Feline Herpes

[Rick hedden]

I am thankful to find this site.i am not sure I can post this here as I am not really sure of the protacols on the site and forums yet.
So here goes, I was just talking with a special friend a bit ago and she had informed me that she got the results back from her vet the other day and said she has been infected with feline Herpies and that it's has taken residence in the cats upper respiratory tract. She asked her if it could be transmitted to humans and I was surprised with his answer but I do understand it. He TD her that he wasn't sure but that he hasn't read enough on the issue but didn't think there was a no reason to worry about having the grand children in the home. Can anyone tell me if they have information I can pass on about this. And can it be transmitted between her cat and mine by me just picking up her cat as I do when visiting. I thank you for any knowledge you can pass along
Rick

 

[Biomehanika]

Welcome to the site!

No, feline herpes virus cannot pass to humans, so no worries there, it’s a very common virus with cats and plenty of people care for cats with it with no issue. I don’t think it could be transmitted from you simply holding the cat and then going home and touching yours either. To my knowledge it requires pretty direct contact of bodily fluids to spread, and happens between cats who are in close contact with each other, so unless you were taking wads of the herpes cat’s spit home and rubbing it into your cats eyeballs or something you should be safe lol, but if you are concerned it’s always good to follow basic hand washing protocols and such between visits with the two cats.

 

[backwoodsvet]

Feline FHV-1, cannot be passed on to humans, AND can only be passed on to another cat during an active outbreak, AND I've dealt with FHV-1 in the past, several times, as far as I know there's no cure BUT I've always treated my FHV-infected cats with L-lysine which works very well on keeping outbreaks at bay, the L-lysine takes away the virus ability to get going, this is in no way medical advice !! This is just my experience working with FHV-1 infected cats...........

 

[backwoodsvet]

Rick hedden , FYI, to clarify some things, a cat that's FHV-infected can only transfer the virus to another cat during a full-blown outbreak by head to head contact more or less and you'll know when a outbreak is occurring by all those strange marks across the cat's face, mostly across the nose, both sides, and maybe around the eyes depending on how bad the virus is........The biggest problem with FHV-1 is that you never know when a outbreak is about to occur, a cat that is infected with FHV-1 could show a normal face early in the day and be having an active outbreak just hours later, that' the problem with handling a infected cat, ya never know when a outbreak will occur......If you know that a cat your handling has FHV, your best bet is to wash hands before handling another cat....Once again this is not medical advice but what has worked for me........
A cat that has FHV-1 can live a great life and does'nt have to live with those awful facial outbreaks IF that virus is keept in check in my personal experience.......
Thank you and your friend, for all your concern........ .