Lysine causing loss of appetite?

I posted a long post about my adopted 15 week old kitty yesterday.  update on my sam!  

I was giving him lysine (Carlson pure powder human grade) about 250mg 2x a day to help with his sneezing and recovering infected eye.  started on thursday, and noticed decrease in appetite in my usually extremely hungry ready to eat every 2-3 hrs kitty.  yesterday he had no interest in food.  had to bring him to his bowl throughout the day to make him eat a bit.  he was sleeping most of the day too.  yesterday was not giving lysine.  by night, when it was 24 hrs off lysine, his appetite was back.  seemed to be back to eating this morning as well.  is it possible???  and what do i try now to keep his sneezing at bay?  he was barely sneezing during those few days on lysine.  sneezing more today already.  just finished his eye ointment yesterday.  the eye looks good but worry it will come back.  (had him for  little over a month and this was a second flare up.  first with watery eye.  now swelling of the inner eye lid).  Thank you for your help

Taste the lysine - it is REALLY salty. Some cats do not find it palatable. Many eat it mixed into their food - your kitty is like mine, apparently, and doesn't like the salty taste.

You can try lactoferrin instead: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/267703/stubborn-herpes-infection-add-lactoferrin-in-addition-to-lysine

As you'll see, many are seeing results with just bovine lactoferrin alone, no lysine. That's the case for our Billy. Almost no more sneezies without any lysine! Most cats that don't like lysine seem to find the lactoferrin to be palatable.

You can also consider lysine treats - they disguise the flavor. But they're expensive to use, and some cats don't like them. Mine love these - yet Pinkman's cats both hate them. :lol3:


The problem is that they only have 125mg of lysine per treat. So if you want 500mg of lysine, you need to feed 2 treats in the morning and 2 at night. If you want a flare-up dose of 1,000mg of lysine, you need to give 4 treats in the morning and 4 at night. Like I said - much more expensive than plain powder.

Molly usually loves treats but wouldn't touch the lysine treats.  She didn't seem to mind the lysine but she got much better results with lactoferrin only.  I didn't know the lysine is so salty!  I'll have to taste it.

Thank you for your reply!  the problem wasn't that he wouldn't eat his food with lysine in it.  he ate it the first couple of days with no problem.  didn't seem to notice the difference.  i was shocked because i did try lysine and didn't like it!  the problem was that he wouldn't ask for food, which is totally unlike him throughout the day.  and when i was putting it out lysine free he still had no interest.  so not sure it is the taste of it that was causing the decrease in his appetite.  

Also, are there any side effects with lactoferrin?  very worried about anything making his diarrhea come back.  after 4 weeks, his poop is finally normal!  

I understand your concerns--please take a look at the link LDG mentioned above about lactoferrin and lysine.  A lot of us have gone through similar issues.  I have a cat with IBD who had diarrhea.  I finally got it under control and I can say that after I started her on the lactoferrin, the diarrhea did not come back.  I'm only one person so I can't say how your cat will react, but others have also said they've seen no GI effects from the lactoferrin.