Feline Herpesvirus

[jackkearney]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can give me a little insight/piece of mind. I just brought home my 5 month old kitten from the shelter 4 days ago and today he started sneezing like crazy. He still eats plenty and has lots of energy with no discharge from the nose or eyes. I am taking him into the vet in two days (the soonest I could get in) but I was wondering if I should be seriously conserned. He was n't sneezing at the shelter or for the first three days he was at my house, and since this morning it seems like he sneezes every 10 minutes or so when he's awake. Do simptoms start that rapidly or is it more likely that he has an irritant in his nose?

[sublimsos]

I'm no expert (and hopefully you've already gotten the best advice from your vet); however, I do have a cat with FHV. I would not ignore his sneezing. I would press your vet to test him for FHV. If he has FHV, at least you're forewarned and can take measures to make life a little easier for him (and you). My cat would sneeze periodically, and I basically ignored it because I didn't know any better. Then she developed an ulceration on her eye that took months(!) to heal. The treatment involved three different eye drops administered 4 times a day along with weekly follow-up visits to the vet. The combination of the ulcer, sneezing, and poor appetite is what led my vet to test her for FHV (though knowing what I do now, I'm upset that 1)he never offered the FHV vaccination when she was a kitten and 2)he didn't diagnose her sooner). Two months later, she got another ulcer on her other eye. Although it is now healed as well, the treatments have been tiring for me and my cat -- not to mention expensive (a 1 oz. bottle of antiviral drops costs over $100). My cat now has scars on both eyes that impair her vision. After much grief, my vet finally recommended using L-Lysine. I give her 250 mg twice a day. I tried Enisyl-F, but my cat refused it, so I buy l-lysine tablets, crush them, and add it to canned food. We've been using L-lysine for about 6 months now, and her symptoms have almost completely disappeared.

As a sidebar -- two of the vets at my clinic use l-lysine for their cold sores (another form of herpes virus) and swear by it.