Feline Herpes Question

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carolynandlatte

carolynandlatte

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I have some questions about feline herpes.
My foster recently had one of her eyes removed. She was blind in that eye due to trauma (cat claw?).
She was also diagnosed with feline herpes in her other eye. I do give L-lysine 2x/day in her food. She still has a pretty constant drippy eye. Some times it is worse than others. Right now it seems worse.

Yesterday it was VERY watery and drippy. You could tell she was having a hard time keeping her eye open from all the fluid. This was sad to watch since her other eye is now gone. She couldnt see at all, poor thing. By evening it was still drippy, but not as watery in the eye socket.

I have also noticed her sneezing a little bit. Maybe 2-6x/day. I have heard her sneeze on occasion before, but assumed she was getting into something dusty. She is a young little rugrat. :mrgreen: The increase in sneezing seems more than being curious around the house.

Today it is her eating that worries me. Typically she is prompt for meal times, often making sure I am as well. She begs and cleans the floor for me most days. And rarely does she not finish her food. She hardly touched her breakfast this a.m. I also noticed she didnt snack on any of her kibble over night. Yesterday I had to remind her to go back to her food after taking an hour break to finish both her breakfast and lunch. She ate her bedtime snack just fine. I suppose she could be tired of her food. I have fed the same thing the last 4-5 days for certain reasons. If she does not go for her a.m. snack later, I will open up a different food.

I am just wondering (and easily worried)...with the herpes virus, can they develop a lack of appetite? Do they get nauseated? Are there other symptoms I should watch out for? When does an outbreak require a visit to the vet? Is there anything else that can be done for an outbreak? Are they uncomfortable?

I am going to run out today or tomorrow (on jury duty this week) and pick up the medication the eye specialist recommended trying. I cant remember off hand what it is called. It is a very expensive pill that on rare ocassions can make the virus disappear for good. It is worth a shot.

Are there serious complications that can happen from constant symptoms of the virus?

Thanks!

Carolyn
 
twinkie is the same. marjorie and tigger told me about interferon. i do not know dilution rate, when twink starts with the real runny eyes, i give him .3cc every day for 2 weeks. this is supposed to help build up immune system.
google interferon for cats for more info. i get mine from marjorie
 
From:
http://www.wedgewoodpetrx.com/learn...s/interferon-alpha-2b-for-veterinary-use.html

Precautions

* Cats will develop antibodies to parenteral human-interferon alpha after three to seven weeks, limiting its useful treatment time span.
* Animals with autoimmune disease, severe cardiac or pulmonary disease, diabetes, Herpes infection, underlying CNS disease or drug allergy may be at increased risk for complication.
Click to expand...

It was sounding worth looking into, until I saw the precautions. :sad:
 
Herpes is also linked to URI, which causes sneezing and can get very serious very quickly with chest & nose congestion. One of the most serious issues with URI is keeping the affected animals eating/drinking. So, given her symptoms I think a trip to the vet is in order.
 
The not eating may be due to the fact that she can't smell anything right now. When my civie, Abigail(who has herpes) gets real bad and the l-lysine isn't helping as much as I would like I take her into the bathroom and get her some steam to try to help open her up some. Easy to get worried when they don't eat and look sad with the runny eye. You can always call the vet to see what they say to do.
ETA: Abigail has never been so bad that she does not eat, so a vet visit may be in order.
 
this was what marjories vet gave her for one of her cats and I mentioned to my vet and he agreed. like I said, I do not know what the dilution is and he does not get it all the time. just with flare ups. twink is FIV+ and has been doing well when I give it. It really does help him. vet said to keep it in freezer cause does not last long in fridge. I just thaw it enough to get what I need.
it also states just above that
Cats: Side effects due to low-dose oral protocols are rare.
 
Emme came to us with a badly infected eye as a result of feline herpes. It fact, after we picked Erik and Emme up, their mom had to have her eye removed because of her infected eye was so bad.

We gave her idoxuridine, a topical anti-viral eyedrop from a compounding pharamacy, 5x daily for a couple of weeks. Her eye got almost totally better. That eye still has excessive watering, but it's clear, with no infection remaining or damage to her cornea.


How Can we Treat it? (http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1327)

There are several treatment methods that can be combined in the treatment of feline herpes eye infections:

Topical Antibiotics
These quell secondary bacterial invaders and are helpful in controlling initial infections or severe recurring infections. It is important to realize that antibiotics do not affect the herpesvirus itself; they only work on secondary bacteria; however, often this is enough to make the cat comfortable until the virus goes dormant.

Topical Anti-virals
There are several eyedrops available that act directly against the herpesvirus. They include: idoxuridine (no longer commercially available and must be obtained from a compounding pharmacy); Viroptic® (trifluorothymidine); and Vira-A® (vidarabine). These medications are relatively expensive and typically require administration five times daily. If the cornea is involved in the infection, this is a clear indicator that antiviral medications would be needed.

