Getting DESPERATE and need ADVICE!!

pamela

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It has been a ongoing struggle for me since October and I am getting desperate.

Here's the background on Tango.

In Oct, his left eye started swelling a bit and became PINK around the eye skin. His eye also developed something- I don't know how to describe it. This happened before once and took me a while to get it resolved (ended up going to an eye specialist before it was resolved) so when I saw this happening again, I immediately took him to my regular vet who thought it was some kind of bug bite and gave me some med to give Tango. After a couple days, I noticed that the pinkness was starting to spread to his other eye and I could tell it was getting painful/bothersome for him. He'd keep rubbing his eye with his paws, keep his eye shut a lot so I took him back to my vet who decided that this was viral and not from a bug bite. I asked the vet to give me the same med that the eye specialist had prescribed the last time.

Unfortunately after a week, I could see no big improvement so I decided to take him to a eye specialist about an hour away from me (Original eye specialist doesn't work in my area anymore).

The new eye specialist gave me some med for Tango- Cyclosporine, Prednisolone acetate and erythromyum (give to him 2 x a day). After 2 weeks, I took him back due to there being no progress.

I was given FIVE different medicine to give to him 2-3 x a day AND a E-collar to use so he can't rub at his eye. The medicine I'm currently giving him are as following:
Prednisolone acetate (steroid), Nalbuphone (for pain), erthromycin (antibiotic), Vidarabine (for virus), and Atropine (for pain).

Vet said this is caused by herpes....I was told by the vet that the last resort for this would be to give him a shot (can't remember what it's called). The problem with this shot is that sometimes it causes diabetes or heart problems so that's the very last resort to take.

I'd give him the med then put the e-collar on for half an hour or so afterwards. The pinkness/swelling had gone down a lot but the thing in his eye was still there. Yesterday, the pinkness/swelling came back!!!!

I have an appointment with the eye specialist on Jan. 3rd. I am getting really frustrated and desperate because I HATE to see him suffering like this AND I am running out of money. I have spent over $300 on EACH vet visit so it's adding up really fast.

Has anyone had experience with this and if so, what was done to help the cat heal?? I read a few threads here about feline herpes and noted that L-lysine was used and has helped. Should I go ahead and try that now or wait and ask the eye specialist about it??

I am getting DESPERATE! I'll take a few pictures of his eye and post them here to give you an idea of what it looks like.
 

kluchetta

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L-lysine should boost the immune system and wouldn't hurt to try. I believe 1000 mg (but check first) is the dose for an entire day. (It's been a while since I've done it.)
 
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pamela

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It was hard getting good pictures of his eye. Here's a few.. Couldn't take one of him with eye OPEN.
 

glitch

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Oh my goodness he looks so uncomfortable!! Very cute though! Ive heard or people having there cats eye removed as a last resort...

My mom has one with the exact same problem and when they took him to the vet they said it was an eye infection and gave him some of the same meds your kitty is on!

So we're what, 6 days away from the specialist?? IDK, there has to be someone on this thing that has some good advice for ya, cuz I have nothing!!

Good luck and keep us posted!
 

iluvdevons

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It sounds as if your kitty is on steroids? This is surprising as steroids can slow and sometimes worsen the healing of a corneal ulcer caused by the herpes virus.
I have had my share of eye issues with one of my cats - all I can recommend is what he is on. Terramycin antibiotic ointment x3 and Cidofovir twice a day, as it is an anti-viral known for being less irritating to the eye. You might also want to think about starting with 1000 mg lysine (500 mg twice a day) and as his infection gets better, moving it down to 500 mg (250 mg twice a day). Also, some people have found results with colostrum (an immunomodulator that help boost the immune system). Alot of people have used Transfer Factor for Felines, which you can get on eBay. Both supplements you can add to wet food. I can tell you from personal experience that ocular symptoms caused by herpes is difficult to treat, but hopefully some of this advice might help you out. for your kitty feeling better.
 

saya

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can't they test for herpes?

I agree that lysine may help, ask your vet...

also, I'm sure the steroid is for the inflammation...
 

momofmany

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The herpes test is hit or miss. Sometimes you can accurately diagnose it and other times you can't. Most vets will diagnose it based on symptoms.

L-Lysine is something you can give to your baby daily for life. My Muddy has herpes and is on a daily preventative dosage of 500mg. When he has flare ups, I boost the dosage up to 1000mg and my vet said you can go higher than that.

