Cat-safe lysine brand? Possible feline herpes virus...

Hi all. Been a while since I've posted...

My kitty has an on-going cough that will not go away. It seemed to start back in the summer, and has been a reoccurring thing since then. I never noticed her doing this in the past, so I took her to the vet. Three separate vets have said she's fine, and that it's probably just Feline Herpes flaring up. It's usually accompanied by congestion and some minimal sneezing. When she coughs she crouches down and sticks her neck out, which was what initially concerned me because I thought it was asthma. The vet I trust does not think its asthma because he took an x-ray and said it didn't look asthma. I don't know her medical history, but she's been with me for two years and the congestion/coughing is a fairly recent thing.

I've been using crushed up Lysine tablets from Target's Up&Up brand (all I could find on short notice). When she coughs, I crush up half a tablet and she gets half in her morning wet food, and the other half in the evening wet food. I don't like to medicate my cat because I don't know what else is in the tablets (other ingredients), so the longest I've given her the Lysine has been 3 days in a row. I notice when she gets the Lysine for a few days, the coughing stops entirely for a few weeks. But then eventually the coughing/congestion comes back until I give her more Lysine. Then it goes away again, its like a cycle. She is otherwise (even during the congestion/coughing) very friendly, playful, and she eats and drinks normally.

1) Does this sound like possible feline herpes flare ups?

2) Can you recommend a cat-safe brand of Lysine?? I prefer a tablet that I can crush up, or a powder. She will not take pills and she will not eat the Lysine cat treats at all, even though I tried a few different brands.

3) Assuming I buy a cat safe brand of Lysine, is it safe to continue giving her Lysine intermittently to keep the flare ups to a minimum? The vets did not tell me about Lysine at all, I only found out about it from here and looking up info online...

Thanks everyone!

Virally's is something our veterinarian often prescribes for our foster kittens. That comes in liquid or powdered form. Pet Natruals Of Vermont makes a soft lysine treat that can easily be broken apart. As long as you remember to reseal the bag each time, they stay quite fresh, otherwise they get hard as a rock.

When I gave my cats lysine I just used a human one that came in capsules (so you could break the capsules open and dump the powder onto the food and mix it around) from the supplements  section of my local pharmacy. I probably wouldn't give them a tablet that had anything other than lysine as an active ingredient (ie if it came in multivitamin form) but as long as it really is just lysine I don't reckon there'd be a problem to keep on using the human ones, if it's working for you. I doubt there would be any difference at all other than perhaps some additives to improve palatability in the cat ones (which would probably make it more expensive haha); I figured if anything, human pharmaceuticals would be subjected to more rigorous standards than veterinary pharmaceuticals with regards to stuff other than the active ingredient being in it.

As for whether it is safe to keep giving the cat lysine, the short answer is yes. I'm not sure if its really been clinically proven to be effective in the way that it is claimed (but you do hear a fair bit of anecdotal evidence that it works hehe), but essentially it is just an amino acid (so sort of like protein powder), it isn't like the kind of fat-soluble vitamins that can be bad for you if you take too much (such as zinc etc), I'm pretty sure. According to my quick-&-dirty google search, if people take waaaay too much lysine supplement it can contribute slightly to elevated cholesterol levels, but I doubt that'd be a problem if you keep to the recommended amount (and no idea if its been observed in cats). The way it supposedly works is that a temporary excess of lysine replaces another kind of amino acid used in greater quantities by the herpes virus during an acute infection, so sort of causing a temporary "deficiency" of the other kind of amino acid and "starving" the virus, but since the cat's body only needs very small amounts of both kinds, I don't think giving lysine supplements has any negative effects. As I understand it, the worst case is you are just giving  them an ineffective/unnecessary supplement (more annoying for you than the cat, unless the cat really dislikes the taste of the lysine). So yeah it may or may not be really helping, but I'm fairly sure it doesn't do any harm at least. Especially if you're only giving it from time to time. It really is kind of like protein powder, except one that possibly may perhaps have a specific effect against herpes viruses.

I use the "NOW" brand. It's a powder, so you can just sprinkle it on kitty's food. It doesn't have any added ingredients. It is far less expensive than Viralys, which I initially purchased from our vet. amazon currently sells a 1 lb. bottle for $13.50.


Our vet recommended that I keep our cat on lysine indefinitely. I give him 500 mg a day, in two doses. When he has a flare-up, I increase the dosage to 1000 mg per day. I also added lactoferrin, at 250 mg per day, again in two doses. The vet has asked that I keep our cat on that indefinitely as well. If your cat's coughing clears up with lysine alone, you won't need the lactoferrin.