Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Claire Cameron — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:57:24 GMT

This may be of some use

http://www.virbagenomega.com/uk/inscrire.php3

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Rachel Jayne — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:57:16 GMT

[quote user="Mrs Dot Dot"]

Great to here about another sucessful Calici +ve cat Rachel... Butchers Classic food is good stuff! Pushka is a little porker at the moment as well... trying to cut her weight down a little.....

[/quote]

lol

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Mrs Dot Dot — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:46:54 GMT

Great to here about another sucessful Calici +ve cat Rachel... Butchers Classic food is good stuff! Pushka is a little porker at the moment as well... trying to cut her weight down a little.....

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Rachel Jayne — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:35:51 GMT

My lil black cat is calici+, we discovered years ago when I'd not long been in practice, she's my HB's cat, and I hadn't been with him long either!
Vet discussed Omega, but was gonna be £150 a go... so really couldn't afford it then. She wasn't insured.

So we went for removal of all molars & 6 weeks of metacam & antirobe afterwards.The transformation was amazing, she was able to eat again, and is now quite a little porker!

We fed her on Butchers Classic (which incidentally she loves) and she's done really well ever since. She's since lost all her teeth! She's 11 this year, but tis still quite happy & mouth is lovely & pink.

At my last practice, we tried an FIP cat with the Omega, but it jsut got worse & had to be PTS, but that might've just been the cat, as, as I remember the owner did seem to have left it quite a while before she brought it in.

There's a lot of info out there about it's use - have you tried FAB?

Good luck

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Mrs Dot Dot — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:49:24 GMT

Hi again.... definately give antirobe for 6 wks minimum and change diet to an additive free, preservative free food. Then have teeth extracted and possibly leave for a month to see results....... If you need any advice then Norman Johnston is always happy to give so give him a ring to see what he recommends with regards interferon... he was happy to give advice to my vet on administering it, although it didn't come to that.... good luck... let me know how things work out..... I have a real interest in all things dental! Tracey x

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

pugwon — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:02:53 GMT

No!, its been very helpful! Thankyou to all for feedback, especially Mrs Dot Dot, and i'm really pleased the treatment has been so successful! I'm still debating what to do, but have discussed it with one of the vets. Im going to give antirobe and metacam one last try (but for a much longer course). As i said before, this combination works really quickly and he's back eating again, so is no problem to medicate. If this does not work then we will go for broke (literally! virbagen is quite expensive!!! ) with the extractions and interferon. Thanks once again, youve been extremely helpful!

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Mrs Dot Dot — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:44:35 GMT

Really sorry... just looked at this post the day after.... and it is way to long

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Mrs Dot Dot — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:02:30 GMT

[quote user="Mrs Dot Dot"]

Hi pugworm.

I've had great sucess with one of my cats... if it hadn't been with one of my cats then I wouldn't have believed it. She had one of the worst cases that I had seen (I felt incredibly guilty but, as with alot of cats, she didn't show any obvious signs, until she started flinching away from her food bowl as she attempted to eat) It was all in the back of her throat etc.

Some websites:-

http://www.dentalvets.co.uk/referral/index.html

http://www.dr-addie.com/stomatitis.html#food

My cat was calici-virus positive -Lots of research is being done but whoever you talk to has a different opinion about it and it really isn't understood at the moment.

Anyway, fortunately I had Pet Plan insurance..... I took her to Norman Johnston( my hero!) at one of his clinics near Heathrow for sedate and treatment, and 2 years on she is still clear and doing really well.

Sorry... this is very rushed... I have just lost a massive post to you with loads more detail ....Aaaargh! but I need to take my car for its MOT so I'll post again later.

Basically, I think, if you decide on interferon treatment for calici virus (Has your cat been tested?) / stomatitis then you have to do all or nothing... ie removal of teeth.... change diet... Pushka is on addictive free, preservative free tinned foodeg Butchers Classic and Applaws and Hills i/d... this has helped significantly with her suspected IBS and I'm wondering about pancreatitis as well

Will post later

[/quote]

Hi again.. Pushkas treatment regime was as follows:

From realising her symptoms

1) Full bld profile- haemotology, biochem and electrolyes- all ok. Felv/FIV test- both negative and oral viral swab for calici and herpes- positive for calici, negative for herpes.

2) Started on 6 wks of antirobe and metacam, but she was extremely difficult to medicate as she kept thinking the food was hurting her and wouldn't eat anywhere or off anything that she had done previously.... so kept moving different plates all over the house and brought her every time of food - feline and human on this earth for her to try... at times the only think that she would eat was some revoltingly stinky fish row in tins but it was so soft i could mix her meds in and she would literally suck it up! Couldn't syringe feed or touch her face at all cos it was so sore.

