My poor cat :(

[Dillie]

I need some hand holding/advice

My poor cat has been fighting against anemia auto-immune disease for about a year now, but it seems to have caught up on him.

I took him to the vets for his usual blood test, and when the vet came out, he said that the cats blood was almost like water

They have just phoned and told me that he needs different testosterone steroids to kick start his bone marrow into action and hope that it works. He said that he is that poorly he may need a transfusion.

Anyone with any experience or vets/nurses about? My head is such a blur that I think only half the vets words actually sank in.

What should I expect with the transfusion? Will it be a day or a day/night case?

I really don't want to lose him, (he is only 3years old) but if he doesn't pick up, and none of this treatment works, then should I try to prepare for the worse?

Poor thing

No avice, but I'll hold your hand until someone gets here.

Poor puss. No advice but will bump for Bellissima - she is very knowledgeable about cats.

Was/Is he on steroids for this? What dose currently if still on. Do you know his PCV result? (would tell % of cells in blood). Depending upon what has happened with previous doses vs recent doses if any depends if it is fair to go on in my opinion.

Blood transfusion in cats is a little more complicated from the vets point of view than dogs and it's very important they type the blood (similar to humans) before they give it to ensure a match. Your vet probably already knows, there are test kits available for this from idexx labs. It's not so stressful for the cat to receive it though, just like having a drip given really. Usually they feel a lot better within hours but the given blood is not going to stick around for that long and levels start to drop within days. Depending whether the vet can turn your cat's own production around is what then matters as he can not live on transfusions indefinately. Despite matching blood groups there is an increased risk with subsequant transfusions of getting a life threatening transfusion reaction, though it may well be fine too.

A couple of other things to check with the vet if you don't already know, has he been tested for FeLV and FIV? Also testing for haemobartonella?

Good luck.

good info in these fact sheets www.fabcats.org/owners/anaemia/index.php

thanks for that.

Aye his pcv count is 6 (from 19 at its lowest) so he gave him an injection of something with a hugely complicated name (and his danish accent didnt help lol) to kick start bone marrow production (new red blood cells were 9%) and an increased dose of prednidale (sp?)

He has been tested for everything under the sun Cant really blame the cat, but he did bite the vet lol!

So back in a fortnight for more tests and hopefully his blood will start to regenerate. Apparently when they took a sample earlier, it was like the consistency of wine

Sorry have only just got back to the thread. If I saw a cat with a PCV of 6% I'd be transfusing NOW. Anthing sudden below 20% or slowly (as is likely the case here) below 15% should be transfused.

Please don't accept waiting a fornight for this. If your vet is not being proactive now your cat is likely to have major organ failure before anything can happed for these cells to have any chance on their own. If your vet will not do this insist on a referral asap to somewhere that will take this more seriously. It will be costly for you - and would be in any vet practice even if not a referral to be honest. Please though, it is not acceptable to leave a cat with a figure this low and say come back in 2 weeks.