Simba was just diagnosed with feline herpes and I suspect Nala has it, also.

I made an appointment last Friday for Simba to see the vet because the condition of his eyes had not improved since he was prescribed general antibiotics a couple months ago and his gums looked like they were getting redder. I have both "good" news and bad news.

The good news is the vet said he doesn't actually have gingivitis, despite my concern that he was actually starting to develop periodontitis. His gums are much redder than they've been in his whole life and I even thought his gums might me receding a bit around a couple teeth. I guess their gums can just change color without anything being seriously wrong, though. His breath is bad but not rotten, so that's good. He's also a healthy 10 lbs, 12 oz!

The bad new is he was diagnosed with feline herpes, which I actually began to suspect when I noticed the antibiotics weren't working and I looked up diseases that can causes his symptoms. It seems I'm really good at figuring out what's wrong with my cats, as I've been right 3 out of 4 times when I suspected illness. I was already giving him L-lysine treats before the diagnosis and was given an L-lysine paste from the vet on Friday. It smells like Waffle Crisp! It says it's "very palatable" but Simba hates it. He knows I'd never do anything to hurt him so he struggles but takes it, anyway.

We got all three of our kittens from a shelter and all were sick when we got them. I suspect that the survivor of our two original kittens may have transmitted the herpes to Simba via play-fighting, litter box use, sharing their food and water dishes, or mutual grooming. She sneezes a lot and constantly produces a relatively large amount of thick mucus under both her lower eyelids and some nasal mucus that crusts on the outer edges of her nostrils. I wipe her eyes away multiple times a day and her nose a couple times a week. Those appear to be her only symptoms, as well as having an upper respiratory infection diagnosed within a month after we brought her home, as did Simba when we got him about 3 weeks later. She and her sister were underweight, but Nala got to a healthy weight once we got her URI under control. Given that information, I don't think it's out of the question to think Nala also has feline herpes.

Ebony, the one kitten that did not survive, could have been severely immuno-compromised if she were infected with feline herpes, right? She had diarrhea, sneezing and mucusy eyes with a runny nose from the day we brought her home and she did not bury her excrement most of the time, though, she did go in the litter box. She barely grew and was severely underweight by the 10th day we had her, which is when we had to put her to sleep.

Here are a couple photos you can use to compare the sizes of Nala and Ebony, who were sisters from the same litter and approximately 8 weeks of age when we brought them home. Ebony is on the top in the top photo and on the right in the bottom photo. She weighed just over a pound when we put her to sleep and was roughly 10 weeks old, less than half the weight she should have been.



Here are a few very recent photos of Simba, looking very healthy, despite his illness. :3

he's a very big boy with a large, thick skull and neck, giant paws, and a 12.5 inch long semi-fluffy tail thats extremely flexible.




Here's one to show how broad he is. Simba has a huge ass...


Here are a couple photos of Nala from the other day, when she was cuddling on my bed. She is very active and affectionate, showing only a couple symptoms of illness. She weighs around 8 lbs and has a petite frame and features. She's gotten slightly chunky compared to how she used to look, but I'll take slightly chunky and healthy over underweight and sickly, any day!

Poor Ebony. Sounds like a very sick little kitten, so who really knows what was going on? I'm sure the herpes virus didn't help, if she did contract it.

As I've been learning since my Pushy got diagnosed with the feline herpes virus about 6 months ago, it is extremely common in cats. My vet said off hand that about 90% of cats would probably test positive, just not every cat will have symptoms.

Just how bad are Simba's eyes? He looks great in those photos! Handsome ginger with a big butt!
As I'm sure you know, you'll never get rid of this virus, you can manage symptoms though.
Have you heard of lactoferrin? There's a thread here in the Health Forum about it and it seems like a really helpful supplement, at least as good as lysine.

Yeah, there was no hope of saving Ebony. The vet said we could take her home but she likely would not have made the night. The PARVO test they ran was negative and she was so underweight that they couldn't draw any blood to run any blood tests.

Thank you! Yeah, for the most part, Simba is a big, healthy boy! He has had a small round spot at the edge of one nostril for about a week now. I thought it was a scab from Nala possibly catching him on the nose with a claw, but it looked a bit gray. I cleared it away, thinking it may have been dust, but it has returned twice. I am now leaving it alone. There's no weeping, smell, or crusting. Could it be a...cold sore?!

