How often do you supplement L-Lysine and for how long--and for what? And other questions. :)

This thread has been a real eye-opener for me. Thank you to everyone who has shared the info they have.

My humane society acquired FHV cats were in a study 13 years ago, at Colorado State U Vet School, for helping to develop treatments and the vaccine. I used the L-lysine for them for over 2 years and found it didn't help at all. I also had a problem that one cat wouldn't touch her wet food after putting anything in/on it, except for her dried salmon treats, crumpled up. After reading all this, I'm convinced I wasn't giving them enough and my vet never mentioned upping the dose, ever. I think I'll give it a try again, and if that cat still won't take it on her food, I'll just dissolve it in water and squirt it into her mouth.

I've presently got them both on Prednisolone, 2.5mg every other day, to reduce the swelling in their membranes. My finicky eater, Angie, is nicknamed wheezy, because she always does, but her eyes are never affected and she rarely has nasal discharge. However, when she does have nasal discharge, she also gets a sore spot on the edge of one nostril. I hate having to put her on the Prednisolone because she gets so whiny too.

My other FHV cat, Tibby, is nicknamed sneezy. She almost always has a stuffed up nose and clear runny eyes. Putting her back on the Prednisolone this week has really helped with all of that, and she is. She normally didn't notice the L-lysine in her food, but if she was too congested, she also wouldn't eat anything. So, now that I know I can dissolve it in water, that will be the back-up administration method for her too.

I have been giving 500 g of L Lysiene in powder form ( mixed with wet food) to my 2 cats Leo (age8)( and Remy age 7) since June. When I adopted Desmond (now 1) in Sept I began giving it to him too. When I brought Remy home in May he had a chronic runny eye and in June Leo was diagnosed with Stomatitis. Desmond had a URI and infected eye. Since that time both Remy and Desmond have been diagnosed with Feline Herpes. Remy has also been diagnosed with Stomatitis and tested positive for FIV. The L Lysiene worked very quickly in clearing up Remy's eye , it has been helpful for Leo and since Des has chronic herpes outbreaks it is helping him too.When I did let a week skip Remy's eyes began to run like crazy. The vet said I should just give it to them forever. She said there would be no harm and many benefits. Good luck.

Years ago a nurse friend told me to take lysine to control outbreaks of fever blisters which I had gotten since I was bitten in the face by a nasty little wirehaired terrier when I was about 7 years old.  It works.  The moment I feel a hot spot or tingling, I take 2000 mg. of lysine, then 1000 mg. of lysine twice daily until I feel normal again.  I also take it at times of stress, when I have a cold, or when I have gotten a little too much sun on my face, all of which trigger the fever blisters.  I have never had shingles but have been told it helps with shingles as well, in addition to taking acyclovir for about 10 days. 

In addition, I've been told to avoid foods high in arginine and low in lysine such as peanuts and peanut butter, pumpkin seeds & squash, garlic and most nuts.

It is encouraging to read of the good results people are having with L-Lysine. Thanks for the feedback.

Yesterday I stopped into our vet clinic to pick up some Liquid Immuno which is an L-Lysine product. I got home and began prepare a diluted dosage to start as I had read that some cats don't like the taste of this. Well, I was all set to draw the liquid up into a syringe to give to Max when he caught of a whiff of the liquid and seemed really interested. I put the dish in front of him and he proceeded to lick the whole lot. I thought, this is good he likes it. This stuff smelled kind of beefy so that may have had something to do with it. The thinking behind giving this is I hope it will help to prevent the rodent ulcers (auto-immune disorder) that Max gets now and then. Will report back with updates.

I've been giving 500 mgs.  (1/2 a cap (250mg) in the morning, & the other 1/2 in his dinner), to angel in his food every day sense the vet first told me about it.

He's been getting it for 4 yrs. now. His first 2 yrs. w/ me, he was having to have the Neo Poly eye drops in his eyes every few months. (3rd eye showing, & pink).

