Cat Goes Home After Receiving Kidney Transplant At UF Veterinary Teaching Hospital

February 28, 1997

GAINESVILLE — Missy, a cat who only weeks ago was dying of kidney failure, returned home to Winter Springs today after a successful kidney transplant at the University of Florida Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.

The operation, performed Feb. 19, is a first for UF veterinary surgeons led by Gary Ellison, associate professor of surgery at UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and surgery resident Otto Lanz.

“This procedure is available elsewhere in the country but has never before been available consistently in the Southeast,” said Ellison, who performed a second kidney transplant in another cat this week.

“Missy is recuperating very well and we’re optimistic about her long-term recovery,” he added.

Missy’s owner, Christine Fluke of Winter Springs, noticed last November that the 5-year-old calico cat had not been urinating or eating and had lost weight.

“Those were red flags,” Fluke said.

After two veterinarians diagnosed Missy’s condition as kidney failure, Fluke cared for her cat at home during most of January with a regimen of fluids and pills prescribed by veterinarian Alexandra Summerlin of Altamonte Springs.

“She’s the reason we were able to keep Missy alive,” Fluke said. Meanwhile, Fluke called Ellison and Kirsten Cooke of UF’s small animal medicine service to discuss the transplantation procedure.

“I was skeptical at first,” Fluke said. “I had to go through a lot with myself over this, and it took a while to come to the conclusion that this was the only way we would save Missy.”

After Missy’s initial screening in late January, Ellison coordinated the surgery with Janet Yamamoto, an associate professor of pathobiology at UF and a co-discoverer of the feline immunodeficiency virus.

The cat that donated Missy’s new kidney is a participant in Yamamoto’s $1.2 million National Institutes of Health study on vaccines to prevent the virus and to study the disease as an animal model for human HIV.

“We only work with disease-free cats, which are the best donors to use in a transplantation procedure because they have been screened,” Yamamoto said, adding that the donor cat made an excellent recovery from its surgery and has returned to her laboratory.

Extensive blood tests were performed in both Missy and the donor cat to ensure the best possible match, and hence the best chances for a successful transplant.

Ellison said he plans eventually to have the owners of transplant-candidate cats commit to identifying a donor from their local animal shelter and to adopting the cat after the surgery.

This policy has been used successfully at the University of California-Davis’ College of Veterinary Medicine, where about 75 kidney transplants have been performed in cats since 1987.

“Currently about 78 percent of our cats leave the hospital, and surveys conducted a year later indicate that approximately 60 percent of them are doing well,” said Dr. Clare Gregory, director of the UC-Davis veterinary kidney transplant team.

“Our studies also show that donor cats with one kidney can expect to have a life expectancy no different than a cat with two kidneys,” he added.

The cost of the procedure varies. In Fluke’s case it was about $3,000, not counting the treatment Missy received prior to coming to UF and the ongoing cost of cyclosporin, the anti-rejection drug Missy must take for the rest of her life.

“You can’t put a price tag on this,” Fluke added. “Missy is my responsibility, almost like a child. Without this procedure, she would have died.”