Simba had a bout of conjunctivitis back in August, which antibiotics seemed only to help a little. It went away on its own and came back in the other eye more severe and that went away on it's own. A bit after that, the area of his teat ducts started to take on an orange tint and his nictitiating membranes became a bit splotchy with pink and then a reddish-purple. After that, the area under his bottom eyelid that you can see when you pull down the lower lid, which should be pinkish red became purple. He only occasionally has a tiny amount of mucus in his eyes and I will find a minute amount of dried mucus in a little orangy-red spindle in the corner of his eye. His mucus is the kind that has a slight red tint to it, Nala's dries to become very dark brown.

Here are some photos of those issues.

I have 2 herpes kitties, for flare ups I increase their Lysine to 500mg twice a day.  Normally they get 250mg twice a day I use Viralys which is a powder you can get from a vet or online.  My kitties dislike the paste from the vet too.  For flare ups I also use antiviral topical ointment Idoxiuridine, you apply it up to 5 times a day.  It seems to usually clear things up.  It has to be gotten from a compounding pharmacy. 

I also have Viralys. I'll ask for the powder next time. Does that have less of a taste than the paste> In fact, it's time to go give him his paste now!

Not sure about the taste, I think it's supposed to be beef flavored, I just mix it in with their canned food.

I also have a herpes kitty.  I also adopted her from the local pound.  We went through many cycles of illness/getting better/relapsing until she was diagnosed with herpes. We then took steps to boost her health and that's made all the difference in the world.

As you've probably already discovered, herpes is a life-long condition.  It is incurable, but can be successfully managed by dietary changes, adding lysine, boosting the nutrition level, and keeping things in your home as routine and stress-free as possible.  I would suggest changing to a grain-free diet, preferably canned with some dry crunchies served as well.  Lysine is amazing, but not a cure-all.  I use the powdered NOW brand or VitaCost brand in the one pound jar.  It's a powder and dissolves in water, so I add additional water to my kitty's food, let the lsyine dissolve, mix and serve.  If you go with the human grade lysine, just 1/4 t equals 500mg.  Be sure to give lysine twice daily.  During a flare up, feed 1000mg a day (500mg twice a day).  For maintenance, give 500mg a day (250mg twice a day).  For lysine to work effectively, lysine needs to stay in the blood system.  Lsyine is exreted out of the body when your kitty urinates, hence the need to give twice daily.  To help with stress, invest in Feliway diffusers to see if that helps.  If it doesn't there are other calming agents available.

Loud noises cause Simba a great amount of stress, primarily the vacuum cleaner. He will run into my room and hide there until a while after it's been put away. I would like to make vacuuming as stress-free as possible. BTW, he hates catnip. I like to feed both my cats Blue Buffalo dry kitten food (in a few months we will switch to cat food) and they seem to really like that. When we run out, my parents feed them 9 Lived dry cat food. They don't care for wet food much these days. Am I correct in assuming the Blue Buffalo will be MUCH better for both Simba and Nala, especially if Nala also has herpes?

Blue Buffalo is better, but I've heard mixed reviews on it.  We feed our neighbor's outside kitty Blue Buffalo and he likes it.  I have a kitty who is allergic to BB, so we don't feed it to our kitties any longer.

I would encourage you to feed something like Wellness grain-free, Taste of the Wild (dry), or Innova EVO (canned).  Wellness has a kitten formula that's canned as does Innova EVO.  They are probably old enough now to be transitioned to adult food now, or you can start adding the adult food with their kitten food.  It's really important for herpes kitties to be on a grain-free diet.  The arginine in the dry food can cause the virus to replicate, increasing flare ups and such.

Okay, thank you very much for letting me know that grains are bad for herpes cats. I mean no negative connotation by saying that. In fact, I sometimes say, "Who's my little herpescat?" to him in that happy sing-song voice people use to talk to their pets and young children, haha. I usually say it when I want to make myself feel better. :S

Your cats are beautiful. I am so sorry for Ebony.

I have two herpes kitties also (a 12 pounds kitty and a 10 pounds kitty). Harley has a permanent damage in his right eye because of the herpes virus and he just had a flare-up. Although they both are on lysine for months now (4-5 months), I really can not say if there is a difference or not. Amelie only has gunk in her eyes occasionally, but Harley also sneezes and has a congested nose during the flare-ups. Because I felt that the lysine was not really helpful (or not enough, anyways), I added lactoferrin ( http://www.thecatsite.com/t/267703/stubborn-herpes-infection-add-lactoferrin-in-addition-to-lysine ). As I posted on that thread, I do not know if it was the lactoferrin or the eye drops, but his flare-up ended in a few days. I give them now 250 mg lysine and 100 mg lactoferrin twice daily.

