Test for herpes virus in cats

FHV infections are frequently complicated by secondary bacterial infections, so supportive treatment with antibiotics is usually required. Good nursing care is critical and cats may need to be hospitalised for intravenous fluid therapy and nutritional support in severe cases. Steam inhalation or nebulisation may help in cases of severe nasal congestion and as the cat will not be able to smell food well, using tinned or sachet foods that are gently warmed will help.

Unlike FCV, with FHV infection certain anti-viral drugs are available and can be very helpful in managing the clinical manifestations of disease. In colonies of cats, any cat showing clinical signs should be isolated if at all possible, and strict hygiene should be ensured with disinfection, and use of separate feeding bowls, litter trays, implements etc, careful washing of hands, use of separate or disposable apron etc.

Vaccination for FHV is important for all cats. Two or three injections are recommended in kittens, starting at around 8 weeks of age. Cats should receive a booster at a year of age, and after that should receive further booster vaccines every 1—3 years. Vaccination does not necessarily prevent infection with FHV but will greatly reduce the severity of clinical disease. Unlike FCV, there is effectively only one strain of FHV, so vaccination is not complicated by the existence of different strains.

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For more information, please see our Privacy Policy. The most common treatment is topical ointment or drops for your cat's eyes. Your vet will also recommend you start your cat on the supplement L-lysine. This is an amino acid that works to boost your cat's immune system and it is something your cat can safely take long term. There are antiviral medications out there, but they can be hard on your cat's kidney and liver enzymes, so they aren't prescribed as often.

Feline herpes virus is quite common in cats, but that doesn't mean you can't have a herpes positive cat living with herpes negative cats. Also, with the right treatment, a herpes positive cat can still have a long and healthy life. Good hygiene practices are the best defence against this virus. All bedding and blankets should be laundered with detergent and warm water. Shared bowls, toys, and litterboxes should also be cleaned with warm, soapy water. You should also make sure to properly wash your hands with warm soapy water after handling a cat with feline herpes virus.

If you have questions or concerns about your cat's risk of contracting feline herpes virus speak to your veterinarian. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile.

Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. To all you folks out there who have used Lysine for feline herpes.

Have you read the info on Lysine. Lysine is an amino acid, part of protein. It is in many of the foods we eat. I take lysine supplement when I have outbreak of herpes on my lips. When he was diagnosed with kidney disease, I was stunned because I had been doing everything to avoid it! He eats a raw prey model diet, no vaccines except when he was a young cat , no toxic cleansers in the house, etc. I gave it a lot of thought and did a lot of searching for answers. And she believed diet was the key.

One night it occurred to me to wonder if it was Lysine. I google lots and discovered a scientific study by a vet that linked long term, high dosage use of lysine in cats with kidney disease never thought to save the link.

My recommendation? If you want to use lysine, use it sparlingly. At times of stress, a flare-up, etc. Find the lowest dosage that works. Maybe have lab work done to monitor his kidney function levels. Just a cautionary tale. Before Lusi Pixie-B0b was diagnosed with herpes, she had a couple bouts of respiratory issues. Then she developed eye ulcers. After a month of treatment by the vet with little or no improvement, I decided to step up the treatment and took her to an ophthalmologist.

Lusi does better with warmer temps, so I try to keep the home a little on the warmer side. At bedtime, she gets the overnight spa treatment. I put her into the sunroom where she has all her creature comforts with a space heater and a humidifier.

This, along with Lysine powder in her food and a vitamin supplement, helps Lusi maintain her health. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken her to the ophthalmologist as soon as the eye ulcers were diagnosed. I have five cats with the herpes virus, every one of them was so sick when I first got them this probiotic has changed their lives they no longer have to take antibiotics , I tried the lysine it did not seem to help, I did not want to put them on the antiviral medication because there are so many side effects this product has been amazing.

Hi, could you please tell me if this Dr. Mercola probiotic works? My 7 month old baby kitten has the herpes virus and her eye runs terribly. I thought I saw a little improvement in her eye, but I was wrong. Her eye squints and is constantly tearing. Besides this probiotic, what else can I do for her? I think it bothers me more than her. I see many Mercola probiotics online. Can you tell me which one you are using? Does it have a blue label saying complete probiotics?

I adopted a kitten from a very reputable breeder…nationally known and published.. Long story short it was a matter of days before kitten and I were in the vets and she had a full blown sinus infection…impacting both her eyes and sinuses. The vet recommended antibiotics …gel for both her eyes and oral for her sinuses. I contacted the breeder who was adamant that it was an allergy to something in my house or simply a cold and that it would be irresponsible for me to administer antibiotics.

