feline herpes. =( please help.

oscarthecat

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My cat oscar is 11 years old. he is my best friend and pretty much my child. he has been suffering from feline herpes for about tree years, he was diagnosed with it last year. he has chronic sinusitis (sp?) and we have tried every antibiotic on this planet to help him. they work for a little while but then become useless. we took him to a specialist in ottawa and she told us he has lymphoma, but she told us before she even did any tests on him!!! his white blood cell count is totally normal and he is an otherwise happy cat other than the snotty mess in his face. lately he has lost his appetite, or maybe just cannot smell his food. he has lost a lot of weight and seems to be weakening...we treid giving him stinky food, he doesnt like it. we tried heating his food up. he doesnt like it. we give him chicken (his favourite) but now he is not interested in it. i bought cod fish oil because i heard that will help him gain weight...he is wasting away and we dont know what to do about it....any suggestions?
 

sharky

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I would get another vet opinion/....

URI s arent anything to mess with
 
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oscarthecat

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we have seen multiple vets. one of our hometown vets (we have seen maybe 4 or 5 over the years) does NOT think he has cancer. what is an URI?
 

sharky

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Upper respritory infection.... ie cold but in cats it can get life threatening ... ie they only eat what they smell


If you have a herpes diagnosis many have found luck with L lysine
 
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oscarthecat

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yeah. thats the stage we're in now. hes not eating....i dont know what to do....we have tried putting lysine in his food but if he knows its in there he wont eat it. we also used viralys, which is like a flavoured goop of lysine, and we didnt find that to help at all....any ideas about the not eating? i dont know how to go about forcing it.
 

sharky

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Have you heard of assist feeding???
 
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oscarthecat

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im not sure. just now i took a plastic syringe and gave him about 3mL of whiskas cat milk.....
 

lucyfur007

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Our kitten Katya has cat flu we have been using Fess Little Noses which is saline nose drops and squirting it up her nose to help her clear out her sinuses. It is working on her and she can smell her food so she is still eating and everything (actually she has become a bit of a lil piggy which is excellent).

It is something our vet recommended when they saw her last week.

I hope your kitty gets better!
 

blaise

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Originally Posted by oscarthecat

...any ideas about the not eating? i dont know how to go about forcing it.
First, it's probably better you don't go into this with the goal/mindset of forcing. Bad for you and bad for the cat.

Assist-feeding is more accurate anyway...the goal is to help - until the cat resumes eating on its own.

There is a group of people like you online, and it is (almost) for sure that you'll get very effective ideas and advice from them....

Before you check out the group, here's one site to check

You'll find the group here
 

blaise

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This has been bothering me so much since I first caught the thread.

I cannot imagine myself watching, helplessly, while my cat wilted away.

Obviously, the first thing is to get some nutrition into the cat - and more than the cat milk...I'm hoping you've picked up some techniques from either the site I provided or the group.

You'll need to post again, though, so we know what's going on.

I have some other suggestions, but I'd like to know that you're still "around" before putting the time into it.
 

mom of 4

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Sinus infections are either acute (happen fast and go away fairly quickly) or chronic (lasting from weeks to months). A chronic infection can require months of continuous antibiotics to clear up. My allergist gets very frustrated with docs who give too small a dose or too short a course of the antibiotics, creating drug resistant bacteria. Sounds like that may be a possibility for Oscar.

In addition to the issue of not being able to smell the food causing a decrease in appetite, the inability to breathe through the nose makes it harder to chew the food & breathe. Add water to the food to make it thinner and easier to lap up. Don't add anything to the food right now - even fish oil can upset some cat's stomach. Put a bit of the food on your finger and offer it to him.

Good luck and positive thoughts.
 

blaise

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Originally Posted by Mom of 4

Sinus infections are either acute (happen fast and go away fairly quickly) or chronic (lasting from weeks to months). A chronic infection can require months of continuous antibiotics to clear up.
But, if this is not "bacterial infection" (which I believe may be the case) and the causation is viral, the antibiotics will do nothing, except prevent "secondary" infections.

Originally Posted by Mom of 4

In addition to the issue of not being able to smell the food causing a decrease in appetite, the inability to breathe through the nose makes it harder to chew the food & breathe. Add water to the food to make it thinner and easier to lap up. Don't add anything to the food right now - even fish oil can upset some cat's stomach. Put a bit of the food on your finger and offer it to him.
From what I have learned (research) and, more importantly, through exprience, (except that I might add the fish oil), I agree with you completely.
 

deljo

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My Sweetie has feline herpes. Hers shows up in a watery eye. The vet gave me ointment and after a few days it clears up. The vet says it goes dormant in their system just like herpes does in a human.
 
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oscarthecat

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thank you so much for your support. we took oscar to the vet again today and now he is on an iv drip...my mom said he was doing better (i was working all day) and now he is sleeping. it makes sense that he would have trouble eating. when he does eat he seems to do it to one side and his food tends to fall out of his mouth and he has to pick it up again and again. the vet is sure it is a bacterial infection as a secondary cause to the herpes. and she assures us that he will make it through. he is on a new antibiotic until his blood test and nose swab results come back...we're keeping out fingers crossed
 

laureen227

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for Pixel's maintenance lysine, i put it in their water. i tasted it - ever so slightly salty. i use L-Lysine capsules - open them up, add 3 caps per 16 ounces of water.
she's a dry only eater, so this is the only way i can get it into her.
the viralys works, but she hates it. if i have to give her extra, i mix it w/chicken baby food, thinned w/water, & syringe it into her. she's not happy about that, either, but she doesn't fight me like she does w/the viralys.
& that Oscar feels better soon!
 
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