Nala and Simba are looking great:  I'm sorry you've had a diagnosis of herpes for them.  The good news on this is that now you know they have herpes you can manage it!  And yes, I tool heard about 90% of cats carry it.  I follow the L Lysine dosage that stephanietx uses when Mouse has a flare up, going up to 500 mg dose twice a day.  He hated the powder but like Simba he tolerates the gel as he's a good boy and knows I won't hurt him. Mouse does have grain  in his diet unfortunately as he's on a prescription dental food, but he keeps pretty well on it.  Managing the stress is a big factor, and if I'm stressed or there's something going on that's bothering Mouse, like when I got new neighbours that took up drumming practice, it is so predictable that his eye will start running and his sneezing and coughing will start up.  He's managed never to get a secondary infection other than in his mouth and throat though which I am very thankful of.  One thing with Simba's stinky breath is to be aware that the herpes can affect a cat's mouth: if it does affect Simba in this way keep a good watch on his apatite and if he goes off food, coughs, or seems to yawn and stretch his mouth a lot.  It is a good idea to keep him used to you checking his gums, and if possible looking further back to the angle of his jaw and back of his throat.  Get your vet to check too: I couldn't see anything other than  the red around his teeth even when Mouse had severe tonsillitis, lesions at the angle of his jaw, and a large lesion on his tongue.  Mouse was very sick by the time he started to go off his food but the coughing and yawning are earlier indicators.

If Simba and Nala have reasonably robust immune systems and they do not feel too stressed you can have healthy, happy cats that you would never know had this virus for 99% of the time. That's where things like Feliway, L Lysine, and good nutrition and probiotics play their part.  Many of the cats on this site when posting about herpes are very sick.  I'd like to reassure you by saying it has never held Mouse back and in fact he was diagnosed just before his first show last summer, age 2 1/2.  He has won 1st prizes at each of the 3 shows he has been entered in and is now a prize winning show cat on his way to getting his Premier title. He doesn't stress out at the shows, he's really funny and sits there like one of the most chilled out kitties imaginable, and still is when he gets home. He was born to show off basically. 

I have a siamese boy who caught herpes at the humane society before I adopted him. Unfortunately he also gave it to one of our other cats, so now I have two with the occassional drippy eyes and congestion. I have been giving them a couple Pet Naturals Lysine chews a day and they absolutely love them. It helps keep the flare ups at bay.

Like other people here I have a few herpes positive kitties and give L-Lysine also. One of my kitties gets it every night in addition to a vitamin supplement to keep her immune system up.

Works wonders.

Thanks everyone for the additional information. Um, Simba's developed a crusty spot on his nose. I may have mentioned it already, but cats can get cold sores around their noses, right? It's like a dark red-brown color.

It could be possible since he has herpes, my cats nose gets raw when he has congestion. I try to wipe it with a warm wet wash cloth and give VetRX to keep his nose clear. It could just be a sore from the congestion too.

I'm so sorry about Ebony.

For Simba, if you want to consider combining the lysine with the lactoferrin, this has been shown to be more effective. Here's a link to the thread discussing the use of lactoferrin: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/267703/stubborn-herpes-infection-add-lactoferrin-in-addition-to-lysine

I agree with Alisa Brown, but would avoid touching as if it is from the herpes it is likely to be very painful.  If it starts to look infected I would take him along to the vet quickly as he will need something to help him fight secondary infection.

Does this look like a a cold sore? The flash makes it look a little more red than it actually is. It's more brown in actuality. The first couple times, I wiped it away and there was just pink skin underneath, then I realized it wasn't dust or dirt and I've just kept an eye on it.

So far Mouse hasn't had a runny nose (thankfully), just runny eyes and mouth problems so I'm not sure what it would look like if there were a herpes sore there.  However, if it is dry and crusted or scabbed over, or weeping but clear fluid with no sign of yellow (which would indicate a bacterial infection) I think I would leave it alone to at its own pace and keep up with higher doses of L Lysine with an active bout of the herpes virus.  If it starts to get larger and seems to be bothering him, or looks infected, I would be taking him to the vet a quickly as I could.  The other thing you could ask you vet is if they think this might be a herpes sore would they prescribe any topical ointment to assist with pain and / or healing but I don't know about whether there is one.  Other members may have some experience to be able to answer here.

Keeping Simba relaxed - which includes you trying not to worry too much, is the best thing you can do for him, along with the L Lysine to block the virus and anything to boost his immune system.