Diarrhea from Lysine! Should I stop it??????

My cat is on his 3rd day he has 500mg AM and 500mg PM

He just had diarrhea and I really don't know what to do .. He's not itching and he seems normal.

I want to continue with Lysine it seems to be helping a lot

I give him GNC Lysine for humans and this is what's in the box:

Other Ingredients:  Povidone 

No Sugar, No Starch, No Artificial Color, No Artificial Flavors, No Preservatives, Sodium Free, No Wheat, No Gluten, No Corn, No Soy, No Dairy, Yeast Free

I've never heard of lysine causing diarrhea. I'm not sure what Povidone is though. Maybe that's what is causing it? As a general rule when giving supplements, it's best to give as pure a formulation as possible. I think the NOW brand is just 100% pure powder.

If you really think it's the lysine causing the diarrhea, I would stop giving it. I would also look at food too. What food/other things are you giving him?

My advice is switch to a pure powder, and reduce the dose to 500 mg a day, 25o mg in the morning and 250 mg at night.

1000 is a very high amount.

povidone is probably the binder.

Why is he on it?  Is he taking any other meds?  Have you changed his food recently?
 

His food is the same and he's on Lysine for herpes 

Lysine can definitely cause diarrhea. It's not common, but it is definitely a potential side-effect. http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-suppl...&activeIngredientName=LYSINE#vit_interactions

When we rescued Chumley, he was a health mess. Obviously one of the first things we did was put him on lysine. At the time he already had diarrhea, but with the addition of lysine, it went from diarrhea to explosive diarrhea.

He can handle it now, but he's been healthy for some time.

My recommendation is to stop giving it to him for a few days, let his system "reset." When he's back to normal, try a MUCH smaller dose. Try giving him 125mg just once a day. See how that goes. If that doesn't give him diarrhea, then bump it to 125mg twice a day. Give it a couple of days. Just keep walking it up to the point that he gets either the therapeutic dose of 500mg 2x a day, or diarrhea.

FYI, 500mg 2x a day is for when they're having a flare-up. As otto says, a maintenance dose is half that.

Oh - and if he can't tolerate it at any dose, then definitely don't use it.

How is his health otherwise?  Has he had any flare ups recently?  I am thinking that you can cut back to a much lower dose without compromising his health.
 

Thanks so much for the advice! 

Sorry I didn't have time to replay .. The diarrhea stopped the next day and I have no idea why! It's been a week and he never had it again .. I think it's not from Lysine thank god! 

He is doing great on 1000mg daily he only sneeze once or twice a day and there is no nose discharge which is great!! 

But I'm still waiting for his eyes to get better 

Do you guys recommend anything for the eyes? Should I add antibiotic eye drops too? 

His eyes are not that bad they are watery but when I play with him I feel like he is struggling to keep them open NOT all the time though 

I would give the l-lysine a little more time, but if he does have a secondary infection (very common with herpes cats, until they have been on the l-lysine for a good while) I would recommend getting oral antibiotics from the vet rather than putting anything into his eyes, at all.

Tolly used to go on a two week course of clavamox when his flare ups went into secondary bacterial infection. After about three years on the l-lysine he didn't get the bacterial infections any more, and another year after that the flare ups almost stopped completely. I never stopped the l-lysine though, just went to a maintenance dose after that.

Thanks for the update!

When he first got sick the vet prescribed two antibiotics"not at the same time" but both of them only helped him while he was taking them! When we were done, he became worse than before!

Well, that's the nature of the herpes virus. The antibiotic clears up the secondary infection, but the herpes virus comes back. Hopefully the l-lysine will be able clear things up,and then control the flare ups.

The reason I am wary of using anything in the eyes is because of my experience with my Tolly . Before he finally got properly diagnosed and given a prescribed treatment of l-lysine (this was back in 2000) I had taken him to one vet after another, and they were prescribing one kind of ointment or drop then another, and it got to the point where he couldn't tolerate ANYTHING in his eyes.

I remember one vet prescribed a human anit-viral drops that cost $100 for a half ounce bottle. Tolly SCREAMED when I put those drops in his eyes. That was the last straw, and I finally got a vet to send us to Cornell to see an ophthalmology specialist.

So, because of that, I tend to be overly cautious about people using any kind of ophthalmic treatment for herpes eyes in cats.

otto said:

Well, that's the nature of the herpes virus. The antibiotic clears up the secondary infection, but the herpes virus comes back. Hopefully the l-lysine will be able clear things up,and then control the flare ups.

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It's best to start with a small amount of lysine, and then increase the dose slowly up to 500mg 2x a day if necessary. A maintenance dose is typically 250mg 2x a day, but during a flare-up, he may need the higher dose for a while before his eyes get better.

He is fine and been fine for 2 days! I'm soooo happpy!!!!!!!!!!!!

His eyes are almost clear! I think I will start giving him [color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]250mg 2x a day in a week. But how long? Forever?[/color]

[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]He's taking Lysnie for 16 days now[/color]

[color= rgb(24, 24, 24)]Thanks a lot guys for your help and [/color]encouragement! I'm glad I trusted Lysine and didn't use any strong antiviral medication on him! 

Thanks for the update! Most herpes cats have to take the l-lysine all their lives. Once he has gone a long time without a flare up you can try reducing the dose to a maintenance dose of 250 a day, or 500 every other day.

Thanks! And does it have to be 250 every 12 hours or just 500mg once a day?

Opinions vary. Tolly took 500 mg a day (in one dose) for therapeutic dosing, and after about 5 years of that I dropped him to 500 mg every other day, except when he showed signs of an imminent flare-up.

I notice most people recommend 250 mg two times a day for therapeutic, and a maintenance dose of 250 mg every day instead of 500 every other day, but the way I did it worked for my Tolly.

otto said:

Opinions vary. Tolly

took 500 mg a day (in one dose) for therapeutic dosing, and after about 5 years of that I dropped him to 500 mg every other day, except when he showed signs of an imminent flare-up.

I notice most people recommend 250 mg two times a day for therapeutic, and a maintenance dose of 250 mg every day instead of 500 every other day, but the way I did it worked for my Tolly.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much 

I dropped lysine from 1000 to 500mg daily when he got better and in two days he became sick again -  his eyes are barely open and I have to clean them several times a day  

I feel so bad I wish I never stopped giving him 1000mg .. WE are back at 1000mg daily and I don't want to ever stop! Is this dangerous?  I REALLY don't want to use any antiviral on him at all, poor thing his body took a lot of antibiotics I can't do it to him again. 

If only the dose was only one time a day not every 12 hours! That would make my life easier 

??