Now that it's been a few yrs. he hasn't needed them in a really long time. The past 2 yrs. I think. If I notice his eyes looking a little watery, or just not clear as usual, I will up his dose for a couple of weeks, (as suggested by the vet, & many others on here), & then he is fine! It's great stuff!  So far the best deal I have found is the now brand on amazon.  Last time I ordered some I got a 3 pk. for something like $16.00!  Great deal!! (120 caps/per bottle, 500 mg.).

Question - how long did it take to see results?

YES I understand all cats are different. I understand it won't help all cats.

I am looking for a range. Are people seeing results in 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months?

I know when our Pippi started having problems with arthritis, glucosamine turned it around in a week. Others have said a month, or that glucosamine didn't work at all.

I will always give my cats L-lysine. it has helped a lot, 2 of my cats had ring worm and L-lysine helped it go away faster.

I wish it helped with fleas.

Toniann

Hard to say, Angel has been on it for so long, I can't remember. All I know is that the first 2 yrs. he would need Rx eye drops every few months, but it got fewer over time, & now he hasn't needed any for the last 2 yrs. I guess like you said every cat will be different, & depending on the symptoms they have, & the severity of them.

 Fortunately, the only one Angel has ever really had was the occasional showing of the "3rd eye," & it would be pink. You could just tell by looking at them. The vet has always said his lungs sounded good. (Thank goodness!).

redcat57 said:

Question - how long did it take to see results?

YES I understand all cats are different. I understand it won't help all cats.

I am looking for a range. Are people seeing results in 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months?

I know when our Pippi started having problems with arthritis, glucosamine turned it around in a week. Others have said a month, or that glucosamine didn't work at all.

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You should start seeing improvement in a couple of weeks. It takes the lysine that long to achieve disrupting enough virus replication cycles to knock most of them out.

Ok, well now I'm terrified, because I give Lysine to all my cats every day and have for 3 years. It was recommended here 3 years ago.

I don't think there is a need to be terrified.
I think it was established that the study showing problems with Lysine was dosing at a very high level.
It sounds like too low a dose is not effective, and it would be hard to overdose.
The biggest challenge is finding the effective dose for each cat.

Kind of like 1 Ibuprofen may not be enough for your sprained ankle, 2 or 3 might be perfect, but 8 would be an overdose.
I think good sense is the key.
If your cats haven't had problems with it in 3 years, it seems like you should be ok.

catspaw66 said:

You should start seeing improvement in a couple of weeks. It takes the lysine that long to achieve disrupting enough virus replication cycles to knock most of them out.

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Excellent, that is the ballpark I was looking for!

Both my cats - Tibby and Angelina- have the Feline Herpes Virus (FHV). They got it as kittens, probably from their mother at birth. I don't know if they were litter mates or not. We (my now grown up daughters and I) adopted them 12 years ago (they are 13.5 now) from the Humane Society in my town. They were a 2 for 1 deal because they were overloaded with kittens when we got them and were sick. The Humane Society paid for the first 5 years of treatments for them, but at that time, no one knew what would work.

I put them in a study group at Colorado State University Vet School for FHV. The school was working on the test for it, a vaccine and trying to develop protocol and treatments. Nothing seemed to help them. I had them on L-lysine back then for the first year. I think it was 250mg once a day. It didn't help. They were a couple of sneezy, stuffed up kitties. Tibby was nicknamed Sneezy and Angie we call Wheezy because she always sounds like that (she snores). They were on antibiotics a lot for secondary bacterial infections over the years. Eventually, we tired compounded Acyclovir, but that didn't seem to help either. They both developed an allergy to it, so had to give that up. I have to put them on prednisolone, every now and then for a few weeks (2.5mg every other day) when a flare up happens so they can breath. Tibby also has watery eyes. Amazingly, she still eats, even when she's not feeling well and can't smell her food. The pred increases their appetite so that keeps them eating too.

