FIV kitty with anemia

My kitty that I adopted half a year ago, has been diagnosed with non-regenerative anemia and FIV.

The vet said there isn't much that can be done for him, except to keep him indoors and safe from contact with other cats so he wouldn't pick up any new diseases.

Does anyone have any similar experiences to share? I live in Croatia, and it's possible that veterinary medicine choices are more limited here, so I am curious if there might be more possibilities for improving the quality of life for anemic kitties in other countries? Maybe some veterinary practices are different in the US or the UK... maybe there is medicine that can be bought elsewhere in the EU? Thinking out loud... I know there's no cure for FIV but anything that would slow down or reduce his anemia might help a little, if such a thing exists.

He is asymptomatic at the moment, he eats well, he's in a good mood. Ok he never plays restlessly for more than 15-20 mins and he never goes for long walks, so maybe that's because he tires easily. But that's about it regarding possible anemia symptoms, at this moment.

He has other, separate health problems though - recurring ear infections, and polyps. He had a throat polyp surgery a few months ago, which absolutely had to be done because it was choking him, but he still has another polyp in his inner ear, and the vet says it would be very dangerous to perform that surgery now because it would need to be a complete ventral bulla osteotomy, which is a lot more complicated than pulling a polyp from the throat, and extremely dangerous for an anemic cat. So perhaps it is less dangerous to leave the ear polyp where it is. He's deaf in one ear but that's the least of his problems.

I know all this means he definitely won't live to be one of the oldest cats on the planet (he is currently 5), but I'd do anything to help him live as long as possible, as happily as possible.

So I'm eager to hear any similar experiences from other cat lovers around the planet?

hello

does your cat's gum looks pale? Could you post a picture of his gum?

I think my cat's gum looks a little pale, our vets know nothing.

He's suffering from eye problems, and I still try to find the cause.

and from what I read, (I read a little about it, when i do my research for my cat)

the best way for anemia and FIV cats to keep them safe, is enforce immune system and try to avoid infection from other cats.

I'm working on that too, to enforce the immune system of my cat, And I'm studying chinese herbes on my own.

I'll tell you later, if there's a way

I'm not sure about his gums. The vet said today that they looked okay. He doesn't even have gingivitis, surprisingly.

But I sometimes notice that his nose looks paler than usual.

Here's a picture of his nose being normally rosy:


And this is when it's pale, or at least it seems so to me:


I don't have any photos of his gums unfortunately.

I've been googling all evening and I think I need to ask the vet about feline infectious anemia. I'm grasping straws, I know, but his blood test also showed a high eosinophile count so I'm still hoping that maybe it's a parasitic infection, something curable... rather than some kind of catastrophic bone marrow cancer or FIV terimnally destroying all the red blood cells...

Is your cat also FIV-positive?

Is that the problem of light? It really looks paler to me, the 2nd one.

My cat's gum is not as pink as I imagine, not as pink as mine.

And since he's 14 years old and has cornea issues, I never stop searching since January. And read a lot about everything.

I still try to find the reason behind the symptoms. We are in China, poor medical condition for cats, and the vets are evil and know nothing. 

I'm thinking about the possibility of anemia. not FIV-positive. I don't know if we can do that test, or if the vets will give us the right result. ( long story)

It seems we can do blood transfusion, or the anemia can cause by certain medications, and so does some bacteria.

I can't remember where I found that text, it seems there's one kind of anemia can be cured by doxycycline.

And some due to use of medications can become better one day.

And can you feel your cat's lymph node?

there are 5 pairs you can feel by touching them.

Mine's nose from different angles. more photo in my photos, if you need them. It doesn't seem to be as pale as his gum.

I don't know how his normal gum is like, I never had the chance to look into his mouth, expect when he was yawning.

Util now I need to give him oral meds, and it seems to be pale to me.

StephyMeow said:

It seems we can do blood transfusion, or the anemia can cause by certain medications, and so does some bacteria.