Oral Interferon alpha
This inexpensive oral solution uses a natural immune system modulator to suppress herpesvirus symptoms. Though interferon use has not been scientifically tested, it has certainly been in use for many years as something that seems to help shorten the course of infection. In tissue culture, herpes-infected cells are inhibited much more easily by anti-viral drugs if they are exposed concurrently to interferon. Interferon has no side effects potential at the doses used and it appears there is no reason not to try it as it may be helpful.

Oral Lysine
Herpesviruses as a group are highly dependent on an amino acid called arginine. Without arginine, a herpesvirus cannot reproduce. The amino acid lysine is taken up by the virus in favor of arginine. We can take advantage of this situation by saturating the virus with lysine and thus suppressing the virus’s ability to replicate. Lysine is readily available in most health food stores as a tablet or capsule. One should be sure that the formula used is free of the preservative propylene glycol because cats can have blood reactions against this compound. A month or so of supplementation is required in order to determine if supplementation has been helpful.

Vaccinating Affected Animals
In general, vaccination is a process meant for healthy animals to prevent infections that do not already exist. But what about vaccination as a treatment for existing infection? In the case of feline herpes infection, this may be a reasonable thing to do, at least if one uses the nasal/ocular vaccine. The local vaccine produces extra immune stimulation to the area where herpes infection is active and may help palliate the signs of infection. Injectable vaccine is not useful in this regard.

It should be noted that some infections lend themselves to prevention by the vaccination process and others do not. Herpes rather does not; this means that vaccination of healthy cats does not prevent infection for feline herpes; what it does do is lead to less severe signs. Vaccination against feline herpes has been deemed helpful but one should understand that, in this case, the goal is not total prevention of infection but palliation.
 
Thank you all for taking the time to respond!

Tippie was slow to eat her afternoon snack, even with Parmesan. I left it out when I went to work. It was gone when I got home. :thumbup It took a while to eat her dinner, too. This time it was because she wanted to do sprints back and forth in the apartment :lol: . Eventually she got it all down. I do think she is feeling better this evening. Eye has normal moistness and drips (for her).

I did pick up the prescription of famciclovir. Four pills=$26! :shock: Started it tonight. Always fun to pill a new cat for the first time, especially knowing how much it cost. nailbite_smile She gets the pill 1x/day for 16 days. I hope she can be one of the lucky and rare ones...and have this medicine make the herpes go away forever and ever. She does not have an eye to spare since she had the other one taken out.

I have thought about our last few weeks and the stress she has probably taken on. I lost my 9-5 job, but I am picking up extra work at 2 of my others. Though I am actually home more, it is making my hours unpredictable. She seems to find a consistent schedule very important - more than the average cat. They have also been working on the pipes in my building. Many times in the last few weeks workers have had to enter the apartment. And of course there has been noise. She is real scaredy cat (young, stray/possibly some feral). She was hiding nearly everyday in a corner, under the bed, behind furniture, etc. No matter what I tried I could not convince her it would be ok.

Anyway, I think I will call the eye specialist she saw back in Sept before her eye removal. I will ask him about some of the suggestions you have offered. I have let the foster coordinator know and can try to get her to the vet if it does not look like things are improving in the next few days. Unfortunately the car ride could be trigger enough to make it worse. So, if I bring her in it needs to be because she needs to be seen, not because I am over reacting.

Thanks again everyone!

Here is a picture of her since her surgery in September:
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If this link works, you can see some photos of when she arrived at my home with her eye messed up all the way through the surgery, recovery, and beyond.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EcuGzRuyYsnIw
 
I forgot to mention. The specialist felt eye drops were not going to ever be effective because her eye waters and drips so much and constantly.
Would that be the case for an ointment as well? Gosh, I could not imagine giving that to her.
 
I was able to talk with someone from the eye specialist office.
They told me squinting (which she has been doing) is a good reason to bring her in because it could be causing pain/discomfort. Which also could be why she has been off her food a bit. She ate well last night, with some prodding, but back to little food this a.m/afternoon. I will say she felt well enough to play for almost 2hrs straight this a.m.

They said it was extra important to watch/document/treat since it is her only eye. The HV can cause permanent damage if left untreated.

Someone is interested in adopting her and will be screened by the rescue. Im so sad. :cry:
 
I know you are sad, but getting her to a loving permanent home is wonderful! And the eye specialist is right, you don't want to fool around with her one eye.
 
Most of my 6 are infected with herpes- 4 of them.

Sadie lost his eyes to it before they ever opened. We adopted him from the humane society.

Judah & Bobbie caught it from Katie(RIP) their mother who was a Wal~Mart parking lot rescue who was very sick with it when I brought her home. All 6 have been vaccinated for it and when they do get an infection of it, it is like a mild cold runs through them-lots of sneezing and sniffles. hopefully the vaccine keeps the infections mild.

Since your baby has only the one eye, I would make sure to get her meds ASAP when she has an infection from it.

Cats can do very well with limited/no sight. Sadie runs, climbs, and plays like the rest of them- he even plays chase, and he is always the chaser!
 
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