After reading here what vets are advising and people are giving, I decided to try L-lysine again in higher dose. I bought a 1 lb. bottle of Now brand powder at a local store called Natural Grocers. Not as cheap as on Amazon, but only $1.45 more. However, no s+h added cost or waiting to get it. Next time I have to buy it, I'll order it online as I've found it even cheaper in 2.2 lb bulk packages, though I'm not sure how long the first pound will last me. I'm giving 1/4 tsp (~500 mg) twice a day mixed into their wet food. I started on Dec. 17th. Today is Dec. 21st; so 5 days on it, and I've seen a noticeable improvement in both cats. They have also been on the prednisolone since Dec.12th, though. Tibby's eyes are almost dry all day now and she isn't as sneezy either. Angie's nose has cleared up too and she's less wheezing as well.

Happy Holidays everyone!
May the New Year bring you and yours peace, prosperity in all factions of your lives, good luck, better health, and lots of joy and love.

Sending good to everyone and everyone's animal companions too.

Jill-E said:

Both my cats - Tibby and Angelina- have the Feline Herpes Virus (FHV). They got it as kittens, probably from their mother at birth. I don't know if they were litter mates or not. We (my now grown up daughters and I) adopted them 12 years ago (they are 13.5 now) from the Humane Society in my town. They were a 2 for 1 deal because they were overloaded with kittens when we got them and were sick. The Humane Society paid for the first 5 years of treatments for them, but at that time, no one knew what would work.

I put them in a study group at Colorado State University Vet School for FHV. The school was working on the test for it, a vaccine and trying to develop protocol and treatments. Nothing seemed to help them. I had them on L-lysine back then for the first year. I think it was 250mg once a day. It didn't help. They were a couple of sneezy, stuffed up kitties. Tibby was nicknamed Sneezy and Angie we call Wheezy because she always sounds like that (she snores). They were on antibiotics a lot for secondary bacterial infections over the years. Eventually, we tired compounded Acyclovir, but that didn't seem to help either. They both developed an allergy to it, so had to give that up. I have to put them on prednisolone, every now and then for a few weeks (2.5mg every other day) when a flare up happens so they can breath. Tibby also has watery eyes. Amazingly, she still eats, even when she's not feeling well and can't smell her food. The pred increases their appetite so that keeps them eating too.

After reading here what vets are advising and people are giving, I decided to try L-lysine again in higher dose. I bought a 1 lb. bottle of Now brand powder at a local store called Natural Grocers. Not as cheap as on Amazon, but only $1.45 more. However, no s+h added cost or waiting to get it. Next time I have to buy it, I'll order it online as I've found it even cheaper in 2.2 lb bulk packages, though I'm not sure how long the first pound will last me. I'm giving 1/4 tsp (~500 mg) twice a day mixed into their wet food. I started on Dec. 17th. Today is Dec. 21st; so 5 days on it, and I've seen a noticeable improvement in both cats. They have also been on the prednisolone since Dec.12th, though. Tibby's eyes are almost dry all day now and she isn't as sneezy either. Angie's nose has cleared up too and she's less wheezing as well.

Happy Holidays everyone!
May the New Year bring you and yours peace, prosperity in all factions of your lives, good luck, better health, and lots of joy and love.

Sending good

to everyone and everyone's animal companions too.

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Wow, that's great that they paid for 5 yrs. of treatment. Yes, initially, you weren't using a high enough dose. It probably would have helped if you had been. I give 250mg. 2xs a day, & double it when there's a breakout. 

Usually for a couple of weeks or so, then when better back to the regular dose. Angel has been on on for the better part of 4yrs. now, & rarely have to double it anymore.   Good luck w/ your kitties, can't wait to hear how they continue to do on the lysine.

I found this thread very helpful. I have two female kitties not quite a year and a half each. Last week they both and my now 12 week old puppy went for all of their shots. My puppy and grey kitty both got clean bills of health. My black kitty, who has been our little trouble maker. At bout 5 months she dislocated her tail. Our vet had never seen it before and since then she's had almost perfect health.