I started the antibiotic and she began to improve immediately. She is a lot better but still has discharge from one eye and a sneezy, runny nose… I do. She poops and pees regularly. The vet says it would be unwise to put her on another antibiotic. Any suggestions…other supplements, special food, special tx…. I prefer a more homeopathic route….

Please try Dr Mercola probiotic for dogs and cats I have five cats that have the herpes virus and this as change their lives.

I have put a deposit on A kitten from a very reputable breeder and have received photos that the kitten to me apppears to have conjunctivitis of one eye and the eye appears smaller than the other or swollen and the lids are very pink. Photos two weeks prior the eyes were equally sized and lids were not pink. In your opinion would you have not adopted your cat if you knew what you now know at the time of adoption?

I feel bad for this kitty and hate to lose my deposit but am afraid of the special care this will entail. Has anyone ever had a biopsy to diagnose herpes? We rescued her 10 years ago. She has always had a pinkish eye. Sometimes worse than others. Now it is terrible. It is red and runny and sometimes bleeding. It looks like it hurts her too. It is right below her eye on her under eye lid I guess you would say. I am worried about the biopsy.

My vet wants to put her to sleep to do this. She also has hyper-thyroid. Other than that she is a happy healthy cat! We tried the steroids but I think that made it worse. One vet prescribed steroids for my cat and they worked, but another vet warned that steroids suppress the immune system so he does not recommend them against a viral infection like herpesvirus. I never had my cat officially diagnosed with a test, but the first vet was confident it was herpes quite common in that area and the cat was a rescue from the shelter and the symptoms match recurrent sneezing and watery eye, always the same eye.

Since then he has not had a herpes flare-up! Might take some time to see a difference if your cat is currently experiencing an episode. Please try Dr Mercola probiotic for dogs and cats I have five cats with herpes and it makes a huge difference. There is absolutely nothing wrong if someone wants to own a purebreed from a reputable breeder.

Many people have dedicated their whole lives in the last few hundred years to work on the stunning and unique breeds we now have thanks to them. We have hundreds of beautiful and unique breeds each one having its own charming traits. I personally have and breed Bengal cats.

I love having cats that take my breath away every time i look at them,and that are i know are free of any genetic diseases and alawys will be. Im proud to breed such beautiful cats and to be able to share the beauty and joy i experience every day with others. We just adopted a new kitten this past weekend , by Monday night he was sneezing,watery eyes, took him to the vet, they gave him a shot of antibiotics and gel meds for his eyes, he eats and drinks water perfectly, but when will see some improvement in this poor little guy?

Hi Sandra — Sorry to hear about your poor little kitty! I would call your vet and ask when you might expect to see some improvement.

Best of luck and we hope your little guy feels better soon! Took him back to the vet today , because we seen no improvement! Now they say he has feline herpes! This is our first kitten so I am new at all this, will he get better or not? Hi Sandra, Your vet will be able to give you a good sense of how to treat this condition.

Hope your kitty feels better! We got the most loving, patient cat from a local shelter. When we got him, he had no symptoms of herpes, but within about a week, he had watery eyes with discharge and was sneezing and shooting large chunks of mucus of various colors clear, yellow, pink, and red around the house. We took him to the vet, and he was put on meds, including eye drops.

We finished that round and thought it was all better. A couple of weeks later, all of the symptoms returned. Again, we took him to the vet. Another round of meds. All better for about two weeks.

It started up again. Lysine in his food did nothing. I am so worried as its the watery kind.. I read online convenia is bad if a cat has herpes. I removed plant I am watching him like a hawk. Thank you so much for that golden edvice. I too have been going thru hell with my cat herpes virus and all the doctors ever want to do is give antibotics for the secondary infections. And only kills off good healthy gut bacteria and further compromises immune system…. Antibiotics are not always useless.

Your cat can go from herpes outbreak into an infection that does need antibiotics. Its not a bad idea to at least have the cat looked at by a Vet, especially if the herpes outbreak has been going on a while and cats been suffering — at least rule out secondary infections. Do you know if its Dr Mercolas probiotics is safe to use with a cat thar is diabetic and has to take vetsuli. I have a cat with the virus. The nasal congestion is thick and get a everywhere in the house.

Use L-lysine in his food. Use it for the rest of his life. You can get it in health food stores and I think drug stores over the counter. You can mix it into his dry food or his wet food. Also there is a gel form that I get on Chewy. Vets dismiss the effectiveness of L-lysine. Good luck. Absolutely agree w the proven effectiveness of L lysine from first hand experience. I can highly recommend.

