question about kitten with feline herpesvirus

princesscleo

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My kitten was diagnosed with feline herpesvirus on thursday and has been taking medicine for her fever and the conjunctivitis in her eye since then. However, her eye is worrying me because it does not seem to be getting any better. I am just wondering if anyone has gone through something similar and can help me out on how long these symptoms tend to last?

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carolina

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Sure, lots of us have cats with Herpes here, it is very very common... As far as to say how long the running on the eyes is going to last, that is not so easy... It depends on how well the kitty immune-system is built up, how strong the flare is... Sounds like he has a secondary infection since he has a fever and is taking antibiotics? I wouldn't worry at this point that his eyes are not clear by now - in my cats I have seen it last up to two weeks under normal circumstances, and your kittens immune-system is a little more debilitated than normal with the infection.
For the herpes Virus, a very good thing you can do for him, is to keep him on a L-Lysine supplement. For now, during the flare, and also as a maintenance, at a lower daily dose for life, to keep him from having flare ups. Vets sell Lysine pastes, but they are quite expensive... I buy a powder, and mix in the water for my cats and an extra serving on the wet food for those who eat wet. My cats are adults and they take 500mg a day as a maintenance dose. In an event of a flare, the dosage would double to 1,000 a day. I never had a flare after started on Lysine though, but if I stop giving it, I start hearing sneezes here and there. This is the one I give to my cats, it is great... They don't even notice it's on the water.
How old is your kitten?
What antibiotics is he taking? Has your vet discussed Lysine with you at all? Is your kitten eating/drinking well?
 
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