My husband and I had notice she was hacking some when we moved in January but we thought it was either hair balls or maybe asthma. I told our vet that and I was glad when he said it wasn't asthma. He didn't say in so many words that it's probably feline herpes but he gave us Lysine. I had no idea what it was until I got home and did some research. I was a bit surprised. But I have to say she's been acting a lot better since she's been on the Lysine plus she got her distemper shot too. We go back to the vet next week for a check up and I have a lot of questions for him.

The one main question I have is probably the most important. Whether or not we are going to have to check foods or not. Since the day we bought her and her sister home, they have gotten Nutro. But now I'm starting to think we may have to switch to Blue Buffalo. A high protein food.

Don't be too quick to switch foods. What would be the reason, other than high protein?

I'm fairly new here and have read this entire thread which has been so informative. I have 4 rescue kittens and at least one of them has FHV. She is currently having a flare up and has been on antibiotics (oral and ocular) and has also started the viral eye drops which I alternate with the antibacterial drops. We started her on 250 mg twice a day of lysine but didn't see any improvement in her sneezing or eye so we upped the dose to 500 mg twice a day and within 24 hours her eye is no longer pink at all! In our case it may be a combination of factors but the lysine definitely seemed to have an impact when administered at the higher dosage. She is the only confirmed FHV kitty but the others do occasionally have a drippy eye or a sneeze or two. I have the others on a lower dose at just 500 mg per day. So my question is...which brands of lysine do your cats find palatable. We're using viralys gel right now and syringe administering it to ensure they get the full doses mostly because all of these kitties came to us in extremely weakened immune conditions. However for long term I would love to be able to add to the food and not have to stress them with the nasty dropper! We've tried Tomlyn immune support powder and they won't eat when it's on their food and I know it's powder because I can offer them food from an unmedicayed can and they gobble it right down. Is there a powder that is unflavored or more palatable? A human capsule form maybe with very little taste? They like the virralys gel and they smell like pancakes when they eat it! [emoji]128516[/emoji] so I think it's good for flares but I'm looking for suggestions on a long term alternative as a food additive. Thanks in advance for any advice! As a side note 3 of the kittens were from 3 different shelters and the fourth was a stray. The one that has FHV came from a terrible shelter...most of the cats there were oozing green from their eyes and noses and sneezing and coughing like I've never seen! Our Lexi was one of the healthier ones because she had been isolated as a new intake to make sure she was healthy before they put her in the general population of obviously ill kitties....so counterproductive...hence the addition of her to our household!

Wow thank you everyone for all the information I have a kitten that I had gotten at 3 weeks. She has those drippy eyes and the breeder said to give her angel eyes in her diet. Could she possibly have FHV? Why wouldn't the vet recommend a test when he had seen her? He gave her steroid drops. How do you get all the tests done that should be? Thanks for your help but now I'm thinking I should use this for all my babies just in case. A low dose perhaps.

BigBang said:

 
Wow thank you everyone for all the information I have a kitten that I had gotten at 3 weeks. She has those drippy eyes and the breeder said to give her angel eyes in her diet. Could she possibly have FHV? Why wouldn't the vet recommend a test when he had seen her? He gave her steroid drops. How do you get all the tests done that should be? Thanks for your help but now I'm thinking I should use this for all my babies just in case. A low dose perhaps.

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Can the FHV spread to the other cats with no sexual contact? I have a kitten who sneezes all the time.

FHV spreads through casual contact (food sharing, grooming, etc). So yes, it is not a sexually transmitted disease as with human herpesvirus. Up to 90% of cats have been exposed to FHV. Some will exhibit no symptoms others will have mild upper respiratory symptoms and others are more prone to secondary bacterial infections of the eyes, etc. We only have one with known FHV but we have 4 and from time to time the other three sneeze or get a slightly watery eye so I suspect mine are all carriers. We only isolate when there is an active infection. My confirmed kitty gets 1000mg daily of lysine during outbreaks and 500mg daily as maintenance. The others all receive 250 mg daily as a prophylactic to prevent outbreaks. I also have viral eye drops that we use at he first sign of a pink or watery eye and this seems to ward off secondary bacterial infections within about 48 hours.