Anyone dealt with Feline Herpes?

Hello !

My 2 year old (almost 3) male cat had an upper respiratory infection caused by feline herpes. So the vet gave us some nasal drops and medicated treats. Well his sore nose went away and he started playing again. But now recently we noticed he has been peeing outside his litter box. He has this thing where he goes into one of the restrooms and pee's on any towel laying down. We've caught him twice and the litter box is always cleaned twice daily. We have 3 cat's all together and the other two are not sick.

He is also a bit on the heavier side at 20.90 pounds and his back side is always getting coated in his feces (which we clean out). Has anyone ever experienced anything like this with their cats? I have to wait till payday to take him to the vet again but any advice would be appreciated !

Feline herpes, aka Rhinotrachitis (sp), is pretty common in cats, especially rescued cats. It causes reoccurring URI's and eye infections. It can often be avoided by giving L-Lysine 500mg twice a day. Feline herpes does not cause a cat to pee outside the litter box, though. Something else is causing that. It's of course possible that your cat is off his routine due to having been sick but I would guess that it's something else. It could be a medical issue like a urinary tract infection which can be serious and is painful. I highly recommend taking him to the vet to rule that out. Another possibility, among many, is that he doesn't like the litter box anymore. How many do you have and how often are they cleaned? You may want to add another litter box and put it in the area he's peeing in. With three cats you should ideally have four litter boxes that should be scooped daily. Some cats are very picky about their litter boxes and won't step into them if they don't feel or smell right or are too dirty.

You could also get a Feliway plug-in in case it's a stress related issue.

Good luck!

Thank you Ziggy's Mom!

Since his vet first which was the 10th of this month, we have been giving him his nasal drops almost daily (we skipped 3 days because he was seriously mad at us, would run when tried to pick him up so we figured it was better to let him calm down for a few days before doing the drops again). We also give him his ENISYL-F treats that the vet gave us twice daily and he loves those. I'm really hoping it's not a UTI I have to wait till payday to take him to the vet and to see whats really going on. Other then that he's playful and has been more active since his last vet visit. We have one litter box that's very large and cleaned out twice daily.

Thanks for the suggestion on the feliway! will look into it and hopefully it will calm him down!

I have learned the hard way that I cannot leave things like towels on the floor. .  I used to do it after having company and let the cats play on them until I did laundry, but then realized one of them was peeing on them to mark her territory .  She dislikes the other cats and is also much older than they are and "rules" with an iron fist . 

Anyway, usually a display like yours is a sign of either stress or a UTI, so if the Feliway doesn't work, I would definitely take him in to have him checked.  Does he appear stressed?  Stress can actually CAUSE a UTI.

Sounds like your kitty may have a UTI.  Just make sure he is still urinating every day as male cats can get a blockage which can be deadly.  I have 2 herpes kitties.  They are on longterm Lysine daily.  They get double the dose during flare ups.  I have also added Lactoferrin which has helped even more.