Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis

One of my young adult cats had a swollen, red eye with lots of discharge last week. Over the course of the week it spread to her other eye, so we took her in. She has feline viral rhinotracheitis, a.k.a. herpes. I've read that it's incurable and that they could have flare-ups for life.

I'm wondering if anyone in the forum has had experience with this, and how they've dealt with it. So far, our other cat hasn't shown symptoms. We're currently giving our infected cat eyedrops for the eye inflammation.

Many of us here have herpes kitties, and it is incurable but very easy to manage. If managed well, your kitty can have a normal life expectancy.

First of all, herpes flare ups are often caused by stress, so maintaining a schedule and doing everything you can to keep the routine and stress down in your household will help. You might want to run Feliway diffusers 24/7 to help lower stress in your house, too. Adding L-Lysine to your kitty's diet will help immensely. Most of us here use the powdered lysine, NOW brand. If you buy it from Amazon, it's really inexpensive. Just add 1/4 t to wet food, mix together and you're done. Going to a grain-free diet and limiting treats with grain in them will also help tremendously. I feed Wellness grain-free (canned), EVO (canned), and Taste of the Wild or Wellness CORE dry.

Medically, you want to avoid any type of steroid (shot, pills, or eye drops). Steroids suppress the immune system and with a compromised immune system already, you don't need to risk any type of infection if you can help it. Also, you'll want to talk to your vet about NOT giving the FCVRP shot since the "R" part of that might trigger a flare up (since it's rhino virus).

We will have to try the Feliway & lysine. My male cat bullies her a bit, and she's very skittish...a stressed out kitty by nature, I'm afraid. I posted on this before...how she won't even let us pick her up and hides from us.

We feed her Blue Buffalo...is that good?