vaccines and polycythemia

hello all, 

i just came across this site because my 10 year old cat milo was just released from the vet with a diagnosis of polycythemia. he was taken in a few days ago after being lethargic and didn't eat for 2 days. the week before that he was at the vert because of severe limping on his front right paw. the week before that we were at the vet to be vaccinated. it seems like all of the trouble started there. it was his first vaccinations as both of my cats have always been indoor, but  a recent move to the country i decided they would be so happy exploring the outdoors. and they have been for the past month or so (after we lost all of the snow), so doing what i thought was best, i got them both vaccinated. my one cat who has had a ton of health issues and is now on painkillers for his arthritis, breezed through his vaccines without incident. milo on the other hand did not. about 3 or 4 days after his vaccines we went in for what they suspected was arthritis induced by the vaccines because all of his joints seemed stiff, then a few days after that he was diagnosed with polycythemia. until then he was a super healthy, happy, active and ridiculously sweet boy. he is still ridiculously sweet. and that is why this is so hard. we brought him home from the vet yesterday and he has been eating and he spent a little time lying outside in the sunshine, but all he does is sleep. i take him back in a few days to reevaluate. they say there is no link between vaccines and this blood disorder, but i am not too sure about that. they have not found the root cause, although they did rule out heart disease. they are suspecting that it is a kidney tumor or leukemia. neither of those sound very good to us. he did go through the bloodletting procedure and it seemed to have good effects, now they want to put him on the hydroxy. i am happy to hear some of your kitties are having success with it, so that is reassuring. i have read that because it is a chemotherapy drug, the side effects can be hard, and that it can be dangerous to those administering it. it was recommended that we wear gloves as it can cause birth defects if you are pregnant and even sterility in men. it does seem that a few other people started vaccinated their cats and they got sick. i feel terrible, thinking i was doing the right thing, and now this happened.

Sorry no one has responded to you yet.  Apparently even though this is fairly rare, we DO have some members who have cats with polycythemia, and it seems some of them are doing the treatment of Hydroxy! 

Here's a thread where they all "congregated"   http://www.thecatsite.com/t/252046/feline-polycythemia-vera  No one has posted on it since last August, but you could probably tag onto that post and see if any of them are still around   It's quite an interesting read, and explains the $400 pricetag on the . 

BTW, it may have been pure coincidence that this all happened about the same time your little one got vaccinated, it's just hard to say.  Sometimes vaccinations do cause issues, but it would be difficult to know for sure.  Please try not to fault yourself for trying to do the what you thought was right.  It still may be totally unrelated.  As you said, your other cat came through just fine

Hello,

I just saw your message re problems with Polycithemia after vaccination.

The same happened to our boy Rupert.  He had fits shortly after being vaccinated.

He did get all the check ups and scans and he has no tumors or other cancers anywhere else.  

There are some good news,  if it was the vaccination then there is a big chance that it will go away again.  Not straight away, about 1 year after vaccination it should slowly get better.

Our Rupert needed blood lettings in the beginning every 2/3 weeks,  he needed his last one over 4 months ago.  This is now 1 year and 4 months after his vaccination and he is so much better, he has put on weight and jumps high fences again.

Hopefully, the same happens with your cat.  

Good luck and stay positive,

Adelheid

I know that in people often the cause simply is not know.   It is sometimes genetic though I would think that it would have shown up when your kitty was young.  In people when a cause is found it is either cancer or taking testosterone.  People who abuse anabolic steroids sometimes develop it as well as people taking testosterone for valid medical reasons.  Often the cause is never found and the symptoms are treated often by bloodletting.  The recommendation is usually that the person not give blood because the cause isn't known so to be safe blood shouldn't be given.  The cause is probably something in the bone marrow so the blood is probably safe but no one can say  for sure.

You really can't make the connection with the vaccination.  That is how the MMR vaccine got connected in people's minds with autism, symptoms of autism become apparent at about the same time the MMR vaccine is given therefore autism is caused by the MMR vaccination.