Helping Leia with Parvivirus's treatment

These 2 siblings – Leia & Gizmo - were abandoned in a park in the Osaka area in Nov. 2012 and were found by a local when they were about 3 weeks old. The rescuer, however, could not keep them. Then through a desperate attempt to find them a foster home through a Japan Cat Network (JCN) announcement they found Bianca. She has stepped in and has been taking care of them since mid-Nov 2012.

In mid-December, the rescued female kitten Leia had a sudden illness.

She had eaten well the previous night but the next morning she suddenly did not move, did not eat and did not meow anymore.

She was brought to the vet and was diagnosed with Parvovirus in the morning - that is in many cases lethal to kittens of that age.

The vets started a treatment with interferon and antibiotics and in the afternoon there was a suspicions of FeLV instead of Parvo.

Meanwhile, Leia had two white blood cell counts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, both coming out as 800 μl. - which is absolutely too low since the normal values should be between 5,500 and 19,500 μl.

In the afternoon, to check for FIV/FeLV, Leia tested negative for SNAP for FIV/FeLV.

Due to her young age (~ 7 weeks), the test is not 100% sure. Then Gizmo, the male sibling, had to be tested to cross check the possibility of a false positive.

In a SNAP test, Gizmo tested negative for FIV/FeLV, and also his white blood cell count came out between the normal values.

At that moment, they were desperate but nothing else could be done that day, they just had to wait for little Leia's body to take the medication and pray for a different white blood cell count the next day.

And a miracle happened in the next day, contradicting the predicted symptoms of Parvovirus and/or FeLV, Leia's white blood cell count increased a bit and the vet gave us a tinny hope.

Meanwhile, Gizmo had to be isolated from the other cats in the house. The other cats were also adopted from Japan Cat Network (JCN) and they came to their forever-lovely house after a long rescue and journey from the Fukushima 30km exclusion zone.

Gizmo and the Fukushima cats were transferred to a volunteer's house while the foster house had to be totally disinfected since Parvo was not totally ruled out.

Leia stayed in animal hospital for 4 days, medicated with interferon and antibiotics, and had her blood tested every morning and afternoon to check her immunity conditions.

After 4 long days, Leia was released to go home but she has to be keep apart of her sibling Gizmo, and the other cats of the house for the next month.

Leia needs a regular bi-weekly blood check for the next week and then a weekly check for the next consecutive 3 weeks.

The vet bills up to now sum up to 100,000 JPY (~ 1,200 USD) and we predict until mid/end Jan 2013, the vet bills will reach another 50,000 JPY (~ 600 USD) adding up to an app. total of 150,000 JPY (~ 1,800 USD) or more.

If you can help with any amount, we ask for your help to amortize part of the expenses, since we are not sure when they will stop.

We want very much that little Leia survive to be a healthy cat, and every small bit that you can contribute will help us to keep her health in control these months and help to pay for the vet’s bills.

The donations will go directly to the foster home that is paying all the expenses.

The last result of Leia’s blood cell was 9,700 μl, which is among the acceptable results, but still a little bit low. Leia also gained 100g in the last 2 weeks, and has been playing actively the last 2 weeks. We will continue to put regular updates online.

We hope to call her “cured” by the end of January 2013 and then start paying the vet bills.

Please consider helping us with any amount you can spare, such precious life is still in such high danger.

The account for any contribution is a PayPal account bianca.himmelsbach@gmail.com

And we will keep you informed of her progress!

Foster:         Bianca Himmelsbach

Story:           Anelise Ehrhardt

Revision:     Rachael Dean