Test Results: July 17, 2025: REGRESSIVE Again?

Update

Regressive... again? Honestly, we thought the numbers would climb, and we were mentally bracing ourselves to add another drug. But then came this message from our vet:

"Good morning! Here is Chiana's result—7.9 x 10⁵ copies/ml. She actually went down a little from last time! I will call you later this afternoon to discuss."

He didn’t even mention that it had flipped back to regressive—because this dance is becoming routine. The up, the down, the cautious hope. This is life on antiretrovirals. And every time the number drops, even just a little, we dare to hope she’s pulling further from danger.

Test Results

Date	Status	Viral Load
5/5/25	Progressive	1.6 10^6 = 1,600,000
6/17/25	REGRESSIVE	7.9x10^5 = 790,000

Analysis

Seeing the word "REGRESSIVE" always lifts our spirits—but we’ve been here before. This isn’t a clean victory, it’s another dip on the viral rollercoaster ride. We're starting to ask bigger questions: Is dolutegravir alone enough? If not, what drug would we dare to add next?

At least raltegravir and dolutegravir were tested in cats and showed no obvious toxicity. The others? We just don’t know. They come with higher costs, both financial and medical. Could they harm her organs? We’re not sure what risks we’re willing to take… yet.

The silver lining? Even on her worst days, Chiana’s viral load hasn’t touched her original pre-treatment level of 90.98 x 10⁶ (90,980,000). That alone reminds us how far she’s come. For now, we keep walking this line—eyes on the next test, minds on the possibilities.

After seeing these results and pondering it all, I had ChatGPT create a few viral rollercoasters to show the ride thus far. Here's one of them. Enjoy!

Next Steps

• Maintain her current dolutegravir dosage (50 mg/day) through the next test cycle.
• Watch closely for any shifts in her behavior, appetite, or energy.
• Research potential second-line antiretrovirals in case we need to pivot quickly.
• Retesting Date: Week of July 29, 2025.

A Thank You, Joel of FIVTherapy.com

Early in our search for hope in treating Chiana’s FeLV diagnosis, my husband stumbled across a site that, while focused on FIV, offered more than just medical insights—it offered heart. That site was www.fivtherapy.com. It was created by Joel, a fellow cat person walking his own difficult path. In 2024, he retired the website. As of July, 2025, it still can be found but that could change at any time.

Though we eventually chose a different treatment path—moving away from Virbagen Omega, which we initially considered—it was Joel’s site that first made us feel less alone. FIVTherapy.com was simple. No frills. No flash. Just solid information, warmth, and honesty.

I’ve always leaned toward the old-school approach when it comes to websites. Give me straightforward content, a working search bar, and I’m set. That’s why I started documenting Chiana’s journey on CaringBridge, and eventually moved to Blogger. Not exactly cutting edge in 2025, I know—but it works. It’s readable. It’s real.

Every time I update this blog, I say a quiet prayer: that I’m getting it right. And if I’m not, that someone out there will gently let me know. Because this isn’t easy. Even with AI tools, it’s a labor of love—and AI? It can be confidently wrong. You still have to think, cross-check, and dig deeper.

In March 2024, I reached out to Joel with questions about how he built his site. He replied:

“I am hardly a model of how to create a website since my own was created and shaped in the most ad hoc way imaginable... The original version of the site was created with a Word Perfect word processing program that had a Convert to HTML function. Voila! It was crude... Eventually I bit the bullet and recast the site in a more advanced design... I googled free website templates, chose one that featured the color orange to reflect Bud being an orange tabby, and downloaded it... Anything I wanted to add that wasn't part of the downloaded templates (e.g., Site Search), I googled how to create and added it myself...”

That made me laugh—Word Perfect! I remember that archaic program. And now here I am, blogging on another relic from the past. Maybe it's fitting. And maybe that’s okay.

If anyone knows of a newer option I could migrate this blog to—especially one that allows import from Blogger and doesn’t break the bank—I’d love to hear it. For now, this is home.

I can only dream of ever having a list like the one on Joel’s “Endorsements and Appreciations” page. I don’t claim to be an expert. I’m not a scientist. At best, I’m an “independent researcher,” hoping to do right by the one cat who matters most to me—Chiana.

Bud was one cat. But he mattered.
Chiana is one cat. She matters.

Thank you, Joel, for passing the torch—whether you meant to or not. I carry it now in the hopes of helping others find their way through the fog of FeLV. Your simple message remains my compass:

“Embrace all hope, ye who enter.”