`~Need advice regarding kidney disease and non-regenerative anemia for feline

*`Looking for advice on how to help our beloved Victoria (white cat).
She was recently diagnosed with the beginning stages of kidney disease
and non-regenerative anemia. We've been giving her subcutaneous fluids
at home.

Can the kidney disease and non-regenerative anemia be stopped, or slowed
down?

See this link to an article I posted to our LogicalInsight.net website
about Victoria's health:
http://logicalinsight.net/house/heal...rrsneeded.html

Victoria Needs Healing Purrrs!

Sweet Victoria has been very sick. She recently had her second blood
transfusion. The diagnosis is that Victoria is at the earliest stages of
kidney disease, has non-regenerative anemia, and a slight heart murmur.

We?ve made several trips from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, PA, to a
specialty veterinary care animal hospital. Victoria has had enough of
needles, syringes (including for feeding at times), probings, and having
her fur shaved, meow!!
Currently the cause of Victoria?s non-regenerative anemia is not known.
A bone marrow biopsy may pinpoint this. We?ve not done this yet as we
understand it to be a painful process but we are thinking about it and
need to do more research. We want to ensure that Victoria?s quality of
life is improving and not stressful for her.

We?ve been giving Victoria subcutaneous fluids at home (Ringer?s lactate
solution) as she is dehydrated. This helps her feel better, keep pumping
those fluids! Plus a drug to stimulate red blood cell growth, an
appetite stimulant, and other important medications. Victoria dropped
down to 7.35 pounds (from around 10 pounds a little over a year ago)
within a short period of time.

Victoria lived with my parents and brother in West Virginia before our
parents passed away. My family wanted a white cat as our father was
mostly blind in his later years (he had 10% of his vision and could see
white). Victoria is our angel kitty and much loved family member. We?ve
been blessed to have her in our lives and want her to be with us for
many more years.

Please send lots of healing Purrrrs to Victoria! If you can provide any
insight on how the kidney disease and non-regenerative anemia can be
halted (if that?s possible) or helped, please contact me. Victoria
meowwws her thanks in advance!

On Sun, 1 Mar 2020 21:23:53 -0500, Laura Fenik
wrote:


*`Looking for advice on how to help our beloved Victoria (white cat).
She was recently diagnosed with the beginning stages of kidney disease
and non-regenerative anemia. We've been giving her subcutaneous fluids
at home.

Can the kidney disease and non-regenerative anemia be stopped, or slowed
down?

See this link to an article I posted to our LogicalInsight.net website
about Victoria's health:
http://logicalinsight.net/house/heal...rrsneeded.html

Victoria Needs Healing Purrrs!

Sweet Victoria has been very sick. She recently had her second blood
transfusion. The diagnosis is that Victoria is at the earliest stages of
kidney disease, has non-regenerative anemia, and a slight heart murmur.

We?ve made several trips from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, PA, to a
specialty veterinary care animal hospital. Victoria has had enough of
needles, syringes (including for feeding at times), probings, and having
her fur shaved, meow!!
Currently the cause of Victoria?s non-regenerative anemia is not known.
A bone marrow biopsy may pinpoint this. We?ve not done this yet as we
understand it to be a painful process but we are thinking about it and
need to do more research. We want to ensure that Victoria?s quality of
life is improving and not stressful for her.

We?ve been giving Victoria subcutaneous fluids at home (Ringer?s lactate
solution) as she is dehydrated. This helps her feel better, keep pumping
those fluids! Plus a drug to stimulate red blood cell growth, an
appetite stimulant, and other important medications. Victoria dropped
down to 7.35 pounds (from around 10 pounds a little over a year ago)
within a short period of time.

Victoria lived with my parents and brother in West Virginia before our
parents passed away. My family wanted a white cat as our father was
mostly blind in his later years (he had 10% of his vision and could see
white). Victoria is our angel kitty and much loved family member. We?ve
been blessed to have her in our lives and want her to be with us for
many more years.

Please send lots of healing Purrrrs to Victoria! If you can provide any
insight on how the kidney disease and non-regenerative anemia can be
halted (if that?s possible) or helped, please contact me. Victoria
meowwws her thanks in advance!

You are in West Virginia?

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design at West
Virginia University has a School of Veterinary Medicine.

Give them a phone call, and find somebody who can give you some
advice. Most professionals will be happy to help you.

304-293-2395

You might look for other veterinary medical schools, too. Are you far
from Pittsburgh? You can find people who care. Make some calls.

How old is she?

A marrow biopsy *may* (not will) determine a specific cause, which in turn *may* be treatable. However, that would be after all the standard tests - blood smear, detailed urinalysis, white blood count and so forth. But, the diagnosis of non-regenerative anemia suggests that a bone-marrow test may not be useful.

Has she been treated with erythropoietin injections? Was she in any way responsive?

Kidney disease? General Infection, Specific Nephritis, cancer?

Note that kidney disease is often associated with hypertension - and in some cases, renin inhibitors are prescribed (in humans) to address both conditions.

Best of luck to her and you.

Hello, Peter,

Thank you very much for your reply. Sorry for the delay in replying back
to you - it's been very hectic.

Victoria will be seven years old on 2020 July 13th.