Steroids are contraindicated in cats with the virus…. My vet started us on Famcyclovir. The dose is mg per ml and we give 1 mg twice a day….. Her eye is almost clear now but it was horrible at first to the point of me thinking she would lose her site. She had to have surgery to remove the ulcer that had formed.

I hope this helps:. My cat did not respond well for years to Lysine, antibiotics, clavamox. It is frightening.

I find that giving him the famciclovir twice daily when the seasons change and when there is stress as a preventative — and during outbreaks — helps. The combination of both seems to help — and we do both twice a day. Famcicolir is very bitter and has to be given with an eye dropper. I try to shoot it down his throat because the bitterness makes him foam at the mouth tastes terrible to him.

Can also mix dried powdered dandelion into fish oil which my cat loves and helps immune system support. I have 2 …. I use the lysine paste but add powered spirulina …they love it….

Along with a high quality cat food with probotics has pretty much kept sysmptoms at bay. Running a humidifier also helps. I could write a book on our experience with Feline Herpes!! We had a stray momma kitty show up with kittens one year. She blessed us a couple time each after that with kittens this was about 30 years ago. This particular litter she had 6 kittens and her daughter had 3 kittens a week later, turns out she had been a carrier for the Herpes and since she had queened to soon she passed it on to her kittens.

After her daughter had her kittens she immediately took all 6 of her mothers into her box so after a day of this I had to incorporate both boxes together so both mothers could nurse the kittens. About a week later we started hearing a bunch of staccato sneezing coming from the box. By now the kittens are 1 week and 2 weeks old. The eyes on the two week old kittens were opening except 2 there was a white substance which turned out to be scar tissue from the herpes. The sneezing continued and found out from the vets what we were actually dealing with!

The older mommy came down with the Herpes and the younger mother came down with a breast infection so neither one could nurse so that left us bottle feeding, cleaning, loving which we did anyway , all 9 kittens plus medicating the mothers. Long story short. One kittens eyes were completely covered with the scar tissue and when she was a little older Dr.

Dice an eye kitty doctor did surgery to remove the tissue on one eye and then several months later the other eye.

Her brother had a chronic nose infection with sneezing gobs of snot and blood all over. Clavamox helped a lot but he got diarrhea from it so we had that to deal with all his life. There is a lot more to the story but this was the most important part I wanted to share.

My Missy and Tigger are over the rainbow bridge but I think of them all the time!!! Bless you for taking care of them. I like rescue stories like this. I had rescued a newborn her mom had dropped off a couple of years ago and kitten was diagnosed with possible herpes simplex virus and clavamox and antibiotic, and still on L-Lysine today and looking for alternatives to add as well as Holistic methods and Holistic vet.

Bless the beasts and the children. My girl Xena has chronic feline herpesvirus, with occasional episodes of sneezing and minor eye discharge. Vaccination, antibiotics and lysine supplementation have not altered her frequency or severity of symptoms. Last year I adopted 2 female cats their names are Wanda and Ashes.

I suspected Herpes virus and my vet confirmed it when I brought her in to establish with him. She eats very well and the vet suggested adding Purina Fortiflora also to help her immune system. I recently adopted a kitten from a shelter 1st cat was adopted from a reputable agency and I think the kitten carried the virus because he got sick first and then the resident cat started displaying similar symptoms.

Adopting my cats over this past year has truly brought me so much joy. I guess now my concern is knowing that stress causes the feline herpes to shed, how do I know if my cats are stressed? I have three cats, 18, 14 and 7 years old. The 14 year old came down with a cold, we took her to the vet, and she got antibiotics, which helped a bit, but not much. The other two got the same illness. We almost lost our senior, but he is the only one that fully recovered.

The 14 and 7 year old to this day two years later still have snotty noses, heavy breathing and snorting. After countless rounds of antibiotics and three different vets, we have given up trying to cure it. This has NOT been our experience. Two of our three cats are symptomatic all the time. Some times it is worse than others, but it never goes away.

We tried L-lysine, and it actually made the symptoms worse. We also give them Homeopet nose relief drops in their food twice a day, which helps minimally as well. It is like a never ending nightmare and there is no medicine that helps.

We are also scared to get another cat for fear that they will end up like the two of ours that are always snotty. We adopted 2 kittens from The Humane Society. One immediately showed signs of upper respiratory illness. Took to vet and diagnosed with feline herpes. Now our other 6 have all gone through outbreaks of varying degrees. Lysine causes stomach distress and vomiting for our cats. Fortunately outbreaks in the household have calmed down and are milder when they occur.

We try to isolate if there is an outbreak.