Fiv+ and anemic

My 16 year old, fiv+, cat has been lethargic and miserable for about 5 months. His vet diagnosed and treated him as though he had arthritis. Today I found out from a different vet that he actually has severe anemia and thrombocytopenia. She thinks it's probably that the fiv is in advanced stages and recommends a blood transfusion. Considering his age and health, will this even help him feel like himself again? Or will it help for just a few months only to find us back here again? I don't want him to suffer anymore and I don't know what to do. Has anyone gone through this?

I;m so sorry no one has gotten back with you yet. And I'm also so sorry your first Vet misdiagnosed your poor old guy and he's been suffering all this time. 

I can't honestly say whether one blood transfusion will help him feel better again or not, and certainly can't say whether it will last.  I'm thinking it will NOT last long, especially if your Vet doesn't know the reason for the thrombocytopenia.  That needs to be determined and "fixed" in order for him to start producing platelets again or it will be a vicious cycle, from the little I know about it.  Did you ask the Vet to explain it all to you?  What are they recommending other than a blood transfusion?  How severe is his anemia?  (how low are his numbers)   Didyou ask the Vet the same questions you posed here? 

We're only had a couple of cats that I can find threads on who've had this, and neither thread came to any conclusion.  Here is one of the threads:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/317485/severe-anemia-and-thrombocytopenia-in-1-year-old-female-cat 

I'm so sorry for what you and your cat are going through. I can't think of any active users who have dealt with the end stages of FIV, but this is a dense but thorough site about it that may or may not help you make some decisions: http://www.fivtherapy.com/index.htm

If you are able, it would be helpful to get to another vet for a third opinion, preferably one that has lots of experience with end stage fiv who can be more specific about what to expect. Otherwise I'd ask your current vet some more questions, and if they're unsure maybe they can do some research for you to find out.

Sly is doing the same, no worse at least. He has an appointment with a specialty vet on tues, the only clinic in Oklahoma City that handles feline blood transfusions, so I'm hoping to get more answers there. To answer your questions, his RBC is 2.97, HCT 16.5, HGB 5.3 and platelets 85 (all very low). The vet I saw on Thursday suspects advanced fiv or a bone cancer but she doesn't know much about fiv and doesn't think it normally causes low RBCs. Molly92, the website you recommended was quite informative (thank you) and I learned that in fact low RBC can be caused by feline AIDS. In any case I will hopefully learn more Tuesday and will likely be making some major decisions. Almost everyone I've talked to are pretty flippant about the decision to treat or let your cat go. So thank you for your kind words and advice. It's actually not an easy decision at all and I appreciate your concern.

Here is a great thread on anemia, where lots of people chimed in about different treatments that worked or didn't, and some of these cats have FeLV, (similar to FIV).  It's a long thread, but worth the read, IMHO.   This cats HCT (also called PCV) was down to 16.5 at times also...sometimes lower than that, I believe.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/283731/anemic-cat 

Glad you're going to see a specialty Vet.  That should help.  Hopefully they are versed in Anemia too.  I think that's the key.  FIV doesn't actually kill, it just weakens their immune system, which hinders the cat from fighting off infections, etc.