Starting February 28th, I've been giving Victoria darbopoetin (re-
engineered form of erythropoietin) once a week. She seems to have gotten
better until yesterday. Victoria went downhill some. Not eating much, so
I feed her via syringe.

We see that Victoria does have some pinkness on her nose and gums which
is better than before. She was closer to having no color and some
jaundice.

We've been told that Victoria is in the early stages of kidney
infection. Blood tests have ruled out leukemia and cancer.

Good to know - regarding the hypertension and kidney dissease
association and the prescribing of renin inhibitors.

We're still unsure about subjecting Victoria to a bone marrow biopsy.
I'm interested in knowing why you state that the diagnosis of non-
regenerative anemia suggests that a bone marrow biopsy may not be
useful.

We're trying to get all information that we can for Victoria. She's been
sneezing a lot as well. So a lot that we are thinking about, researching
and looking into.

Thank you for the well wishes.

Take good care, be safe and well during these times.

Thank you Mack for your reply. My apologies for not replying sooner. I'm new to Usenet. I use MicroPlanet Gravity (MPG) and cannot get your post to display, nor can I reply to your post for some reason on MPG (I will be looking into this more). Therefore I reluctantly came to google groups and can see your post and reply as well.

I'm now in Pennsylvania. Thank you very much for letting me know about the School of Veterinary Medicine at Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design at West Virginia University and providing their phone number. I'll give them a call. Perhaps someone there could point me to people in our area who could help. I'm happy to make as many calls as necessary.

We're about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Take care, be safe and well,

Laura

On Mon, 16 Mar 2020 19:09:21 -0700 (PDT), Laura
wrote:

Thank you Mack for your reply. My apologies for not replying sooner. I'm new to Usenet. I use MicroPlanet Gravity (MPG) and cannot get your post to display, nor can I reply to your post for some reason on MPG (I will be looking into this more). Therefore I reluctantly came to google groups and can see your post and reply as well.

I'm now in Pennsylvania. Thank you very much for letting me know about the School of Veterinary Medicine at Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design at West Virginia University and providing their phone number. I'll give them a call. Perhaps someone there could point me to people in our area who could help. I'm happy to make as many calls as necessary.

We're about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Take care, be safe and well,

Thanks, you too.

Altoona? I grew up in the Reading area.

You are fairly close to Pittsburgh, so find out which colleges have
vets medicine schools and give them a call. They will be happy to
give you advice.

Johnstown, not far from Altoona. We pass Reading on our way from our primary residence in New Jersey to drive to Johnstown.

Thank you, Mack. I will be searching the internet to find out which colleges near us have veterinary medicine schools.

This is an excellent suggestion from you and I appreciate it.

"Non-regenerative" as a class suggests that the bone marrow is not specifically involved. Suggests, not states. So the test *may* be useful, not *will* be useful.

7 is young for a cat, given that they will often make 20 these days with good vetting.

The best Vet School in the state is Penn Vet - be prepared to max out any of several credit cards if that is your choice - but they do know what they are doing, they are incredibly well-equipped and they are on the bleeding edge of cutting edge in their treatments.

That she is showing some pinkness is a hopeful sign, and that she is cancer-free (other than the Anemia) is also hopeful. Now, one more thing - if she is sneezing a great deal, have her tested for feline herpes. Our big guy (11-year old 20 pound Maine Coon) was diagnosed when he was 4 months old. He was treated with Lysine for a full six months, which forced it into remission. He has been symptom free since. But when it was active, he had all sorts of complications including projectile vomiting, sneezing, lethargy, extreme weight loss and similar issues. For all that, his eyes were never involved, so that was not the first thing the vet thought of - until he started sneezing. Whereupon he went right there.

Best of luck.

Peter,

I've checked out Penn Vet's website and see that they are in
Philadelphia. I may give them a call anyway. It's great that they are on
the cutting edge.

Good information on your Maine Coon being treated with Lysine for feline
herpes and the non-regenerative anemia suggesting that the bone marrow
is not specifically involved. We have an appointment with our local
veterinarian in a couple of days so I will be asking about these
matters. Victoria has most of the symptoms that you listed. Yes, seven
years is too young for our angel kitty to be going through all of this
(not good for any kitty at any age).

That's wonderful that your kitty has been symptom free and I hope that
he continues to be well.

Thank you very much for your advice. Best to you,

Laura

On Tue, 17 Mar 2020 19:57:19 -0500, Laura Fenik
wrote:

Peter,

I've checked out Penn Vet's website and see that they are in
Philadelphia. I may give them a call anyway. It's great that they are on
the cutting edge.

Good information on your Maine Coon being treated with Lysine for feline
herpes and the non-regenerative anemia suggesting that the bone marrow
is not specifically involved. We have an appointment with our local
veterinarian in a couple of days so I will be asking about these
matters. Victoria has most of the symptoms that you listed. Yes, seven
years is too young for our angel kitty to be going through all of this
(not good for any kitty at any age).

That's wonderful that your kitty has been symptom free and I hope that
he continues to be well.

Thank you very much for your advice. Best to you,

How is Victoria?

Bubba and Pookie send her their best wishes!

https://ibb.co/JFXCJCS