Hi all,

I was wondering if any of you have experience with herpes infections in cats? One of my foster kitties has a weepy eye that took a turn for the worse and the vet thinks it's herpes with a secondary infection making it worse. He gave me an antibiotic paste to put into her eye twice a day (and boy she hates that - I thought giving a pill to a cat was the worst, but this is a close contender) and suggested to put 500 mg of L-lysine into her food every day. He mentioned it also works as a prophylactic treatment to prevent herpes outbreaks.

Now I'm wondering if I should put it into all my cats' food for a while? Does anyone know if there might be any adverse effects from adding lysine to a healthy cat's food? I'm trying to keep them separate as best as I can, of course, but I have a second foster cat in the room with the sick cat and I don't really have another foster room to separate them. I was hoping he would get adopted this weekend at the pet fair, but that didn't happen and there were no other foster homes available. All I can do now is hope his immune system will be stronger than hers. Aside from lysine, are there any other tricks to boost a cat's immune system against herpes?

I'm no expert but I know there is a cat food called Timberwolf that has Lysine in.

I wouldn't think it would do any harm to add to all the cats food but I wouldn't have a clue for the dosage!

I hope someone can answer a bit better for you but in the meantime hope this helps a bit

The foods that have "extra" l-lysine in them do not put enough in to tamp down the herpes virus.

Herpes Simplex 1 requires an amino acid called argenine to replicate. L-lysine inhibits the argenine thus stopping the virus from replicating and shortening the duration of an attack.

The rule of thumb is for an active attack of herpes 500mg twice a day for adults and 250mg twice a day for kittens.

Once a kitten/cat has had herpes, its got it for life. Like the human cold sore virus (which is a herpes virus), the immune system tucks it away at the end of a nerve. If the cats system gets low, the herpes will rear its ugly head once more and the cat with either show symptoms or shed virus. If your cat has had herpes but has got to the stage of not showing symtoms, a daily 500mg for an adult and 250mg for a kitten should keep it from replicating.

If you have a breeding girl who has had herpes in the past, it is a good thing to give her the 500mg daily thoughout the weaning of the kittens. The stress of birthing can trigger off an attack and you would not want the kittens to get the virus once their maternal antibodies are fading.

Make sure you purchase the pure l-lysine either as a powder or in capsules. Dont buy the hard tablets/caplets as these do contain other ingredients that may not be kind to cats.

Regards

Ahhhhhhh thanks Sue not my post I know but great advice once again!

FYI - Lysine also works on us two legged cats to prevent coldsores, or if it's too late to stop an outbreak, it can make it heal much more quickly.

I feel really bad...

I knew all about L-Lysine when he was a kitten. I was a bit crazy about making sure he got a good amount through biscuits, specifically Royal Cannin Growth (the orange one, hard to find now) which had extra lysine for cats that need it- bengals, persians, burmese etc.

Might not have been enough like Manic Cats said though.

I later moved him to a raw diet, thought he might get enough from that and not need it now since the vet said he was now too old for that biscuit type. I did think for a while I should look up extra L-Lysine but didn't know where to get it. Then I forgot. Now, he has seen a vet and has a bad cold like infection, so is on antibiotics and L-Lysine pills for a week.

Does anyone have any idea where to go for pure L-Lysine, raw? I've only found tablets so far.

I picked up some L-lysine treats for my Bengal a few weeks ago. They are the GNC brand specifically for cats. I have been giving her two every other day and they have cleared up her drippy eye, so I will continue with them. They smell terrible, but she gobbles them up! I didn't have any luck with the powder...she would eat around it or just not touch the food at all...