Click to expand...

I honestly have no idea what the chances of blood transfusion are for cats. I imagine availability of cat blood varies greatly by country and by vet. And anyway that's not a cure, it's just a temporary fix, a desperate measure for a cat that has so few erythrocytes left that it's about to die. It's also only an option when the anemia is caused by the bone marrow dysfunction. If the bone marrow is functioning well, but there is something else in the blood destroying red blood cells, transfusion is futile because the new blood gets destroyed as well.

Originally Posted by StephyMeow  

 I can't remember where I found that text, it seems there's one kind of anemia can be cured by doxycycline.

Click to expand...

I think that's in case of infection with hemobartonella, a parasitic bacteria that infects red blood cells and destroys them.

Anyway, why do you think your cat has anemia? Only because his nose/gums look pale? Can your vet not run a basic blood test, to count the red blood cells?

 Originally Posted by StephyMeow  
And can you feel your cat's lymph node?

there are 5 pairs you can feel by touching them.

Click to expand...

The vet did that and said none were enlarged.  

TeaCookie said:

 
I honestly have no idea what the chances of blood transfusion are for cats. I imagine availability of cat blood varies greatly by country and by vet. And anyway that's not a cure, it's just a temporary fix, a desperate measure for a cat that has so few erythrocytes left that it's about to die. It's also only an option when the anemia is caused by the bone marrow dysfunction. If the bone marrow is functioning well, but there is something else in the blood destroying red blood cells, transfusion is futile because the new blood gets destroyed as well.

I think that's in case of infection with hemobartonella, a parasitic bacteria that infects red blood cells and destroys them.

Anyway, why do you think your cat has anemia? Only because his nose/gums look pale? Can your vet not run a basic blood test, to count the red blood cells?

The vet did that and said none were enlarged.

 

Click to expand...

There are vet offices that offer blood transfusions, but it's certainly not a permanent fix. I have only heard of one or two places in the state I live in that offer them. Part of the problem is a difficulty in finding willing feline donors. (Hard to get them to sit still long enough.) Some vet offices keep their office cats around partly as a blood donor. Maybe call around and ask? 

Well, just to follow up. My kitty has tested positive for mycoplasma in the blood, which means that he most likely has feline infectious anemia. That's potentially good. The vet says his anemia seems to be mildly regenerative. So there's hope. We're treating him with antibiotics now and then we'll see how he does. Fingers crossed!

How is your kitty doing?  We have some other people sharing her whose cats appear to have the same thing, feline infectious anemia, caused by the mycoplasma organism, and know of one other who has recovered.  I realize you may have gone away, since this was your last post, about the mycoplasma having been discovered, but if you do come back, we would really appreciate any follow up you are willing to give as it will help others.

Oh by all means!  Luckily I still have a subscription to this topic.

He is doing rather swell right now!

I was giving him enrofloxacin tablets for three and a half weeks. Before the treatment his red blood cell count was steadily declining, having dropped to 2.98 units (normal range being 5-10). On the last day of therapy it was 4.98, so borderline normal range! This was about a month ago. We're due for another blood test next week. I'm optimistic. I notice that his energy levels are higher (although he was never exactly phlegmatic to begin with) and no more pale nose.

Enrofloxacin came with some side effects though. He got diarrhea from it so I was feeding him probiotics paralelly. The diarrhea continued to be the problem on and off, even after the cessation of therapy for a couple of weeks. But for the past 10 days he's been fine. I hope he stays that way.

Thanks for the update.  We just heard back from another person whose cat had the hemobartonella organism, and it is two years later and the cat is still with us.  That one was very sick and it took awhile for the vets to diagnose her, but they started her on the right antibiotic to start with.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/278959/severe-non-regenerative-anemia

Those of you who have weathered the storm make it easier for others who are just starting out.  Keep posting and giving progress, or backsliding, reports.  The more info is shared, the more we can help each other.

