L-Lysine questions please.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feralvr 

My Perla has been dealing with a very, very bad herpes virus that just won't let go. I just want to pick some brains on the Lysine front. Much appreciated......
1. What is the highest, safe dose you can give a cat daily who is suffering a herpes flare-up?

I gave my F3 Savannah, 1,500 mg/day during his worst flair up. That was thank God, almost a year ago. I thought I was going to loose the cat. I credit Lysine with saving his life.

2. How long can you give that highest dose of Lysine each day i. e. one week? two weeks? before you go down to the maintenance dosage.

My Savannah got between 250 mg/day to 1500 mg/day for a month. Then, once symptoms got better, he got less Lysine. Once his flair up was "over", he got 125 mg/day every other day for a week. After that, he got NONE. It has been several months and he has not had a flair up, hence no Lysine.

3. Is it really safe to give the maintenance dose of 250 mg./day for a cat who is permanently infected and shedding the herpes virus?

Safe yes, but, not necessary, in my experience.

4. (this may be a dumb one... but) Does the Lysine lose it's effective benefit's against herpes flare-ups if the cat has been on and off the supplement for many months?

I have found it to be MORE helpful, not LESS!

My vet's both say only 500 mg. per day - but that is not helping her. If I go to 1000 mg. per day I see a slight improvement. But vet's do not recommend that dosage. I don't want to "overdose" her on Lysine Thanks for your responses in advance

I am fairly sure, you can NOT overdose your cat on Lysine. My vet, thinks I am nuts for swearing by Lysine. Be glad your vet at least acnologes it as a useful form of treatment for feline herpes.

Please note, my answers are in red font.

*These are my experiences as a cat owner, based on ONE hybrid exotic cat** **I have NEVER used it on a pure domestic**

My vet told me to give my cats 500 mg twice a day (total 1000 mg a day) during flare-ups, for as long as the flare-up occurs. The rest of the time, when I was using Lysine treats I gave them up to two 250mg lysine treats per day so up to 500mg a day but sometimes less. Nowadays unless someone is having a URI, I just sprinkle it on their dry food because most of my cats won't eat it in treats or mixed in wet food and it's too stressful for them to force a pill on them every day if they're not having any symptoms.

I actually don't know if they do have herpes but my vet says the lysine won't hurt so I might as well do it. We do think one of my cats Church has the infection but he hasn't had a flare-up since he was a kitten. I've read that some cats do "outgrow" it like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nekochan 

 I've read that some cats do "outgrow" it like that.

I sure hope my Savannah is one of those cats! Was that in some type of "scientific" or veterinarian literature?

The important thing to know about Lysine is that it needs to stay in the kitty's system, so it needs to be given every 12 hours as it's shed in urine.  Also, it can take up to 6 weeks to see any benefit of Lysine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feralvr 


I have not read that - BUT that would be great to know if that is possible. I just know that once they are infected with the Herpes - they are carriers/shedders of the virus for life ...... some never have any flare-ups whatsoever BUT if the cat has some immune disorder then the Herpes will rear it's ugly head and also come on under times of great stress.
Thanks again for your responses

No, pure domestic cat, I have ever owned, ever had a flare up. Or, at least a noticeable one(s).

Anyway, I want to add, I gave my F3 Savannah, 3 doses daily (when giving 1,500 mg/day), mixed in some canned food. In order, to make sure he ate it ALL. I found making sure the cat ate it ALL, per "session" helped the Lysine work quicker. I saw "results" in seventy two hours, but, my Savannah was on deaths door.

I also found, opening my windows, in the warmer months, helped get rid of the virus. I have been told that outside air can help kill the virus. I am NOT sure if that is true. But, it seemed to help my cat.

*Please note, these are my experiences, based on ONE hybrid exotic cat!*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Feralvr 


I am glad your Savannah survived the virus and sorry he was so sick . I also make sure Perla eats up all of the Lysine - so far so good with her eating it up as I mix with her favorite wet foods. I wish I could open up the windows - it is in the twenties. BUT I could certainly breeze the house for a few minutes to get some fresh cold air through here. HMMMMM - good idea - and sound's but refreshing.

I am not sure, if, you need to do it in cold whether. If, you try it, let me know if it helps any. Hope Pearla gets better soon.

Feralvr, are you absolutely sure your cat has a viral infection and not a bacterial infection? I had two veterinarians prescribe L-Lysine for my two cats who were having a bad herpes virus flare-up. They said it was a viral infection and did not want to prescribe antibiotics. A few years later the symptoms were still bad and a third veterinarian decided it wouldn't hurt to try Clavamox for a week and the symptoms (mainly eye discharge) began to disappear. We ended up giving the cats two weeks worth of Clavamox and all their URI/herpes virus symptoms disappeared. I was shocked and upset that the first two vets were wrong and wonder what kind of damage was done to my cats after having a misdiagnosed bacterial infection for that many years.

About once or twice a year the one cat has a little flare-up but it eventually goes away with some L-Lysine. This year I suspected a bacterial infection since it wasn't improving and asked the vet for some antibiotics. It took three weeks worth of Clavamox to finally clear everything up. So you may want to try Clavamox if nothing else is working, it could be a bacterial infection.

Regarding cats "growing out" of the flare-ups, I don't know whether there are any studies on this, but I heard it from my vet and know of several others whose vets said the same thing. If you do a search online for cats growing out of "flare-ups" or recurring URIs from feline herpes you will find a lot of other people saying the same thing as well. All I know from personal experience is my cat Church had the repeated URIs as a kitten, which my vet diagnosed as feline herpes and he has not had one since he grew up, even during stressful times such as a cross-country flight and move to a new house.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nekochan 

Regarding cats "growing out" of the flare-ups, I don't know whether there are any studies on this, but I heard it from my vet and know of several others whose vets said the same thing. If you do a search online for cats growing out of "flare-ups" or recurring URIs from feline herpes you will find a lot of other people saying the same thing as well. All I know from personal experience is my cat Church had the repeated URIs as a kitten, which my vet diagnosed as feline herpes and he has not had one since he grew up, even during stressful times such as a cross-country flight and move to a new house.

I know personally a cat that had very bad herpes for about the first year of his life, he was constantly sneezing blood all over everything.  He has been symptom-free for about 5 years now with no lysine ever.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cat Person 

 

I also found, opening my windows, in the warmer months, helped get rid of the virus. I have been told that outside air can help kill the virus. I am NOT sure if that is true. But, it seemed to help my cat.

 

*Please note, these are my experiences, based on ONE hybrid exotic cat!*

I was wondering about that.  We will be moving into a house with a fenced yard in April and I have been looking forward to finding out if being outside sometimes will improve the health of my kitty.