Oscar has the feline herpes virus

emrldsky

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I just got back from my vet's office and I left with an eye ointment and antibiotics. I know that's not enough to help him, since he will more than likely have reoccurances of the symptoms.

What I'm looking for is any and all information about this. I know I can add L-Lysine as a supplement, but is there anything else? What are those of you who have cats with this doing? I just feel a bit lost because my vet didn't give me too much information. I'm chalking that up to the fact that I shouldered my way in to get an appt. and they were packed solid.

Anyway, any advice or information regarding this would be helpful.

Thanks!!!!
 

russian blue

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When my cat was a kitten she was diagnosed as having the virus. She has never had an outbreak though (knock wood) so I've never had to treat it. I do know to give l-lysine to help prevent outbreaks and keep the cat on a very high quality diet. Also, the virus is brought on from stress so you should reduce that as much as possible as well. If you have several outbreaks you may want to introduce a product such as Feliway to help create a more calming environment.

Here are some other articles to help you out.

You can find out some good question and answers regarding the herpes virus here:Vet Info

An overview of the virus can be found here: Winn Feline Health

The following link suggests alternative therapies for herpes infected cats. These are just a compilation of ideas that various owners used to help their cats:Herpes Alternatives

Hope these help.
 

footersownsme

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at the vets office i use to work at the doctor who took care of all the strays that were brought in to be checked out, fattened up, and stay with us til adoption used L-Lysine. She swore by the stuff, said that any cat that came in with the slightest bit of sickness after a week of using L-Lysine they were 90% better. I can agree with her on that. Sometimes they turn their noses up to the food but try it out, it helps them get better and it helps prevent from any other break outs....GOOD LUCK!
 

naturestee

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Thanks so much for those articles! My kitten Lily has been dealing with a URI for a week now and on Thursday the vet said she suspected herpes. She switched the antibiotic because the first one did nothing and gave her an eye ointment (hubby rushed her in due to her eyes being crusted closed, and the vet found a small ulcer starting). I asked about l-lysine but she said they usually wait until two weeks to start that, just so they know whether the antibiotics or the l-lysine are helping more.

Does anyone know if wheezing occurs with herpes outbreaks? I've only heard of eye problems so far. Lily started wheezing badly at the same time her eyes started acting up. With her previous URI, which responded well to amoxycillin (and that's what she was just switched back to), her only symptoms were wheezing and lethargy. At the same time my other kitten Eve had a definate bacterial URI, green boogers and all.

If Lily has herpes, does that mean Eve does too?
 

gizmocat

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The wheezing sounds as if it could be another problem. Gizmo has herpes and her wheezing was due to asthma and allergies.
 

naturestee

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I found this article which says that the trachea is also affected by herpes. It says it can cause coughing but I wonder if an irritated/swollen trachea might be the cause for the wheezing?
http://www.amcny.org/owners/infoshee...espiratory.htm

Is there anything like Valtrex for cats? That's an oral anti-viral med for humans. It's commonly prescribed for herpes and I've been given it for shingles. I saw a big difference within the first few days.

Oh, and just to share more articles I found:
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...conjunctivitis

*Warning! Gross pictures!*
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...nctivitis.html
 
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emrldsky

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Thank you so much for all the articles. My husband and I are looking over everything and I've decided to get some L-Lysine for both cats. It looks like Scotty is following the same pattern that Oscar had. So far both of his eyes look good, but Oscar's did too for the first couple of days of sneezing.

This has been so frustrating.
 

juliekit

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Sorry for the idiot question but can this be transmitted to humans? I would think not since it is something a bit common and none of you seem worried, but you never know!
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by FootersOwnsMe

at the vets office i use to work at the doctor who took care of all the strays that were brought in to be checked out, fattened up, and stay with us til adoption used L-Lysine. She swore by the stuff, said that any cat that came in with the slightest bit of sickness after a week of using L-Lysine they were 90% better. I can agree with her on that. Sometimes they turn their noses up to the food but try it out, it helps them get better and it helps prevent from any other break outs....GOOD LUCK!
Pixel had dramatic improvement in only 3 days. she had sores on her face where the hair had disappeared
read & raw looking. after only 3 days of lysine gel, the sores had dried up & started scabbing over!
i don't keep her on the lysine, because she won't eat wet food, so i can't just add it to her food. & she hates taking the gel, so the stress is bad for her [stress can trigger a herpes flare-up]. i use feliway during stressful times [like when Chip came to live with us] & keep a close eye on her. if things start to look suspicious, she gets lysine for a while.
i use viralys, but there's also enisyl-f. it's supposed to be much more palatable, but it's also much more expensive. you can get lysine capsules at vitamin/health food stores that you can just add to wet food if that works for your cats. wish it worked for mine!
 

gizmocat

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I am using Viralys but I am interested and curious about the Enisyl, since Gizmo started a quiet rebellion this morning and let me know that she REALLY didn't want to take the medicine!

I don't understand what it is, though. Is it that high price for just one small syringe of the stuff, or is the syringe refillable from a packet of the medicine? How much comes in the package?

thanks!
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by gizmocat

I am using Viralys but I am interested and curious about the Enisyl, since Gizmo started a quiet rebellion this morning and let me know that she REALLY didn't want to take the medicine!

I don't understand what it is, though. Is it that high price for just one small syringe of the stuff, or is the syringe refillable from a packet of the medicine? How much comes in the package?

thanks!
this enisyl is 4 tubes of 15 ml each. insert says 1-2 ml per day is correct dosage, so each tube would be 7-15 doses. that means a maximum cost of $0.80 per dose, & a minimum cost of $0.40 per dose, less if you buy the 3-pack.
comparatively, the capsules are 100 for under $7.00. you wouldn't use more than 1 a day, which would be less than $0.07 each.
the viralys is in the middle, cost-wise.
 
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