Stray with possible Rhinotracheovirus

bugmankeith · May 24, 2013

I have a neutered male stray who shows signs of Rhinotracheovirus, he always shows signs that match an upper respitory infection but they never go away. The cats eyes can't open fully its like a permanent squinting look almost. I can't get the cat to a vet he is too timid, and vets won't give medication unless the cat is seen at the vet, so he's been dealing with this for nearly 3 years. In the past he had gotten into many cat fights before I got him neutered so he did have blood drawn from other ferals.
Here is a photo note his eyes. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/keithpetrosky/Cats/fox.jpg

ritz · May 24, 2013

Welcome to The Cat Site forum, and thank you for taking care of this precious cat.

Can you trap him and take him to the vets for a definitive diagnosis?

You might check with your local feral cat rescue group for a referral to a vet who deals/treats (spays-neuters) cat. That vet might have a "get real" viewpoint on how to treat a feral/timid cat, and might dispense an antibiotic.

Meanwhile, you could give the cat L-lysine, often used in cats who have Herpes virus. About 1000 mg a day for now.

Is he eating okay?

bugmankeith · May 24, 2013

Ritz said:
Welcome to The Cat Site forum, and thank you for taking care of this precious cat.
Can you trap him and take him to the vets for a definitive diagnosis?
You might check with your local feral cat rescue group for a referral to a vet who deals/treats (spays-neuters) cat. That vet might have a "get real" viewpoint on how to treat a feral/timid cat, and might dispense an antibiotic.
Meanwhile, you could give the cat L-lysine, often used in cats who have Herpes

virus. About 1000 mg a day for now.
Is he eating okay?

I trapped him once but now any trap he flat out runs out of the yard. He does have a good appetite, I noticed areas of his top coat have vanished, meaning they never grew back it looks like he is half shaved on his top coat.

shadowsrescue · May 24, 2013

I would try to trap him again. Don't feed him for a day and then put the best tasting, strongest smelling food you can find. I have used tuna, sardine and I have even seen someone use Kentucky fried chicken drumstick tied to the back of the trap. It might take some time, but if he is truly hungry, he might just go into the trap. Make sure the trap is covered with a towel or sheet and that the strong smelling meat is dribbled from front to back. There are many Youtube videos on trapping.

I hope you can do your best to trap this cat and find a vet who will see you whenever you can trap it. He definitely need some vet care. It is so wonderful you care so much to do the best for him

ondine · May 24, 2013

Can you borrow (or buy)a drop trap? It will be easier to trap him and it sounds like he needs to see the vet. Thanks for helping him?

bugmankeith · Aug 27, 2013

Ritz said:
Welcome to The Cat Site forum, and thank you for taking care of this precious cat.

Can you trap him and take him to the vets for a definitive diagnosis?

You might check with your local feral cat rescue group for a referral to a vet who deals/treats (spays-neuters) cat. That vet might have a "get real" viewpoint on how to treat a feral/timid cat, and might dispense an antibiotic.

Meanwhile, you could give the cat L-lysine, often used in cats who have Herpes virus. About 1000 mg a day for now.

Is he eating okay?

Someone who used this posted this as a result for everyone to see.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Dietary lysine supplementation in the amount used in our study was not a successful means of controlling infectious upper respiratory disease within a cat shelter. Rather, it led to increases in disease severity and the incidence of detection of FHV-1 DNA in oropharyngeal or conjunctival mucosal swab specimens at certain time points.

According this it does nothing to help? Is there other things that can be given?

stephanietx · Aug 27, 2013

As an owner of a cat who has feline herpes, I can tell you that Lysine DOES help. It won't cure any secondary infection, but it does help the overall health of the cat. You must treat the underlying infection though or nothing will help.

bugmankeith · Aug 27, 2013

stephanietx said:
As an owner of a cat who has feline herpes, I can tell you that Lysine DOES help. It won't cure any secondary infection, but it does help the overall health of the cat. You must treat the underlying infection though or nothing will help.

