What is a herpes flare-up?

Hi everyone, I am so glad to have found this forum!

We just adopted 3 cats from a local shelter. Onyx is 1 year old and has an eye problem over most of one cornea, can't really see much out of that eye but it does not slow him down much, he's so playful!

Took him to the vet yesterday and she said it was probably caused by untreated herpes as a kitten. He currently has a swollen lower lip and bald patches at the base of his tail, she thought these were from allergies to his plastic food/water dish which I have replaced. We also did test for parasites/ringworm and will know later.

My question is, what is a herpes flare up and what should I be watching for with that, and when/how often? Thanks for any help/advice!!

A herpes flare up is when symptoms start showing up again. It varies from kitty to kitty. My herpes kitty starts sneezing, gets runny eyes, develops little acne like spots under her chin and along her jawline under her neck, and she also is very prone to upper respiratory infections. Some kitties have rodent ulcers that will flare up (much like what your guy has most likely), eye ulcers, and other eye problems. The longer you've had your kitty and the better you get to know him, the more you'll be able to figure out when the flare up is happening.

You should know that herpes is incurable, but can be managed easily. You just have to find what works for both you and your kitty. It's an immune system problem, so if your kitty gets sick, it may take it longer to get well. A flare up is often triggered by stress, so you'll want to keep the stress in your home to a minimum. I run Feliway diffusers 24/7 to help with that. We also try to stick to a regular routine of waking up, feeding, going to bed and the like. Our kitties know our schedule better than we do!

Adding Lysine to your kitties diet is a very good way to help keep flare ups to a minimum, keep your kitty healthy, and fight the virus. Many here use the powdered NOW brand and just add it to wet food. It's best to do 1/8 t twice daily so that the lysine stays in the system and isn't flushed out. http://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Lysi...sr=1-1-catcorr

Lastly, a grain free diet (or mostly grain free) is also key to keeping a herpes kitty healthy. The arginine in the grains helps the virus replicate, so cutting down on the opportunity for it to replicate, helps keep your kitty healthy. Again, you just have to find a food that your kitty will eat. I feed Innova EVO canned, Wellness grain-free canned, and Taste of the Wild dry. We've also fed Hannah Wellness CORE dry and she liked that, too.

I'm sure this is longer than you expected!

Thank you so much for your helpful reply!
Since I just got him 10 days ago, I don't know what his original problem was like in terms of symptoms, so your description was very helpful.

I wish I knew if it was really a plastic allergy, other allergy, or the herpesvirus flaring up. His chin looks swollen, but not a bulging out the way it looks in the rodent ulcer pictures I googled. Still has all of the fur on it too, but you can see that the skin is a bit pink under there. And the area he scratched clean at the base of his tail is growing fur back and looks better already.
He does not have any runny nose/eye issues, but I have heard maybe 1 sneeze per day (none for the other 2 cats).

I had read here about lysine and I am thinking that I will get human pills and cut as necessary. He's very relaxed about pills (plus I have some experience lol), but with a total of 3 cats and 1 big food dish its unlikely we would find success with the powder in the food.

I am so puzzled about what could be triggering a stress reaction. They all seem very happy and seem to have adjusted well, and we have had them for 10 days. Kind of odd for a reaction to come up after all of this time? They are all quite relaxed, lolling about like they own the place, very playful, nightly group soccer games in the kitchen . He's actually the most playful!

Hoping that everything clears up since getting rid of the plastic bowls and starting the antihistamine. Fecal test yesterday had normal results. Fingers crossed!!

I would switch to individual feeding bowls and scheduled feedings. This way you can be sure he's eating enough and getting his meds. It also helps with weight control. You can crush the pills (they're huge) and mix in food, too. Add a bit of water to the wet food and it'll dissolve.

Remember, that you've only had him for 10 days and it takes awhile for the "symptoms" to show. They don't necessarily just appear overnight.

A question to stephanietx about the huge pill and crushing it. Is the entire pill fed to the cat or just a portion of the pill?

The reason I am asking it that medication is not evenly distributed in pills. If it is being split in half and you are careful to feed the other portion the next day this should not be an issue. But if you are splitting the pill by more than that it could potentially be a problem.

Whether human or animal, splitting pills by much more than half may mean getting less than the intended amount of medication in one part, more than intended in the other.

It would depend on the dose of the pill. Most lysine tabs come in 250 mg and 500mg strengths, so you could just crush the whole thing and mix it in.