UPDATE HERMES HAS *HERPIES*! My Little Man Hermes Eye Issue

[Anikaca77]

Hi All,

As you all know my little man (Hermes) is a very sensitive boy, he is over 1 yr old and he's been having this drainage from his one eye.

He doesn't have any other cold symptoms or anything just this one eye. It's sorta a black gooey crust that keeps building up. Also, the pink around his one eye looks sorta puffy but I don't want to put any type of eye cream on his eye because I don't want to cause any sort of infection or cause a different reaction.

Has anyone else had this happen? or any suggestions how to try to clear it up?


Thanks,
Melissa

[Catlady711]

If the eye looks red or puffy you probably need to see the vet as that could be an eye infection starting and needs medication.

Eye goobers are fairly common (most of my cats get them a couple times a week) but their eye lids are not red or puffy. For mine I just wipe their eyes with a cotton ball to get those nasty looking goobers out.

[Lizzie]

I don't think you have any choice but a trip to the vet. I can see the pink even on your photo so it is obvious. Better to treat an infection right away, as you know. I've sometimes used my own stash of Terramycin for mild eye infections in my foster kittens, but even that can cause a reaction of more inflammation.

[catmandu]

We Hope That You Can Get Hermes To The Vet Asap As This Must Not Be Comfortable For Your Companion At All. And We Pray That Its Something That Your Vet Can Heal With A Little Ointment!!!

[Anikaca77]

Yeah I have my own stash of eye treatments for my one girl cat Claudia who seems to always get the running eye at least once a year but with Hermes I didn't want to take the chance in case it was something that would cause a reaction.



I don't think you have any choice but a trip to the vet. I can see the pink even on your photo so it is obvious. Better to treat an infection right away, as you know. I've sometimes used my own stash of Terramycin for mild eye infections in my foster kittens, but even that can cause a reaction of more inflammation.

[momcat]

This most definitely sounds like a question best put to your vet. Prayers going out for your sweet Hermes that the problem is nothing serious and with proper treatment will clear up quickly.

[Anikaca77]

Well my little man went to the vets on Friday.

My husband and I took him and we have a little adventure. My husband couldn't stand that he was crying in the cat carrier and offered to hold him instead so I said fine and sure enough Hermes wiggled out of his arms and jumped under my seat causing us to pull into a parking lot to get him out from underneath the seat and my husband cut his hand under my seat and finally got Hermes out and when he got back in the front seat he goes Hermes bleeding and I said no it's you and so he held Hermes the whole way to the vets and we were both covered in white cat fur.

You wouldn't believe how much hair came off this little guy.

Well anyway, the vet did a dye test with a black light to see if he had any scratches or anything on his eye and he had a few specs so she gave us some eye meds and his eye still didn't look any better by Sunday so I figured I'd better give the vet a call on Monday.

So I called them and they wanted to see him today at 9 a.m. so we went he joined me a work for a little while this morning and took him to the vets and she looked at his eye again and she did the dye test and he no longer has the spots on his eyes. I also mentioned to her while I was there about his gums and him not chewing his food. She said that he does have really bad gingivitis and she's thinking with all of his symptoms and even when I first got him he had an URI that she's pretty sure he has Herpes.

Well she said it's treated and she could do a test to figure out if he does have Herpes but the vet said that test is pretty pricey. So for now we are going to give him meds for 5 days (and this med smells so bad and the vet said it taste bad too I'll just take her word for it) and then in another 3 months I'll do the same thing again.

So that's the update on Hermes for now.

[Anikaca77]

Well 2 more days and 1 night to go of the meds. Hermes hates this meds. So I'm giving him can food in the evenings after he gets the meds and milk in the morning after meds so he doesn't hate me completely.

[rg_girlca]

Poor Hermes. I pray that with the medication his eye will get better and have no further problems with it.

Did the vet say that the Herpes might come back or will this treatment take care of it for good?

[Medusa]

Aw, I'm sorry to hear this. Let's hope that the treatment will take care of things fast.

[Anikaca77]

Poor Hermes. I pray that with the medication his eye will get better and have no further problems with it.

Did the vet say that the Herpes might come back or will this treatment take care of it for good?

His eye is actually all healed, on Friday we saw the eye ulcers but on Tuesday when I took him in he didn't have them. So he's eye is completely healed it's just getting these meds in him that's a difficult task.

The vet said that once they have this virus they have it for life. The vet said that I will do another 5 days in 3 months but after that I'm not sure where we will go.

The vet said I could do a herpes test to see if he really does have that so I might do that just to make sure I'm not giving him these meds for no reason.

[jennielynn1970]

The vet said that once they have this virus they have it for life.

It's the same with people. The herpes virus is in the blood, and travels the nervous system. There are many different strains of it, and stress can bring it on (like when you get Shingles... it's a herpes virus, as is Chicken Pox and if you get cold sores or mouth ulcers). The virus is still there, it's just whether it's active or dormant.

[Medusa]

Yes, I can attest to that. I had fever blisters as a child, still get them on occasion, and a couple of years ago I had shingles because I was working such long hours and was stressed to the max. I eat yogurt every day and it does help so maybe your vet can suggest something besides medication that can help Hermes.

[moosmom]

MooShoo has a herpes virus in his eyes. The breeder failed to treat it so he's partially blind from the scar tissue that formed on his pupils. Hopefully you've caught Hermes virus in time to treat it without any damage.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'm sorry to hear that he has herpes.:( There are several other PT'ers that have cats with this and I think that some of them give their cats Lysine. You may want to pm critter crazy about this because I think that her Mocha also has this. Good luck.:)

[jennielynn1970]

I've actually used L-lysine when I feel like I'm getting a cold sore, and they've also used L-lysine with the FIV+ cats at the shelter. There was also an Immune Support herbal capsule that we would take apart and mix in their canned food. I used that with Bear because his immune system was so weak. Viruses are nasty little things to deal with, because they go away when they feel like, unlike the bacterial infections that will clear up with antibiotics.

