Help! Uveitis is kitten reoccured

harhardf

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HELP!  

My kitten recently received the leukemia vaccine and developed a case of uveitis in both eyes immediately afterward.  One eye was WAY more severe than the other.   She was given a 10 day regimen of steroidal drops and ointment.  By Day 9 she looked 100% perfect.  We went back to the vet on Wednesday and the vet said one eye was 100% and the other was 90% with some residual swelling in the lids. Her regimen was then reduced to only ointment twice a day in the affected(left) eye.     Friday morning she looked perfect, but by 5 PM on Friday, the once good eye(right) had clouded up, swollen and developed uveitis as severe as the first time. 

I immediately began treating it with drops and called the vet.  The vet said that the treatment the first go round obviously was not enough (her right eye had a reduced dosage--only one drop a day), so continue with drops + ointment in both eyes twice a day.  It is responding to the steroids but not as rapidly as I would like.

Can anyone tell me what I can do to keep this from reoccurring?  She eats a TON, drinks alot of water, and plays hard---there is no discharge from her eyes or nose and she shows no signs of illness.

Is this permanent?  WIll it stop after the vaccine wears off?

I should mention she was tested for leukemia and FIV and tested negative for both. Can anyone shed some light on this?  

I would love to purchase vitamins for her but I live in Mexico and I have not been able to find a single vet that sells them.
 
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harhardf

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The links I posted to your original thread said it may take lifetime management.


I'm so sorry it's recurred.
Yes thank you for your reply.  I guess I am just not understanding how a bad reaction to a vaccine could be something that needs managing for her life.  If it does, it does and I will gladly do everything I can for her, but I am just struggling with how such a healthy kitten can now be striken with this and have no underlying cause.   
 

stephanietx

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It could be due to the stress of the trip to the vet's office.  Stress can trigger a lot of health problems in kitties, just like in humans.
 
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harhardf

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Thats an idea.  Poor critter deals with alot of change in her life but with such style.   I am sending her pics, paperwork and history to my vet back in Texas to see if there is something else she sees that they might not have thought of here.  I am so scared for her I am near tears all the time.  

Does it make sense that a growth spurt could have aggravated this and caused another flare up?    (A few days before it reoccurred she was OFF the walls insane with energy, eating about 4x more than normal, and i have noticed about an inch of growth in her legs + body)
 

miraramsay2012

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It could be the vaccine. I used to foster kittens by the dozens and have seen my share of adverse reactions from vaccines. It could also be that, assuming she got the vaccine at  the vet, she caught something there from an animal that had also had an appt. that day.

Either way, I can understand that this is a distressing situation. On the bright side, it sounds like she is enjoying life playing and eating and being an otherwise normal kitten. 

I hope that the continued treatment works and nips this thing in the bud. I'm sure you know it's so important to finish each course of medication, even if the eye looks better after a few days. I had a cat who had terrible cloudy/crusty eye problems (seemed to start after her spay). I also fostered a litter who had severe conjunctivitis. Both of these cases, what helped tremendously was putting L-Lysine powder in their food. Probiotics would be a good idea, too. 
 
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harhardf

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Thanks!  I have heard alot about L-Lysine and probiotics for this.  But my question is, can i use human variations? (obviously not human dosages)

Can i go to get the human probiotics and l-lysine and mix those in?  If so, I will go now.

I am also investigating acupuncture for her, but its hard to find someone here in DF who does that. 
 

stephanietx

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Texas has some awesome vets! 
  I use human grade Lysine for my kitties.  I buy the powdered Vita Cost brand or the NOW brand and mix it into wet food.
 

cprcheetah

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I use human grade the Now brand and give my kitties I think 1/8th teaspoon which is about 522mg per day, they get it twice a day.
 
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stephanietx

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On the powdered variety, 1/4 teaspoon = 435 mg, so you need to give a heaping teaspoon to get to the 500mg dose.  The flare up dose is 1000mg a day, so you give 500mg twice daily.  The maintenance dose is half that at 500mg a day or 250mg twice daily.  It's important to give it twice daily as it passes out of the body when they urinate.  For the lysine to remain effective, it has to stay in the kitty's system, hence the twice daily dose.
 
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harhardf

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Great thanks everyone.  I JUST went out and bought a bottle at GNC, the only place I could find in this neighborhood that sells vitamins.   Each tablet is 500mg, so I will grind up two to a powder tonight and put in her food.  Thank you guys so much.  I am also going to see if she likes Activia tonight too. Its the only one I KNOW has alot of probiotics here.  The yogurt selection in Mexico is focused on sugar, not probiotics or protein.  (the "double the protien" yogurt only has 6 grams---pretty bad).
 
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harhardf

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It could be the vaccine. I used to foster kittens by the dozens and have seen my share of adverse reactions from vaccines. It could also be that, assuming she got the vaccine at  the vet, she caught something there from an animal that had also had an appt. that day.

Either way, I can understand that this is a distressing situation. On the bright side, it sounds like she is enjoying life playing and eating and being an otherwise normal kitten. 

I hope that the continued treatment works and nips this thing in the bud. I'm sure you know it's so important to finish each course of medication, even if the eye looks better after a few days. I had a cat who had terrible cloudy/crusty eye problems (seemed to start after her spay). I also fostered a litter who had severe conjunctivitis. Both of these cases, what helped tremendously was putting L-Lysine powder in their food. Probiotics would be a good idea, too. 
We went back to the vet today just for another look.  The vet said that her eye is perfect, that there is no intraocular swelling or pressure problems but that the issue is her eyelids.  She said that the "signs" are not there either physically (amount she eats, plays, weighs, etc) nor in her eye to believe its something serious like FIP.  Her FIV and FeLV tests were negative.  So the vet said she thinks its a herpes flare up due to the suppressed immune from the steroids.  We were prescribed some antibiotic ointment and told to continue with the steroid ointment only, not the drops.  She was also prescribed L-Lysine, which I told the vet I already began last night based on the help I had received online.  She also prescribed some probiotics which kitten has already inhaled.  

If her eye is not 100% on Friday, back to the vet we go for a more extensive blood panel.  

Thank you all for the suggestions re: Lysine and probiotics.  
 
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