Here's another update. Unfortunately after the initial cessation of anemia, a couple of months later it's back to how it was before the treatment with enrofloxacin. Re-tested for haemobartonella and it is still there.

The vet says there's good chance we'll never completely remove the organism from the blood, especially since the kitty also has FIV. But I want to try everything so I just ordered Ronaxan from www.petdrugsonline.co.uk . That's doxycycline, a different antibiotic, I'm hoping it will have better effects.

It is not unusual to have to repeat treatment and to have several recurrences, but after that often the cat can totally recover.  However, it is harder with an FIV cat.  Doxycycline can also have some bad side effects, so be sure to study it well. You must always chase it with a lot of water because it can cause ulcers in the esophagus if it settles there.  I have heard two things - one is never use an uncoated tablet, and the other is, never use a tablet at all, only use the liquid form.  That's what I would choose.  https://www.petrescuerx.com/index.cfm/product/271_50/doxycycline.cfm

There was one case not too long ago where the first vet diagnosed the Mycoplasma haemofelis (formerly known as Haemobartonella felis) but had no cat sized pills so cut up dog sized plls and gave to the client, so the pills ended up uncoated.  I dont know if the vet told her about chasing with a LOT of liquid after giving them either.  I don't think the owner was experienced with giving pills.  The cat got terrible ulcers in the esophagus and was eventually put to sleep because she could not eat and kept gagging and was in terrible pain.  It was very sad.  The owner changed vets and last I knew was having her second cat treated for the same disease.  Both had been outside cats most of their lives, and fleas and ticks carry this disease. She has not come back on line for several months, so I do not know the status of her remaining cat.

Here is an extremely informative link about dealing with hemobartonella and FIV together.  http://www.fivtherapy.com/hemobartonella.htm?ckattempt=1

Red Top - THANK YOU! Those are extremely interesting links!
I might forward the last one to my vet as well, there seem to be even more treatment options available than we thought?

My cat (ok now, I feel stupid calling him "my cat" all the time, he has a name, his name is Ljubo, but that is very un-anglophonic so I've been carefully avoiding it ), LJUBO, was a stray cat that wandered into my garden in November, and I adopted him. He was full of ticks and fleas when he got here, but he also had a normal red blood cell count at his first check. It was only in January that anemia began to show up,and it was after he underwent a throat polyp surgery. So at first we thought it was a consequence of surgery, hypoxia etc. But it persisted and soon turned from regenerative to non-regenerative. Then we tested for mycoplasma and it was positive. I don't know which strain of it he might have though. The test wasn't that precise.
So I am thinking he probably got infected with mycoplasma somewhere right before he wandered into my care.
Since his anemia was always asymptomatic and we only know about it from blood tests, I'm hoping maybe it's not the worst of the three strains? :/

Regarding pills - yes, damage to the throat is a big cocnern, and the main reason I ordered Ronaxan from the UK. Since enrofloxacin gave Ljubo a diarrhea that we're still trying to get under control, I wanted to try doxycycline instead, but we no longer have any veterinary doxycycline on the market in Croatia. There is doxy for humans but it comes in large capsules. Capsules are even more prone to sticking to the throat than tiny tablets, so my vet advised against it, especially since Ljubo had throat polyp surgery half a year ago. I asked about opening the capsule and administering it watered down through a syringe, but she's concerned about the medicine absorbing too fast then. So I went out of my way to get the medicine in pill form. I hope this isn't a bad decision ... :/

Giving pills is never easy to cats, but I always always always follow it up with heaps of water. Hell,even I can't swallow pills without water! I'd never expect that from a kitty.

I have an update and it's awesome!!!

This was the red blood cell count before Ronaxan:


After Ronaxan:


And to top it off, the vet just called with the test results for mycoplasma in the blood, and it is NEGATIVE! Looks like we've killed the beast!!

Now we just still have the recurring diarrhea to deal with.