3)She had all her teeth except 2 lower k9's and upper and lower incisors out in two goes approx 1 month apart..... The really annoying thing was that her teeth were in perfect condition! This was the part that I found really hard ie was I doing the right thing putting her thru it? Anyway the vet that did her dental work was fantastic and removed all roots ( as seen at a later date on xray by N.Johnston) and which is so, so important in this condition, as leaving just a small amount of root that does not absorb, will lessen recovery chances enormously. In the mean time I was just a paranoid, over protective, annoyingly distressed owner (she is very special to me!) but I was humoured extremley well!!

4} the dental extractions improved her mouth some what but not enormously. Next step was referral for interferron treatment which was carried out under D/T/K sedation 3 times over a period of 6wks or so. After each treatment there was almost immediate improvement and 2 wks after the final treatment it had cleared completely... I was absolutely amazed! and v v chuffed!

She was still positive for calici virus after the 2nd treatment. I also as soon as I could changed her diet to a preservative -free, aditive -free diet as much as possible using Butchers classic food and Applaws, and also Hills feline i/d because she has always loved her dry food... I originally tried Hills z/d and d/d, which Hills recommended, but she wouldn't eat it so opted for i/d.

This was all done over about 4-5 months in total.

They do say something along the lines of 50% of Calici +ve cats respond extremley well to having all their teeth removed, approx 35% respond extremely well to interferon treatment and the last 15% don't respond at all.... I wa sreally lucky that she responded so well to interferon. I would say that you definately have to do all treatment or nothing... the worst bit for me was her having all her healthy teeth removed and still not knowing if it would sort things out.

As said previously, she is still totally clear.... which I still find amazing. I was also really concerned at the time that my other 3 cats would get it but it is a very individual cat thing and they are all ok, but I'm assuming I have a calici virus positive house so will not introduce a new cat and prefer not to use them as blood donors because of this.

BIG apologies for this extremely long, self indulgent post, but it took up my life for the duration and I still am so amazed how it worked out! If you have any Q's you may or may not (due to the length of this post!) want to PM me.......

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Katie Tallett RVN MBVNA — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:19:22 GMT

we have a vet who uses this quite a bit, not seen one myself but the fact that he keeps using it must say something as he can be a bit sceptical about trying anything different!!

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Emma Purnell — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:16:36 GMT

We are currently treating a cat with the most terrible stomatitis and he is part way through the course but it really does seem to be helping. This has been going on and on for ages and we have given up on all other methods of treatment. Fingers crossed for your cat - I will try to get the photo's we have of our cat so far sent to you to show improvement if I can

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Nicola Smith — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:33:32 GMT

Hi, have seen it used twice for this. One did not work at all the other worked really well. One that did not work was last ditch attempt though as very bad and everything else was ot working so perhaps not a good case study!!

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Mrs Dot Dot — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:23:21 GMT

Also forgot to say, she had her interferon treatment injected straight into the lesions in her mouth.... 10 million ius at a time! She had 3 lots of treatment over a period of 6-8 weeks.

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Mrs Dot Dot — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:21:17 GMT

Hi pugworm.

Some websites:-

http://www.dentalvets.co.uk/referral/index.html

http://www.dr-addie.com/stomatitis.html#food

My cat was calici-virus positive -Lots of research is being done but whoever you talk to has a different opinion about it and it really isn't understood at the moment.

Sorry... this is very rushed... I have just lost a massive post to you with loads more detail ....Aaaargh! but I need to take my car for its MOT so I'll post again later.

Will post later

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Claire Cameron — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:27:21 GMT

I recall recommending to two FIP cases, but one deteriorated rapidly and the other declined due to cost. Still no help sorry

Will find out more tomorrow

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Sal the 1st — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:26:06 GMT

no experience of it in cats sorry. have seen a couple of really nasty gingivitis cats in the past that have responded to painting the gums with levacide tho if that helps

Re: Calicivirus and interferon treatment

Claire Cameron — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:23:59 GMT

Interferon, a compound that interferes with virus replication, has received a lot of attention recently in the treatment of many viral infections. Recombinant Feline Omega Interferon is the first veterinary interferon available on the European market and has antiviral and immunomodulatory properties. To date there is little documented evidence for its success in cats for the treatment of FHV and/or FCV.

Trifluorothymidine is an anti-viral eye drop that is a licensed human product that has been used with some success in cats with severe eye lesions as a result of FHV infection.

Fanciclovir and aciclovir, drugs given in human herpesvirus infections, have also shown some good activity against FHV."

http://www.fabcats.org/owners/cat_flu/info.html

Datasheet

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Virbac_Limited/Virbagen_Omega/-35192.html

Sorry, I have no first hand use of it, I considered it when Mable, my 18month old was diagnosed with FHV but I can't seem to remember why i didn't go ahead. I'll ask at work tomorrow