Rotten Pork Chowder

In 1985 I got a tiger point siamese named Zola. (Named after Olympic runner Zola Budd, who ran very fast and tripped a competitor; kitten had the same habit.) She was an indoor-outdoor cat, and at that time there was not a vaccine for feline leukemia virus (or perhaps it was very new). She caught the virus when she was about 9 months old. She became very suddenly ill with a high fever and did not want to eat, drink or move. I took her to an after-hours emergency clinic nearby where they made the diagnosis. The vet told me it was incurable, and that she did not have long to live. He gave me medicine to reduce the fever, and recommended cold compress on her head to help cool her down.

The following day I went to my old vet in a different part of Los Angeles. She was in her 60’s and had on her wall a picture of her graduating class from veterinary school, in which she was the only woman. I always liked her blunt style, and her fees were well below other vets. She would rail on about how male vets overcharged. It turns out she also knew nutrition. She was irate when she heard the prognosis and treatment given by the other vet. Her plan:

• Do NOT reduce the fever. It is fighting the infection!
• Give a liquid vitamin supplement (I think it was Pet-tinic at the time)
• Give a serving of raw chicken liver daily.

Within a week Zola was herself again and she lived a normal life with the vitamins and liver daily. I don’t know how FeLV is being treated these days, but I wonder if nutrition is now part of it.