I use a powder form, as its easier to blend into his wet food. He doesn't seem to mind it at all. I use this in particular: http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails....1&pid=653&at=0 The can will last a year with 1 cat. 1/4 tsp is 460mg so Muddy gets a semi-rounded teaspoon a day.
 

marysmith

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I'm hoping and praying that you find a solution to your kitty's eye problem soon. It looks so painful, poor kitty!
 

ronit

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Hi ! Here in Greece I use Masticlox for eye issues, have you tried it? The ingredients are Ampicillin 75mg and Cloxacillin 200mg
Maybe there is something there with the same ingredients, here I use it for the strays cats when i see that they have large eye infections and it helps ! otherwise they loose their eyes.
Ask your vet and good luck !!
Ronit
 

ldg

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Well, I can't seem to find any threads about our battle with Flowerbelle's herpes, but she was in bad shape when first rescued. I don't know if the pics are large enough to see well, but this was what her eye looked like:




I found this quote in one of my threads from November 2003:

Originally Posted by LDG

Poor thing turned out to have a herpes virus in her left eye, and she's on antiviral drops 3 times a day, a cream to remove the excess liquid in the blisters on her eye (4 times a day), and 75mg of Lysine (to help improve the effectiveness of the antiviral) a day. And she HATES all of this. I'd hate to have her have to suffer through MORE medication (which I'm sure this means).
I couldn't see if the problem with your kitty's eye is affecting the eyeball itself - are there ulcers or is it kind of cloudy? - or is the problem just affecting the rims?

Our vet on several occasions put medicine directly into the eye and sewed the inner eyelid shut for - a week? Something like that. That's what that second picture is.

OK. Here was an update I wrote in January 2004: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31427

In January 2004 we'd already been fighting the herpes virus since she was rescued (the end of August 2003). In March of 2004, we finally decided to have her eye removed - at the recommendation of the eye specialist and the vet.


I really can't tell how bad your boy's eye is from the pictures. It looks as if it is MUCH better than Flowerbelle's ever was. Hers was badly ulcerated, goopy, cloudly, weeping. Thank God she wasn't constantly pawing at it.


But the meds - which ranged between 7x a day and 11x a day - with the cleaning - just became such a chore. With little or no improvement - the decision was clear. This is what she looks like now:




She doesn't miss her eye at all. Her energy levels went up 1000% after having the eye removed. She was obviously funneling a LOT of energy into fighting the virus.

I'm not recommending you give up the battle with his eye. I'm just sharing our experience with herpes virus and the eye. Our kitty's eye was worse, I think, than your kitty's situation when it started. But we fought for 7 months - with her eye being stitched closed numerous times, the entire time she needed loads of meds (which she HATED taking). In the end, we decided the stress on her and the stress on us wasn't worth the fight. It was a good decision.
I don't know if it's even an option with your kitty, and I don't know that it's something to pursue now. But given the title of your thread - I think maybe it should at least be discussed with your vet and the eye specialist. If they're out of medications and treatments to try, and your at your wit's end - and your cat is miserable and suffering - maybe it's an option.


Laurie
 

ldg

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[size=+1]WARNING: GROSS EYE PICTURES[/size]

I know it looks gross. It is shiny from the meds, it is not raw. She didn't paw at it or try to clean it much at all. The vet assured us she was not in pain - and she did not appear to be.

Flowerbelle's eye during the herpes battle:

Here is her eye after 2+ months of treatment (Oct 2003) :



Here it is after another three months of treatment (Jan 2004) (Her third eyelid has now been sewn shut with antibiotics inside several times) - though the rim still looks bad, part of that is healing from the stitches - I think you can see the eye itself looks MUCH better:




...and after the third eyelid having been sewn shut with meds inside yet more times (and still needing to receive all the daily meds, drops, stuff for blisters, lysine, etc.), this is her eye the day before she had it removed (in Mar 2004) - (you can see the whole situation deteriorated from January):



....and this is her eye one month after it was removed:



Not weepy. Not sore. No blisters on the rims.

Now from these pics, it does look like Flowerbelle's condition was FAR worse.

But again - I don't know how long you've been fighting this with your kitty - and I don't know how badly he's suffering. The biggest problem is that if there is no improvement with the meds he's on, seems to me the quesitons are:

1) Are there other meds to try? That's for you, vet, and specialist to decide.
2) If he's run the gamut of options, and the best you're getting is status quo - no improvement, no deterioration - is this what you and kitty want the rest of his life?
3) Would having the eye removed solve the condition (like it did for our Flowerbelle?)

You have to weigh the advice of your vet with the suffering of your kitty to decide how to proceed from here.

We still work with the same vet. If you want to know exactly what meds we used along the way, I'm happy to find out for you. Please just PM me, and I'll call the vet to find out.

to you for having to go through this. And scritches to your kitty. It can be really trying - and seemingly for no results. That's when you have to start asking if it is time for the last resort.


Laurie
 

just1cat

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I don't mean to sound ignorant but I had no idea cats could get a herpes virus. With that in mind, I can't help wonder if it is contagious to humans?? While caring for the infection do you have to be mindful of the fluids/puss??
 

skimble

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Just had my two 10 week olds that were orphaned to vet last week with what vet says is herpes. Vet said humans cannot get this from cats. They are around three pounds and were given L-Lysine also. 250 mg two times a day. Mine had the URI symptoms.

