Mattie's Runny Eye

She is a six year old stray we adopted three years ago. She had a chronic runny eye condition. The vet tried all kinds of eye creams and none of them helped. I believe he said she had feline herpes. He told me crush up a lysine tab over her food two times a day. I have been doing that and she has been okay. Since Speedboat died in January, she and Muffin have been trying to readjust and decide the pecking order. When Speedboat was here, he and Muffin would slink around and just let Mattie have her way. That has changed and now Muffin bristles up and stares her down until she slinks away. Her world is changing and she is stressed so her eye has flared up. I don't know what else to do as she is already getting 1000 mg. of lysine a day. Any suggestions?

I agree, it does sound like herpes if the stress is causing it to flare up again. Have you tried any Feliway diffusers in your home? A grain-free diet can also be beneficial to some herpes kitties. (Grains are high in Arginine, the amino acid the herpes virus uses to replicate)

If that doesn't work, you may need to separate them and do a reintroduction, the same as if Mattie were a new cat in the home.

It's also possible she's not feeling well and interacting differently to the other cats in the house. I had a similar problem with my older girl, Helen. My other cats were suddenly attacking her, she was urinating outside of her box...it turned out she had arthritis and was in pain the whole time. Now that her pain is managed, things are calming down with the other cats.

Good luck! It's terribly frustrating when the kitties aren't at peace.

I can't use Feliway because these are outside cats who live in a fenced in area.

Originally Posted by blueyedgirl5946

I can't use Feliway because these are outside cats who live in a fenced in area.

Click to expand...

you may be able to use the spray form on like bedding

Originally Posted by blueyedgirl5946

I can't use Feliway because these are outside cats who live in a fenced in area.

Click to expand...

Ah, okay...that changes things! You might try the Feliway spray like Sharky suggested.

Also, I live in Florida and just this past week the pollen has been really bad and my boy, Walter, had really runny eyes for a few days because of it. Is there a chance she's having some allergies to pollen where you live? If so, you might talk to your vet about trying some Benadryl or other antihistamine. That's what we did with Walter and it helped him tremendously!

When my Tommy had a herpes conjunctivitis last month, I gave him the lysine, but the vet also put him on an antibiotic drop and Interferon eye drops. it took a couple of weeks but he is better now. Stress will cause it to flare up sometimes. Good luck- I hope it resolves soon.

Mattie saw the vet this week and we now have some salve for her eye. He put some stain on both eyeballs to check for ulcers. He said she doesn't have any now, but in the runny eye, he would tell she has had one. We only got the salve yesterday, but already her eye looks better. Yeah.