Help with Feline Herpes Virus and corneal ulceration, please

[red top rescue]

The new "thing" you found in his eye may just be scar tissue.  When the ulcer is active, it is clear and you can't see it, which is why they have to stain it to see it.  When it starts to heal, there can be a cloudy tissue that covers it.  I had that and my cat had that.   After it is healed, you can use eye drops with a steroid in them to make that scar tissue go transparent again.  You cannot use any kind of steroid in the eye while the ulcer is active because it inhibits growth of blood vessels and then the ulcer will not heal.  Once it is healed it may look awful,b ut after the drops with steroids, it gets clear again.  My cats eye does get cloudy sometimes but I use the steroid drops and it clears up again.

My eye has an invisible scar too now, and that warps round objects (like the moon) a little bit, but other than that, the vision is fine.

 

[stephymeow]

Hi Red Top Rescue,

Thanks for the reply. I don't know how to express myself in English. I can just say thank you, but it's more than that in my heart.

I'm not sure if it's scare issue. If you look directly into his eye, it's hard to notice those white things. If you look from a better angle, then you may notice them.

I began to notice more and more white things like this from 5th February, when he's still on topical antibiotic, no antivirus at that moment.

And those white things aren't regular form, a little dentritic to me at the beginning like "γ" or "λ", but more wide later, like a flower or something.

And the cornea became asperous or unsmooth, there are also pinpoint size pits on it (a few),

If you look sideways, you can see some areas on this cornea are a little colorful, like oily gleam.

The good news is the white line under the most severe ulcer is shorten and shorten, and it's gone now.

But at that moment, he's on oral Famciclovir (not high dose)+ oral Doxycycline, and topical ganciclovir gel+ topical erythromycin ointement.

The topical medications make his eyelids swollen, he closed his eyes each time after the eye medications, it seems painful. So we finally stopped them 7th March.

We go higher dose with oral Famciclovir so that it can better reach his tears, there are ulcers in the middle of his eyes without veins.

And at the same time, we stopped Doxycycline, he's on it for 13 days, 5mg/ kg once a day. I don't know if it's a right decision. I'm afraid if it was oral Doxycycline who worked?

It seems the oral doxycycline can't be found in tears, but the ulcer which was healing( I hope) has veins. What should I do?

I can always feel his lymph node on his neck, only right side.

There are no swab test for us in our country.

 

[red top rescue]

You express yourself very well in English.  It sounds like you have a very knowledgeable vet, one with good knowledge of treating the eyes, or else it  is YOU who are knowledgeable.  I had the advantage of having a human eye specialist treat my eye before I got the cat who had the eye ulcer, so I already knew about treatment and how the look of it changed when it healed.  The shapes you describe are what I used to SEE through my eye as the ulcer was healing.  The veins are there to bring the blood, and the blood brings the medication and also takes away dying cells I think.  Anyhow, I saw those "dentritic" trees for a long time but less and less as the eye healed.  The doctor would stain it with fluorescein dye so she could see it, and when it was finally gone, none of the dye would stay on my eye. The dye is orange but turns green on the ulcer tissue.  I stayed on the ganciclovir gel for a week after there was no more ulcer staining, then went off.  I still take lysine daily, and I have acyclovir tablets that I take when I feel herpes starting anywhere, like in my nose when I have a cold.  That does not  happen much at all. 

Can your vet do a fluorescein dye stain of  his eye to check how the ulcer is shrinking?  Here is an article on examining eye ulcers from a human medical publication.  You may find this interesting.

http://www.fpnotebook.com/Eye/Conjunctiva/HrpsSmplxKrts.htm

 

[stephymeow]

Hi Red Top Rescue,

It's a long story. I began to search on Internet from January. We can't trust our vets at all, but lucky, God leads me to many kind person, who helped me in different ways.

The last time we went to see our vet for fluorescein dye stain, the ulcers are oval, the deepest one and a shallow one.

I saw something else with unregular form, I didn't see it very clear, so I can't remember the shape, and a pinpoint size lesion in his eye, but the vet said it was nothing...