I hope things get better soon.
 

iluvdevons

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Originally Posted by saya

can't they test for herpes?

I agree that lysine may help, ask your vet...

also, I'm sure the steroid is for the inflammation...
True, steroids lessen swelling, but when a cat has herpetic keratitis with corneal ulcerations, (the rupturing of cells on the cornea due to the virus) steroids actual stop re-epithelialization of corneal cells, which means the ulcer will not heal or even get worse, which can lead to greater problems that may even affect vision. Keep in mind that steroids also SUPRESS the immune system, so activity of the virus may actually increase. http://www.thensome.com/herpes.htm
http://www.eyevet.info/herpes.html
 

cloud_shade

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Originally Posted by just1cat

I don't mean to sound ignorant but I had no idea cats could get a herpes virus. With that in mind, I can't help wonder if it is contagious to humans?? While caring for the infection do you have to be mindful of the fluids/puss??
Feline herpes is a form that is only contagious to cats. Similarly, cats can't catch human herpes.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Con...S=0&C=0&A=1327
 
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pamela

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I really appreciate all of your responses (including pictures) about this!!

Some of these info have been very helpful and I have done some other research so I will be bringing some papers with me to share with Tango's eye specialist today at 3:30.

Laurie -
I couldn't see if the problem with your kitty's eye is affecting the eyeball itself - are there ulcers or is it kind of cloudy? - or is the problem just affecting the rims?
I think it's a blister or ulcer on the eyeball along with swelling/pinkness around the eyelid area but will ask the eye specialist today about if it's a blister or ucler to make sure I'm correct and will let you know.

Yes, I have considered the possiblity of having his eye removed and will keep in mind but I want to try some new med I found out and see if it works. I bought L-Lysine Monday and have been giving it to him so hopefully that will help.

I'll keep you guys posted about this. Thanks!!!
 

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Pamela - as you can see, whatever we gave Flowerbelle didn't help too much, though we went through cycles of "getting better" and "getting worse." But I am happy to ask what medicines we were giving her, if you want to look into them.

Again - we fought to keep her eye for 7 months. All the daily meds required were just too much - for little to no improvement over that period of time.

You've been fighting this with your boy since October - but even a month is a long time for a kitty to be confined to a collar - unless he's gotten used to it and doesn't seem to mind it.


I guess - all I'm saying is - he'll be fine without the eye if it does come to that, and don't feel guilty about the decision. I don't think you should "rush" into it either - but looking back, 7 months was too long a time to make all of us suffer, and I wish we'd had her poor eye out sooner.


Laurie
 
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pamela

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Originally Posted by LDG

Pamela - as you can see, whatever we gave Flowerbelle didn't help too much, though we went through cycles of "getting better" and "getting worse." But I am happy to ask what medicines we were giving her, if you want to look into them.

Again - we fought to keep her eye for 7 months. All the daily meds required were just too much - for little to no improvement over that period of time.

You've been fighting this with your boy since October - but even a month is a long time for a kitty to be confined to a collar - unless he's gotten used to it and doesn't seem to mind it.


I guess - all I'm saying is - he'll be fine without the eye if it does come to that, and don't feel guilty about the decision. I don't think you should "rush" into it either - but looking back, 7 months was too long a time to make all of us suffer, and I wish we'd had her poor eye out sooner.


Laurie
I may take you up on your offer to get the names of medicine you used with Flowerbelle. I agree it has been a LONG time fighting this but I don't want to give up yet. Tango's eye is not as bad as Flowerbelle's used to be -thank goodness!! His eye is not GOOPY, weepy, etc.. Just swollen/PINK with ucler/blister on eyeball and continuously keeping eye shut and rubbing it with paws due to the discomfort/pain. I only kept the e-collar on for an hour after giving him med the last couple months. It's only the last couple days that I have had to keep him in the e collar most of the time. Hopefully the vet can address that today. He still plays a lot with other cats, get into things as usual and tear up books/papers I leave around.
Guess that's good.


Originally Posted by LDG

....and I'm sending heaps of vibes that there are new options that combined with the lysine will work - and quickly!
Laurie
THANKS! I need all the vibes I can get. I just feel bad for this guy. He has been pretty patient with me giving him medicine though.

He doesn't make me chase him all over. WHEW.. The only issue is I have to wrap him up in a towel to keep his paws down cuz if his paws are free, they'll press against my hand as I try to give him eye drops making it hard me to give him med. but otherwise he's good.

After giving him the med, I tend to cuddle him, touch noses with him and tell him that he's such a good boy and that we'll get through this somehow. I just WISH I could explain why I'm doing this to him. *sigh*
 
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