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Urgent help for Attila, a cat with a rare disease! (ASPERGILLUS FUMIGATUS)

  
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Attila

717945
 
 
Purred: Fri Feb 15, '08 9:01am PST 
Hello everybody,
I'm new to this board. My name is Marta, I'm writing from Italy so please excuse my English!
I'm a member of a board similar to this one in Italy (it's all written in Italian, but here it is: www.micimiao.net/forum) and I'm looking for help for a cat called Attila, whose owner has been a member of the same board for years. Attila is 3 y.o. and he was diagnosed a rare disease called "orbital aspergillosis". It's a fungus that hides behing the eyes and quickly spreads to invade eyes, nose and brain. Attila lost his left eye and will soon lose his other eye as well, but this is not going to be enough to save his life, unless we find a newer, more effective therapy than the one his vets prescribed... which seemed to be the best available for the moment. The therapy consists of oral posaconazole (the drug is called Noxafil and costs about 800 Euros in Europe... we raised funds thanks to donations from all over Europe to buy it!) but it's not working very well.
The reason I'm writing, is that we read on this website (http://www.jaaha.org/cgi/content/abstract/42/4/302) that the only other case of orbital aspergillosis in a cat was in the USA, a persian cat was successfully cured in your Country and we are trying to get in touch with the owners of this cat and/or with the vets who cured him/her. We have no idea where they live and exactly when their cat got this disease, but considering the drug "posaconazole" is a quite recent one, we hope they can still be reached. Maybe they read this board, maybe someone knows them or can help us find them.
We would like to get in touch to compare our experience with theirs, to understand if their cat went thorough the same pain that Attila is enduring and knowing that he was saved, maybe we can find a little hope for our dear, lovely Attila. We really are desperate to find them and to get in touch with anyone who can give us any help or support in this situation, so if you can help us please feel free to get in touch at: attilathecat@libero.it
We have sent an email to the researchers who wrote that study, we hope they'lle get back to us, but any other kind of help is welcome.

If you don't know about this disease but would like to help, please forward this message to any pet rescue group you know about or to your veterinarian or to your friends, I know it's a shot in the dark but maybe if this message circulates we can find someone who can help. We don't want money, we just want to find a cure to this disease that can save Attila's life and other cats' lives in the future who might be affected with the same fungus.

Thanks for reading! Marta

ps: this is a link to a video where you can see Attila: http://picasaweb.google.it/valinattila/Attila/photo#5166504208966313 282
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Moki

I will- survive!!!
 
 
Purred: Fri Feb 15, '08 5:38pm PST 
Hi Marta,

I am so sorry to hear that you are going through this. I just recently put up a website for my cat Moki, and I will happily spread this message through my website as well. Maybe with any luck we will get a responce. My web adress is www.savemoki.com. I will have your appeal up on it shortly!
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Moki

I will- survive!!!
 
 
Purred: Fri Feb 15, '08 5:46pm PST 
Hi Marta,

Your appeal can now be viewed at http://www.savemoki.com/Other_Cats_In_Need.html Hope this helps!
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Attila

717945
 
 
Purred: Sat Feb 16, '08 1:40am PST 
Thank you very much Moki!
We hope that by spreding the news about this disease maybe we will run into someone who knows about it and can help us. It's really horrible that this fungus is really eating Attila alive, starting for his eyes... the cure perhaps will slow it down, but we need to find another cure really urgently, so I thank you for helping us... let's hope that someone will read our appeal and will offer to help us!
Attila is hurting but he is still lively, he's eating, he's grooming, he goes out for small walks in the sun in his garden with his mom... he wants to live, he wants to fight this disease and we're not going to leave him alone!
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Beatrice

The very Beast- of all

moderator
 
 
Purred: Sat Feb 16, '08 8:08pm PST 
Hi!

I noticed that the article you linked to was written by a team from Iowa State University, so I looked on ISU's website to see if there is any contact information for them. I found two who were on the team:

MYERS, RONALD KEITH
Email: rkmyers@iastate.edu
Office Phone: 515-294-0876
Fax: 515-294-5423
Department: Veterinary Pathology
Title: Professor

KINYON, JOANN M
Email: jkinyon@iastate.edu
Office Phone: 515-294-9411
Fax: 515-294-4990
Department: Vet Diagnostic & Production Animal Medicine
Title: Assistant Scientist

I hope that helps you!

Get better, Attila! We're purring for you!

hug

Attila

717945
 
 
Purred: Sun Feb 17, '08 2:36am PST 
Thank you Beatrice, we dropped them both an email request for help, explaining the situation... We hope to hear from them soon, so far no reply but maybe they're very busy... frown
I'll let you know if we get a reply, keep your fingers crossed...
Thanks for your help!
[notify]

Scooter ~- Our Angel

It's all about- 'The Scootster'
 
 
Purred: Sun Feb 17, '08 7:19am PST 
frown I just hit the wrong key and lost my entire post. Starting over:

I was just seen by a vet opthalmologist who attended Iowa State Univ. He works for a chain called Eye Care for Animals:
http://www.eyecareforanimals.com

While we were there, Mom picked up a brochure from the American College of Veterinary Opthalmologists:
http://www.acvo.com/

They have a research foundation, ACVO Vision for Animals Foundation. The brochure says it is the only organization in existence dedicated to supporting animal eye disease research. It is:

ACVO Vision for Animals Foundation
Stacee Daniel, Executive Director
P. O. Box 1311
Meridian ID 83680

phone: 208/466-7624
Fax: 208/466-7693
Email: office@acvo.org


Perhaps some of that information will lead to someone who can help. If it would help to contact my local eye vet to see if he knows who to contact, Mom would be glad to call the office. Let me know.

Best wishes.
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Benny Grunch

Will Meow for- Treats!!!
 
 
Purred: Sun Feb 17, '08 8:48am PST 
Dear Marta:

We cannot offer any help with information on this disease as we are not familiar with it. However, other cats have posted great links and other information that hopefully will give Atilla some help.

Please know our meowmy will be praying for Atilla and we will purr for him also. Keep us posted on his progress!

Benny Grunch, Emma Barrett, Louis Armstrong and Pete Fountainhughughugwisheswishes

P.S. Your meowmy writes English beautifully!!!
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Hunter

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy
 
 
Purred: Sun Feb 17, '08 9:40am PST 
Aspergillosis can be treated but you need to find an internal medicine specialist so they can performa rhinoscopy and treat the cat at the same time. The procedure itself takes about an hour to perform. It constitutes putting an antifungal medicine directly into the nasal cavity. The animal must be fully anesthetized and "tubes" are inserted into the nose. every 15 minutes the animal is move to change their position to be sure to get all areas of the noise covered. Since this is orbital I am not sure if this can be done the same way or at all but you should contact a specialist nonetheless.
http://www.acvim.org/Specialist/Search.aspx
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Moki

I will- survive!!!
 
 
Purred: Sun Feb 17, '08 12:41pm PST 
Hi Marta,

Please keep us updated and let us know if you have found anything out. It seems as though many Catsters have offered lots of good advice and referals. Hopefully one of them will help!!!
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