But later, I saw things like a flower, similar to γ" or "λ  or maybe a so called dendritic white thing in the middle of his both eyes. They are clear. So I think the virus is there in his eyes.

About C felis, which I'm not sure. But a american vet told me the the white deposits are usually not a part of a FHV infection, you can see them in the photos I posted before.

So I consider to re add the doxycycline and a terramycin ointement, instead of erythromycin ointment, who seems to hurt his eyes.

It's been 4 days since I stopped the oral doxycycline and erythromycin ointment, when the white deposit is gone, but the deepest ulcer is still there now.

So I'm not sure if the healing stopped now after I stopped some of the medications he was on.

 

[red top rescue]

You have not  put your location in your profile.  We are an international site so there may be someone who knows a vet or even a friendly human eye doctor who might look at the eye. I am not an eye doctor, I just have knowledge from my own experiences, but the cat also went to the cat eye doctor and she would stain the eye so I knew when the ulcer was gone.  Let us know where you live and we will tell you if we know a good place for you to take him.

 

[stephymeow]

Yeah! of course.such a good idea! Thank you! We are from Beijing China. I'll edit my profile later on my PC. We've already visited a few vets. And I tried to connect with more vets via Internet. We let the best ophthalmology vet of our city check on him, maybe not the really best one, but the most famous one. And someone gave me the phone number of a famous vet. This vet never answered his phone yet, I already left him a message. I don't know if it's someone else or someone we already visited before. I still work on it. I will never give up. And the good news is I continue to meet kind person who tried to help us. Even we can't do PCR test for cats in our country, I believe there must be a way to find out what's going on, and there must be a way to help him recover. Before we have PCR test we help animals by experience, maybe someone has some useful knowledge, that could help him. There must be something common between cats who have FHV or C felis, etc. I keep a close eye on him and try to notice every details, so that we can compare the symptoms. thank you very much for your help and support! It makes me feel less alone in this battle and makes me keep going.

 

[red top rescue]

Now I understand why it is hard to find experienced vets in your city.  I visited Beijing and some other cities in China with a cultural exchange group many years ago when the borders were first opened to visitors.  Our guides spoke English and we discussed the many differences in our cultures.  Our guides did not know what a "vet" was and when we explained, they thought it was very strange to have a doctor for animals. The only cats we saw were at a monastery in the country, and they were quite wild, but they were "working animals"that kept away rats and mice, and they were fed by humans.  They were not pets, but they were accepted members of the community with a job to do.  In those days, people in China did not generally have pets, they only had farm animals, and cats were not held in the high esteem that they are in other countries.  It has been many years and China has changed a great deal, but vets are still rather new to the culture.  Our cultural exchange was a medical one.  We exchanged ideas about western medicine and learned about ancient Chinese herbal medicine.   It was very interesting on both sides.

 

[stephymeow]

Yeah that's right! We have vets now but they are not good at all. Thanks for understanding.its not I don't want to ask our vets. It's i can get any help from our vets. No PCR and we barely have nothing for diagnose. But I won't give up to help my brother. He's my baby brother like a son. Everyday I see him in pain. It kills me. I have to help him. So if anyone or anyone you know can give me any opinion any idea any help or just tell my the details of your cats,when they have respiration problems and eye ulcers. I'll be very very grateful. I'm all alone on this battle but I have to win for my brother. Please leave any information. Like it takes how many days to see ulcers healing, or how it's healing.or the ulcers became plate first then the white will gone or the white gone first? How can we tell from a wet nose and a mild nose discharge. If he breathes with noise, dose it means he has chronic respiration problems or just something wrong with his nose,like a damage of the bone or something? Should I add oral antibacteria too. Does chronic situation must combine with bacteria? Since he's on high dose of famciclovir I really worry about his kidney. And that's why I though to take the medications myself and give him my serum as eye drops instead. Many people may think I'm crazy. It's the reality who drives me crazy, and the love for my brother. No matter what, I'll never give up, and I have to figure out the problem myself, so please help! Keep this post on top so more and more people will see it and leave the information which may be the key to help us.