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.