Does anyone have a cat with Herpes I who overgrooms? are the two related?

If so, what part of your cat does he or she overgroom, and what is the relationship between the herpes and overgrooming?

My Wellington has herpes and has been overgrooming his stomach and inside his back legs for three years. But neither I not my vet have ever connected the two. What makes you think they are connected? It is an interesting idea. Wellington has had allergy tests, skin biopsies, special diets, and we have never been able to trace the cause of his overgrooming. I keep the herpes mostly under control with Lysine, and he has occasional prednisone to deal with asthmatic attacks as they occur, though that is getting less now. If herpes and overgrooming are connected I do not know how that would affect treatment.

Because I found this on line:  http://vetbook.org/wiki/cat/index.php/Overgrooming

That is interesting. Wellington is in fact getting one of the treatments recommended - l-lysine and prednisone, which keep his asthma and herpes at bay most of the time, but do not stop him over-grooming. I have tried all the behavioural interventions mentioned. I will take that article and ask my vet about it. What is your situation?

Is there a vet acupuncturist you can get to? Because Chumley mowed his abdomen clean (no herpes). We did the food trials, the hypoallergenic diet, etc. and nothing helped, it just got worse. We sought alternative treatment, and that worked. And at that point, what we feed him didn't seem to matter, though ultimately we did switch to a homemade diet.

Did Chumley throw hairballs every week?  Because I am about to schedule a consult with internal medicine at the local specialty clinic, and probably have an ultrasound done.  My vet has kind of hit the wall with what he can do for Obi.

Jenny, Obi has always been a hairball thrower, but in the winter, about February, it increased.  I had a lot of lab work done on him and some things were slightly elevated; total protein, ALT slightly, 10% increase in eosinophils.  The vet I had then saw that he had overgroomed his belly and thought it might  be allergies.  I had a change in veterinarians, and the next vet agreed, allergies.  I also had a consult with the Cornell Feline Health Center, and she also agreed.  I have changed foods, added in SLB, egg yolk lecithin, and a probiotic; he gets 1/4 pepcid twice a day, and 2.5 mg prednisolone. Daily brushing.  Still overgrooms and throws hairballs.

Backing up, I went to see the vet at the end of February also because he had ocular herpes, but she referred me to an opthalmologist.  He had eyedrops for about 2 mos., and the eye is better.

His appetite is good, no diarrhea, no weight loss, but those damn hairballs.  I was wondering if there is a connection between herpes and skin issues but it does not sound like there is.

And many vets think that a cat's system is designed to process hairballs.  I find this very frustrating.  I get that they are designed to process hair - but how much?  what is normal?  The cornell feline health center's "brochure" on hairballs says it is normal for cats to vomit a hairball every week or two.  So there is a huge disparity of thought on hairballs, and I am very frustrated.  I may be spending a lot of dinero for inconclusive results; but I feel I cant just keep having Obi throw hairballs and do nothing.  At least, nothing more than what I am currently doing.

All cats will throw hairballs sometimes - I believe their systems are designed to do it. But the amount they throw obviously depends on the amount they ingest, so overgrooming will cause many more hairballs. The key to it is to find out why they are overgrooming and so swallowing more hair that they then have to get rid of in hairballs. We have come to a dead end with Wellington - I can just about control the eye problem with L-lysine and pred, but after all the tests, like your vet, mine is at a loss to know what to do. I have seen three different vets on this in the course of five years, and all try but no-one really has any idea.

Yes, but Obi is throwing hairballs daily at times

That does seem a lot, but you have to try to stop him swallowing the hair in the first place. At one time I made Wellington a Onesie out of a babygro suit, to stop him licking and grooming. He hated it but it worked for a while.