Seeing as how right now I cant get this cat into a vet, and the symptoms resemble an upper respitory infection too, will this help that?

shadowsrescue · Aug 28, 2013

We use lysine daily on our cat and double the dosage when his eyes start to weep. Our indoor only cat came from the shelter. A few days after we had him home, he had the absolute worse case of upper respiratory infection. I was certain he was going to die over night. Since then, his one eye almost constantly runs. During change of season and allergy time, it's much worse. Also when he gets stressed it can lead to another full blown infection. The lysine does help to keep the virus at bay. Yet, if the virus resurfaces and is left untreated for a lengthy period, it can cause a secondary bacterial infection that will need to be treated with an antibiotic. I had a situation in the winter of 2012 with one of my ferals. He had been MIA for a few days and when he showed up, his one eye was running and kind of red. I thought maybe he had been in a fight or poked his eye on a branch. He seemed fine. Yet, the next day he was out waiting for food and both eyes were terrible. They were crusted, and yellowish/greenish mucus was dripping out. I had tried unsuccessfully to trap this cat and had no way to get him to the vet. I knew the lysine was one option, but figured as bad as he was, he might already have the secondary infection. I knew he needed some clavamox. I had found a site online that sells pet medicine without a prescription. I had been so scared to try it, but the reviews looked good and I knew when caring for ferals it might be my only option if I can't get them trapped. I had some on hand as I had ordered it a few months previously when one of my ferals was in a fight. It's the liquid kind that you add to the wet food 2x a day for 7-10 days. I used it on my guy. He had been feeling just awful. He was lethargic and didn't want to eat. Within 2 days of using the medicine he was back to his old self. I did use the lysine as well. It was hard to get the medicine to him when he was feeling so awful, but I was able to mix it in a small amount of baby food. If you want more info on the pet medicines, private message me. I don't like playing vet, but when options are low this worked out well. I now keep some on hand to have for emergencies. Unfortunately it does take 10-21 days to arrive unless you pay the $50 expediated shipping. I have had it arrive in 7 days and as long as 19. Here is a picture of my feral when he was so sick.

001 (4).JPG

shadowsrescue
Aug 28, 2013

bugmankeith · Aug 28, 2013

ShadowsRescue said:
We use lysine daily on our cat and double the dosage when his eyes start to weep. Our indoor only cat came from the shelter. A few days after we had him home, he had the absolute worse case of upper respiratory infection. I was certain he was going to die over night. Since then, his one eye almost constantly runs. During change of season and allergy time, it's much worse. Also when he gets stressed it can lead to another full blown infection. The lysine does help to keep the virus at bay. Yet, if the virus resurfaces and is left untreated for a lengthy period, it can cause a secondary bacterial infection that will need to be treated with an antibiotic. I had a situation in the winter of 2012 with one of my ferals. He had been MIA for a few days and when he showed up, his one eye was running and kind of red. I thought maybe he had been in a fight or poked his eye on a branch. He seemed fine. Yet, the next day he was out waiting for food and both eyes were terrible. They were crusted, and yellowish/greenish mucus was dripping out. I had tried unsuccessfully to trap this cat and had no way to get him to the vet. I knew the lysine was one option, but figured as bad as he was, he might already have the secondary infection. I knew he needed some clavamox. I had found a site online that sells pet medicine without a prescription. I had been so scared to try it, but the reviews looked good and I knew when caring for ferals it might be my only option if I can't get them trapped. I had some on hand as I had ordered it a few months previously when one of my ferals was in a fight. It's the liquid kind that you add to the wet food 2x a day for 7-10 days. I used it on my guy. He had been feeling just awful. He was lethargic and didn't want to eat. Within 2 days of using the medicine he was back to his old self. I did use the lysine as well. It was hard to get the medicine to him when he was feeling so awful, but I was able to mix it in a small amount of baby food. If you want more info on the pet medicines, private message me. I don't like playing vet, but when options are low this worked out well. I now keep some on hand to have for emergencies. Unfortunately it does take 10-21 days to arrive unless you pay the $50 expediated shipping. I have had it arrive in 7 days and as long as 19. Here is a picture of my feral when he was so sick.

001 (4).JPG

shadowsrescue

Aug 28, 2013

Thank You for this info going to PM you.

bugmankeith · Sep 13, 2013

So its been about a week and the cats eyes have healed up completely its unbelievable using lysine powder! Does this mean herpes is the cause if after using this it helped so quickly? Trouble is I've only been able to give him it once a day, and now that he is looking better he is trying to avoid eating the food with the powder in it, as if his smell is better now and he refuses to eat the food with it. He seems to have more energy, perhaps because he feels better. I'm still going to continue giving it but I'm not sure when to stop?

I'm concerned about my other strays, they don't show symptoms of being ill but are frequently around this cat.

Stray with possible Rhinotracheovirus

bugmankeith

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ritz

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bugmankeith

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shadowsrescue

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ondine

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stephanietx

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bugmankeith

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shadowsrescue

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bugmankeith

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