[momcat]

Poor little guy! I hope he's feeling better and his eye is clearing up. Please know that Hermes remains in my prayers right along with you too.

[Anikaca77]

Well last night Hermes hid from me and I sorta figured he was hiding because he didn't want his meds. Well I was wrong he threw up again. I've spoken to the vets about this but it's just so hard to watch because he gets upset and hides so last night I felt it was a good thing not to give him the meds since I didn't want him to throw it right back up and then again this morning he woke me up with throwing up so I stayed up with him and he's doing much better now.

I'll keep you all update on him and thank you all for the prays!

[Anikaca77]

Actually Hermes is much better now.

He still has Herpes but over all he's in great health. We give him Elysine (spelling?) and that seems to help with his out breaks.

Thanks,
Melissa

[pomtzu]

Years ago my son had a cat with Herpes - his chin would swell when he had an outbreak. The vet never had him on any regular meds, and he lived a fairly long and otherwide healthy life (he went to RB at about 13).

[Catlady711]

Actually Hermes is much better now.

He still has Herpes but over all he's in great health. We give him Elysine (spelling?) and that seems to help with his out breaks.

Thanks,
Melissa

Did you mean Lysine? We use that one at work for kitties with herpes, mixed results with it. Some it does a great job on helping them, on others some improvement but not great. I'm glad it seems to be working for Hermes.

Did they say how expensive the test is? If it's not all that bad it might be worth doing if he hates his meds so much he makes himself sick. Dusty used to do that with anything oral and we eneded up having to give most everything by injection because she'd get so upset.

Thank you for posting an update. Give Hermes a hug for me.

[Anikaca77]

Hi there, I think it's that but I'll have to look when I go home.

It works fine for him.

I'm not sure what test you are referring to. Hermes has since stopped throwing up we found out it was cat nip from a plant that he doesn't agree with him and makes him throw up.

Hermes is all better other than the Herpes and his tale thing now but we are trying to get that under control.

Thanks,
Melissa




Did you mean Lysine? We use that one at work for kitties with herpes, mixed results with it. Some it does a great job on helping them, on others some improvement but not great. I'm glad it seems to be working for Hermes.

Did they say how expensive the test is? If it's not all that bad it might be worth doing if he hates his meds so much he makes himself sick. Dusty used to do that with anything oral and we eneded up having to give most everything by injection because she'd get so upset.

Thank you for posting an update. Give Hermes a hug for me.

[moosmom]

Anika,

MooShoo had a herpes virus in both his eyes. It caused scar tissue on both his corneas. He's partially blind in his left eye and is completely blind in his right. The ophthalmologist said that while they can try surgery to remove more of the scar tissue, I have to remember that herpes can be aggravated by the stress of the surgery, causing more scar tissue to form on his corneas. In other words, what I have is what I get, which is fine with me, as long as he's happy and healthy.

MooShoo's eyes do tend to get dry. The vet told me to use "Natural Tears" in his eyes to keep them moist.

[Anikaca77]

Hi Moosmom:

We can tell for sure when Hermes gets stressed and his herpes is acting up because his eyes get all red around the rims and he'll start sneezing.

So this tail issue with trying to wash it twice a week is making his herpes flair up but I think I'm going to try to trim the hair that way I don't have to stress him out too much or for too long. The last bath I gave him he was very unhappy with me because I ended up having to wash the rest of him because the stuff on his tail ended up getting on him.

We'll see...my husband doesn't want to shave his tail but I think for his sake we better just do it and that way his skin will have time to heal.

Melissa



Anika,

MooShoo had a herpes virus in both his eyes. It caused scar tissue on both his corneas. He's partially blind in his left eye and is completely blind in his right. The ophthalmologist said that while they can try surgery to remove more of the scar tissue, I have to remember that herpes can be aggravated by the stress of the surgery, causing more scar tissue to form on his corneas. In other words, what I have is what I get, which is fine with me, as long as he's happy and healthy.

MooShoo's eyes do tend to get dry. The vet told me to use "Natural Tears" in his eyes to keep them moist.

[Catlady711]

Hi there, I think it's that but I'll have to look when I go home.

It works fine for him.

I'm not sure what test you are referring to. Hermes has since stopped throwing up we found out it was cat nip from a plant that he doesn't agree with him and makes him throw up.

Hermes is all better other than the Herpes and his tale thing now but we are trying to get that under control.

Thanks,
Melissa

Maybe I missed a couple posts when I was reading. I thought at one point your vet said you could do a test to be sure it's herpes so you'd know if you had to keep giving the Lysine or not. Sometimes I'm doing several things online at once so I may have confused something.

I'm glad things are improving with the vomiting. I hope things go just as well with everything else and he'll be good as new in no time.

[Anikaca77]

I think the one post you might of saw about Hermes was a test they were going to perform if he didn't stop vomiting but we found out the reason and since then he's been healthy and fine!

Thanks!
Melissa



Maybe I missed a couple posts when I was reading. I thought at one point your vet said you could do a test to be sure it's herpes so you'd know if you had to keep giving the Lysine or not. Sometimes I'm doing several things online at once so I may have confused something.

I'm glad things are improving with the vomiting. I hope things go just as well with everything else and he'll be good as new in no time.

[Catlady711]

I think the one post you might of saw about Hermes was a test they were going to perform if he didn't stop vomiting but we found out the reason and since then he's been healthy and fine!

Thanks!
Melissa

Ah ok. Glad you found out what it was and didn't have to get the test then.