Herpes Virus

My newly adopted young cat, Teisha, apparently has herpes. I knew this before adopting her and was told it was probably from not being properly vacinated, but it is manageable.

I have her on Lysine twice daily.

She does not display respiratory symptoms, her only symptom is eye infections.

The vet has me put Tetracyclin when her eye breaks out.

My question is: Is this something that will flare up monthly, weekly, yearly or anytime it feels like?

At this point, we have had her since Feb and have had 2 outbreaks. 

Just looking for info on how to handle it.

thanks in advance

What were her flare ups like? I am very interested as it seems that my cat is going through one at the moment and it has been horrible . If you take a look at my thread "vibes needed for tonight " you can see what it has been like.

Apart from a very minor flare last November , there has been nothing until this weekend. He is normally very healthy and very active. It seems that stress is a major cause of flare ups.

Wow, I just read thru your thread and I amd so sorry you went through such a scary night.

No Teisha has not done any of those things other than not eat, just kinda pick thru her food. I did read that when they are having an outbreak, it can be difficult to "smell" the food which is why they don't eat it.

I have a second cat (who is fully vaccinated, thank heavens) so they get fed on a schedule and I watch them to ensure Ninja doesn't eat Teishas food, lol. If Teisha doesn't eat it all, I give it to her later. 

Teisha definately does not act sick at all! lo, She gets the zoomies so bad, she sounds like a herd of elephants, lol!

Her symptons start with a wet goopy eye, kinda reddish and turns very lazy. Apparently, when she was in the shelter, she had a very bad eye infection, to the point they thought she would lose her eye, so I am being VERY causious with it.

I have a FHV kitty and stress is the number one factor that starts a flare up.  So, I try to keep a regular schedule and we run Feliway 24/7 to help with her stress level.  We also feed her a grain-free diet as the arginine in grains helps the herpes virus replicate.  Seasonal changes & airborne allergens also make it rough for her.  She doesn't get a full flare up, but she will sneeze and have watery/winky eyes.  She does get an antihistamine daily to help with allergens.  

Please could you describe what a full flare up is like? I think my cat is just coming out of one, however I am a little confused as everyone seems to mention discharge from eyes and nose but my cat has had neither .

Very interesting that seasonal changes have been mentioned as well .

It's going to be different for every cat, but for my Hannah, a flare up is a full blown upper respiratory infection complete with excessive sneezing with colored discharge, runny, goopy eyes with colored discharge, and lack of energy.  If not treated quickly, she'll start running a fever and has the potential of ending up with pneumonia.  She's not had a full-blown flare up since 2007, thank goodness, but it takes being vigilant and aware of her stressors and keeping those to a minimum.

I know of some herpes kitties who develop mouth ulcers, rodent ulcers, and eye ulcers as their flare up.  Working on boosting the immune system by providing the best nutrition you can afford and adding lysine daily really helps.