I first heard this I was upset but in doing research online I guess I have some questions. We adopted trust from a local shelter about 16 months ago so I don't know his history before that, however since we have owned him he is the only cat in the house, and has never been outdoors. He is a larger cat weighing 13 lbs and it's a fatty 13lb not muscle again how we adopted him. He urinates alot when I say alot when he goes it's about the size of baseball if not Alittle larger that we have to clean out. Now Like I said I have questions when we adopted him he had leukemia test and FIV test before they allowed him home, so with him being an indoor only cat how realistic is it that he has leukemia, when what I have read seems lIke it is a contact spread thing. I just tend to think in my research it may be in a way pointless to spend the money on a bone marrow test when seems like odds are it's not that. Plus he already tested negative when we took him to the ER to treat the anemia. Now I am Alittle a shammed to admit that in no knowing it was bad for him he would play with an onion batting it around the house like a ball. On his treatment for the animia he has had a blood transfussion and been on pred, atopica, pepcid and monoclycline( incase blood paracite) numbers really haven't improved much he got.up to 30 is pcv but has since in 3 months dropped to 17.5 just looking for ideas.
 

ziggy'smom

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Once a cat catches feline leukemia it takes a while before it will show up on a test so it's possible that he could have got it shortly before coming to the shelter and it didn't show up when they tested him. However, if he was tested at the ER and tested negative it's more likely to be accurate since he was symptomatic at that point. Depending on what kind of test they did it's still possible that it was not accurate. I'd have the vet re-do a blood test for FeLV.

I would also highly recommend getting  second opinion. Different vets know different things and in complex cases a pair of fresh eyes can be a life saver. If you have access to a feline specialist that's the way to go. Regular vets tend to know more about dogs and not much about cats.
 

di and bob

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The only thing I can think of is that if he does have the disease he may have contacted it in the shelter, or right before he went into the shelter and didn't fully develop the disease enough to register. This might be a good time to get a second opinion. As for the onion, I would think he would have to eat some or most of it to make him sick, before I knew about onions being bad I regularly gave my ferals meatloaf, stew, etc. with no bad effects. Keep researching on the internet and MAYBE you will luck out and someone here on the site has went through the same thing and can help. I'll keep you both in my thoughts and prayers, bless you for helping Trust and not giving up!
 

ziggy'smom

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Oh yeah, I forgot to comment on the onion. I really would not worry about your cat playing with an onion even if he ate some. A cat would have to eat quite a bit of onion before it becomes harmful and your cat would have to be a very, very odd cat to willingly eat raw onion anyway.
 
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cards222002

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Thank you for your responses. He has another appointment tomorrow morning and just trying to figure out what to so. We treated him for the blood paracite didn't help, now seems like all my vet wants to do is throw steroids and immune suppressants and hope for the best. I just feel like not really looking into what's causing it. I've read treatments for anemia often include b12 injections to stimulate the kidneys and I've brought that up and it's like they want nothing to do with that. The other than his red blood count his other levels have been strong on his test, however his last test showed his regeneration rate had dropped and now it seems all they want to do is think it's that and let him just get worse. I talked to someone else and said his regenarative rates probably dropped because they jumped his pred to a high level the week before, from 6mg 2 times a day to 10mg 2 times a day. I have considered tryng a new vet and depending on how things go tomorrow may come to that. I just don't want to put him through the bone marrow asperation because sounds like it is painful and the chance it being leukemia in the bone marrow is really rare from what I have read, also the cost is really high. I just feel could be other options to try before setting on that
 
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cards222002

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Also the way he acts I get the feeling he has never been an outdoor cat. He shows no interest of going out. Where other cats I have had that once they go out you can barely keep them in
 
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