We knew that Buddy was FIV+ when we took him in a few years ago. However, his immune system has pretty much tanked, and he seems to be developing new problems faster than he can recover from the last batch.
To make matters even worse, Buddy is so terrified of going to the vet (despite all of the meds, Feliway wipes, etc.), he always spews from every bodily orifice like a scene out of The Exorcist and gets badly dehydrated. Then he has to recover from that in addition to whatever it was that prompted the visit to the vet in the first place.
All of our pets over the years have had some kind of catastrophic illness, so we're all too familiar with 'that look' that says 'please let me go.' But we're not seeing that with Buddy. Not yet, anyway. He's eating well, and still has spurts of kitten like exuberance and energy despite all of his chronic health issues -- e.g., demanding that we stop whatever we're doing to play with him, dive bombing the covers while I'm trying to make the beds, hiding under the furniture and attacking us as we walk by, getting excited when we buy him new things, etc.
Three vets have recommended putting Buddy to sleep, and our current vet has made it abundantly clear that he doesn't want us to give Buddy any lactoferrin or anything besides the L-Lysine to try to give his immune system a little boost. He seems to think we're rather kooky in that respect.
We realize, of course, that Buddy may be running out of options, and we may be nearing the end of the road. But we're hoping we're just at a crossroads, and maybe some holistic remedies might help Buddy bounce back from this latest setback, or at least allow him to enjoy a decent quality of life and as little stress as possible for however many days he has left.
We still have some lactoferrin left, and we stumbled across an article somewhere about something called 4Life Transfer Factor. But we're hopelessly confused by all the info re: nutritional supplements and holistic remedies that might help his immune system. For what it's worth, Buddy takes L-Lysine 250 mg. twice a day when he's somewhat healthy, and that's bumped up to 500 mg. twice a day when he has a flare up of some kind.
Does anyone have any suggestions? And is there such a thing as a holistic vet that does internet consults for a fee?
Thanks bunches!
To make matters even worse, Buddy is so terrified of going to the vet (despite all of the meds, Feliway wipes, etc.), he always spews from every bodily orifice like a scene out of The Exorcist and gets badly dehydrated. Then he has to recover from that in addition to whatever it was that prompted the visit to the vet in the first place.
All of our pets over the years have had some kind of catastrophic illness, so we're all too familiar with 'that look' that says 'please let me go.' But we're not seeing that with Buddy. Not yet, anyway. He's eating well, and still has spurts of kitten like exuberance and energy despite all of his chronic health issues -- e.g., demanding that we stop whatever we're doing to play with him, dive bombing the covers while I'm trying to make the beds, hiding under the furniture and attacking us as we walk by, getting excited when we buy him new things, etc.
Three vets have recommended putting Buddy to sleep, and our current vet has made it abundantly clear that he doesn't want us to give Buddy any lactoferrin or anything besides the L-Lysine to try to give his immune system a little boost. He seems to think we're rather kooky in that respect.
We realize, of course, that Buddy may be running out of options, and we may be nearing the end of the road. But we're hoping we're just at a crossroads, and maybe some holistic remedies might help Buddy bounce back from this latest setback, or at least allow him to enjoy a decent quality of life and as little stress as possible for however many days he has left.
We still have some lactoferrin left, and we stumbled across an article somewhere about something called 4Life Transfer Factor. But we're hopelessly confused by all the info re: nutritional supplements and holistic remedies that might help his immune system. For what it's worth, Buddy takes L-Lysine 250 mg. twice a day when he's somewhat healthy, and that's bumped up to 500 mg. twice a day when he has a flare up of some kind.
Does anyone have any suggestions? And is there such a thing as a holistic vet that does internet consults for a fee?
Thanks bunches!