My poor 4 year old cat has been fighting this for around 6 months now, and although he is currently stable he is not improving.

To give a little background, about 7 months ago, he lost a lot of weight, went very pale, lethargic and depressed. He was originally treated for stress/ depression, although there was no physical reason for it. After not improving and losing more weight (he went to 1.4kg!) the vets did a coombs test and numerous others. Felv and Fiv were ruled out but his red blood count was 12.

The vets then came to the conclusion that it is an auto immune disease that is attacking his red blood cells.

He is now on 15mg prednidale at it does seem to keep him stable.

Just wondered if anyone has had any experience of this unfair disease? It is just that I am concerned about pumping these steroids into him long term. His skin and fur are suffering. He has very little fur on the edges of his ears, and his coat has taken a reddish colour at the tips. (he is a black and white long hair moggy).

I am taking him to the vets tomorrow for a check up, so is there anything they could have missed that I could ask them about? Or is there anything I can do to get him well?

In some circumstances I think this disease has been linked to vaccination - was your booster shot within a few weeks of the first signs of difficulty?

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Rang a bell when I read your post - I remember a dog with this problem but I think she was weaned off the steroids in the end, and just had occasional flareups when she had to go back on them . Let's hope you can do the same, fingers crossed.

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His boosters are due in march, and he started showing signs in may/june.

You have made me think though. He was given a different type of wormer, as where I live there was an outbreak of lung worm in early summer.

Cant remember the name of it off hand. Could this been a problem? If it is this, is there any hope of him getting better, or is it a case of praying it goes away?

If it is linked to the boosters, how do you keep them healthy/protected?

I don't think your vet would recommend vaccination with a disease like this going on. The datasheet for all the vaccs says clearly that you can only vaccinate a healthy animal, and one with IMHA is too likely to induce a relapse, surely. Be worth asking you vet about that but I think you will not be able to vacc again - on the plus side, if you had the shots done last year you should have plenty of years cover left. I think there are other forms of treatment to suppress the immune sytem besides steroids, but much more expensive and still have side effects - what a frustrating and horrid disease. On the plus side, it doesn't sound as if your fella is too badly effected.

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I am going through the same sort of problem with my cat, will be a year at the end of this month.
Has his PCV Stabilised now, at what % ?

Jen

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I am also going through the same thing with my cat.he will be 2 in april.he was diagnosed last june.yesterday we were told that his pcv had dropped again to 22%,previously he had got up to 40%. i would be interested to hear from anyone else who is going through this.

My cat is slighty different in that he stopped producing any red blood cells. He was referred to a specialist vet in Swindon.
He also stopped absorbing calcium. They said he is unique in the fact that no other cat is known to have had both problems.
He had five blood transfusions from end of Jan 2010 to end of feb.
He was and still is on atopica and pred. We have been weaning him off them slowly.

He ended up having a sort of chemo to try and supress his immune system to kick start his bone marrow and it worked. He had his 2nd bone marrow biopsy on 2nd march 2010 and baby red blood cells were found.
He is still producing now, we have been having trouble sorting out his calcium which he is now on a low dose of vit d every other day which seems to be about right.
If I can be of any help or you would like to more or have a chat let me know.

Jen.

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gosh - your poor cat, Jen. Sounds like you have made great progress in controlling his condition - good to hear. Wishing you all the best for a continued improvement with those little red cells...

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hi jen,that is great news about your cat!hope everything continues going well for you.my little one has just dropped down to a pcv of 22 again,he was doing so well on the preds.when he was first diagnosed he had a pcv of 10,that was last june and he has been doing well since then.he is now on 2 preds every evening and has to go back on the 17th for a re-check so fingers crossed! if there is no improvement they are going to have a look at his blood and take it from there.any info you have would be much appreciated,i so want him better. best wishes to you