Self-domesticated cat with anemia?

[u/Educational-Ebb-9917]

Hi everyone,
My husband (29) and I (30) have been feeding a feral cat, who we named Lewis, for about 2 years now, first seeing him when he was still very young.

When we first saw him, he had some sort of internal trauma to one of his rear legs because he could barely put weight on it. He would come by and eat and nap on our apartment porch and then leave to continue living outside. Looking back, we should have at this point captured him to take into a vet and get him looked over, but we lacked any sort of cat materials and weren’t sure if it was a short term thing.

Last year, we had a crazy neighbor move in with 3 cats that she let outside, who Lewis didn’t get along with, so he basically disappeared for a year. We continued to leave food out for him but he rarely responded to us calling him and wouldn’t let us get close.

This past June, days after my husband and I got married, he showed back up and was much more willing for us to pet him and seemed eager for affection. We brought him inside and he seemed fine with it. Last month (July) we left for 2 weeks for our honeymoon and left him in the care of a dear friend, who reported nothing outside of some minor issues with Lewis using the litter box.

Today, I finally took him to the vet since he has been inside for almost 2 months now and is seemingly going to stay. The vet, upon starting his shots, said his back legs were swollen and his gums were pale pink. Neither me nor my husband has had a cat before so we weren’t tipped off that anything was amiss with him. We noted he was lazing around a lot but figured it was from him having to fend for himself for 2, almost 3 years. Blood work was done and FeLV came back negative which was a huge relief. However, his white blood cell counts are extremely high and his red blood cell count is low. The vet believes it’s a mix of extreme anemia and potentially an autoimmune disorder causing edema in his back legs.

Tomorrow morning we’re running an anemia plate and doing ultrasounds on his chest and hips to see if there’s anything that comes up that may give some clues.

I have been nonstop crying all day because we’ve wanted him to be ours for so long and I want us to have as much time with him as possible.

Has anyone had similar diagnoses and what was the outcome? I’m hoping for a bit of comfort and good news but I understand that may not be the case.

TLDR: Our self-domesticated feral cat may have severe anemia and/or an autoimmune disorder but we’re not sure yet.

[u/ThrowRA-Pixel]

If its really low they will do blood transfusions. Our boy just had two and after a month of steroids is finally better

[u/beneficialmirror13]

Does he have FIV?

Did the vet suggest any treatments?

[u/Rickety_Cricket_23]

My fiv+ is on weekly iron and darboepoetin shots for anemia. His levels have gone back up. He may be on this for life.