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Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / December 2004polycythemia vera in cats
Does anyone have any experience of this disease in cats? Our darling cat fell terribly ill recently and was narrowly rescued from death by our wonderful vets, she is now at a specialist hospital undergoing tests but they think that it is Polycythemia. I can find so little information about this on the Net and the doctors talk in such generalities, I wondered if anyone else had experience of this disease in cats, the doctors say that with drugs we can keep her quite healthy but for how long? And how is quality of life affected? Any information much appreciated, and a big public thank you to our wonderful vets at Newnham Court, Maidstone and the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, both UK, for keeping our little princess alive this long! Many thanks  SignatureSteve Piper I haven't seen anything specifically about cats, but the info for humans might apply. My brother had this, although cancer got him first, and I have to watch out myself. Since medicine doesn't seem to know the cause (may be genetic) or a cure, the only treatment seems to be to have a volume of blood drawn (humans can donate blood unless the platelet count is too high), since usually there are too many red blood cells. Eventually the bone marrow can no longer produce them at the same rate, and one instead flips over into leukemia. Kevin > Does anyone have any experience of this disease in cats? Our darling cat > fell terribly ill recently and was narrowly rescued from death by our [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Many thanks Thanks for writing Kevin, and I'm sorry for your loss. A lot of what I have found out is from reading about the human form of the disease, I think it is similar but the condition seems to be quite rare in people as well. Our cat had several of the treatments you describe to get her levels down initially; taking out blood and putting in saline solution, she is now on tablets which are supposed to control the red blood cell production, the thing is we have to wear gloves to handle the tablets as they are so toxic, so I wonder just what else they must be doing to her. Diseases like this really are a curse, they seem completely random and inexplainable and so completely unfair. Steve >I haven't seen anything specifically about cats, but the info for humans >might apply. My brother had this, although cancer got him first, and I [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] >> >> Many thanks |
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