Most all of my cat family consists of leukemia, aids, cancer
and herpes patients or those with other disabilities. I use
lysine as my primary "cure" for the herpes virus when it
attacks the eyes. I know many of you are worried about the
side effects of long term usage, but as with all meds there are
pros and cons and you have to outweigh the good of a particular
med against the bad. A cat with a very bad eye infection is
going to succumb to many secondary infections if the eye
infection isn't cleared up and you may possibly lose him to
them. I have used lysine (500 mg / day) for kittens as young
as six weeks (I personally have found that 250 mg is just not
enough to knock it out for most cats and have even done 750 mg
for my big 15+ pounders). I have had particularly resistant
cases on lysine for six to eight months and haven't had any
side effects. I don't want to offend anyone on the list that
may be a vet, but I have found that most vets still aren't
really up on the herpes virus in cats (even though the
prevalence of the virus is extremely wide spread and most cats
rescued from outside have been exposed to it and will pass it
on to their offspring and to others they come in contact with)
and those cats with compromised immune systems are sure to
catch it. Many vets will say sure use the lysine because they
really don't know what else to do for them but they tend to err
on the light side and not prescribe enough for the lysine to
suppress the herpes virus.
Very good nutrition (raw diet being excellent) and supplements
to build their immune systems are other things that seem to
help these cats. I end up taking in a lot of pregnant strays
that are dumped over my fence and I immediately start the queen
on 500 mg lysine, vitamin C and a pet vitamin which I continue
through their entire pregnancy, birth and nursing. I have
noticed since I have started doing this that the resultant
herpes virus attacks and related URI (they seem to run together
in my experience) are not as severe in the kittens and I have
actually had two litters whose URI's cleared up in just a
matter of days and so far I have not had to start them on
lysine as I was having to do with litters before this
(sometimes having to start three week old kittens on lysine and
nutristat).
Lysine inhibits the growth of the herpes virus. I'm not sure
how it works, but in my cats nine out of ten respond to it. I
have had very little luck with any of about a dozen eye meds
that the vets have given me for it. I use an eyebright wash to
keep the gook cleaned off of the eyes (sometimes I end up doing
it every few hours). It is when the eye is glued shut or
surrounded with this stuff that secondary infections take hold
as this goop is a breeding ground for bacteria (which is what
responds to antibiotic treatment). When the goop is thick and
pussy looking I will put them on antibiotic to keep the
secondary infections under control. Antibiotic does absolutely
nothing to "cure" a herpes infection as there is no cure for
herpes, it lives in the body forever as do all herpes viruses.
A cat with herpes will have it all their lives and over the
years will have flare ups - stress most often being the culprit
for a flare up. Stress can, depending upon the cat, be
anything from bringing in a new cat or dog or child, moving the
furniture, changing food or litter, you name it.
A clear discharge really isn't much to worry about in a herpes
cat as often the initial herpes infection will damage a tear
duct and instead of working as it should, the eye fluids run
out of the eye and down the face. (I have about six who have
one eye that runs constantly and a few who have this cloudy
looking thing over part of one eye but it doesn't seem to
affect their sight other than I have found that all herpes cats
seem to be over sensitive to bright lights). The only thing
you need to be sure to do is keep the gooey stuff cleaned off
the eye regularly as this is where the secondary infections get
an opportunity to take hold. You can use just a warm wash
cloth or a cotton ball dipped in eyebright solution, green tea
solution or St. John's Wort and Echinacea solution. All three
of these are soothing and healing. If the conjunctiva gets
very red and sore looking then possibly some of the eye drops
or salves the vets prescribe may help. And if it says four
times a day and you can only manage two, two are better than
none, it will just respond slower. But so far, my vet hasn't
given me anything that helps much other than terramycin
antibiotic opthalmic ointment and again that is treating
secondary infections and not the actual herpes.
We do not have a cat opthamologist in our area but I would be
interested in hearing what they have to say should anyone be
taking their cat to one. We have had several who have had to
have an eye removed because it has ulcered and nothing has kept
it from being destroyed. Basically, I have had to keep these
kittens on antibiotic and high doses of lysine until they were
5# in weight so that they could undergo the surgery. My vet
says that they would survive the surgery, but they would have a
50 - 50 chance of waking up from the sedative. Those odds
aren't good enough for me, so I religiously keep up the lysine
and antibiotic until they are of weight and a couple of times
that has been six months or more.
Well, I just wanted to pass on what my experience has been with
this disease and I have had a lot of it with as many cats as I
have had.
Spirit Cat
SPIRIT CAT AND THE MOOSEHEART MEWS
Mooseheart_Mews@u...
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