If your cat gets eye herpes* there is generally no need to visit a vet because, just like human viruses, there’s not much you can do about a virus except pamper it. If it gets bad enough, yes, take your schnookums to the vet and get some ointment to rub on your kitty’s eye and otherwise make sure everything is okay. Otherwise, there are a few things you can do to ease small flare-ups to help you avoid a massive vet bill.
1) If your cat gets sniffly and sneezy, steam them. Turn the smallest bathroom in the house or apartment into a steam room by turning the shower up to the hottest temp and letting the steam build up behind the closed door. Keep the cat in the bathroom for upwards of ten minutes. Make sure the cat is in the bathroom with you when you bathe. This helps break up any congestion that results from the flare-up and makes your cat more miserable.
2) Lysine. Lysine, lysine, lysine. Lysine, a natural supplement you can find at pretty much any health food store, can help to stave off human break outs of herpes as well. Crush a half pill or whole pill and feed to the cat at the first sign of outbreak and continue 1-2 times a day until the outbreak is over. Although our vet suggested we do this with smelly canned catfood, Merle didn’t mind his as long as it was given with cheese. (Humans should take 4-6 daily from the first sign of outbreak until it is over.)
3) NeoPolyBac. This is the eye ointment that the vet prescribed to Merle and “is used to treat susceptible superficial bacterial infections of the eyelids and conjunctiva of dogs and cats” and is apparently available online.
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* I know this seems like a silly topic for HUHO but I’m willing to bet this becomes a dominant search string in less than a month.
I’m just passing through here, linked from another blog and had to say this:
Please tell people not to give their animals antibiotic ointments without first consulting their vet! Some cats can have pretty nasty reactions to antibiotic ointments. It isn’t something that happens to every other cat, or anything, but it can happen and owners should go over the risks with their vet.
My kitties have eye herpes! We call them “Herpy” and “Herpy Junior” when they (infrequently) get outbreaks. It seems that stress can precipitate an outbreak. The lysine supplements sound like a very good idea. Thanks!
I beg to differ: for a decade, whenever they’ve needed it, I’ve dosed or smeared my cats with a couple fingers of the triple antibiotic cream you can buy in the drugstore (usually, the store-brand version of Neosporin.)
For scratches, abcesses, and a weird thing that cost me $300 at the vet’s and they still couldn’t figure what the hell was going on — triple-antibiotic cream has done the trick.
Save yourself the vet bills, and try that first, if it might be at all appropriate.
I have two Sphynx cats. My female has had a drip from her right eye since birth. It may be a blockage in her tear duct, I have to see a ophthalmologist. I now have a male, he didn’t have a problem with his eyes when we brought him home, but now his eye waters too, and they both have to have them wiped daily, or it dries to a black, hard substance.
Our Saturday fill-in vet said this could be eye herpes. These are not occasional outbreaks, it is constant, most of the day, every day, I always have to wipe their eyes. Does this sound like eye herpes?
Tina: Your cat has the same symptoms as my kitty. Her eyes run and it turns black and crusty. My vet said it was a Herpies Virus and gave my kitty eye ointment…did not work. Then he gave her Prednisone and she had to be given it faithfully for three weeks. We followed instructions to a T and still she has the same problem.
I am at a loss, I would greatly appreciate some more feedback. WHAT do we do? Does anyone have a solution
Our vet gave us gentomycin, an eye ointment for herpes-induced conjunctivitis. We found that our cat is actually allergic to the neo-poly-bac blend (like in Neosporin). It caused his eyes to get worse almost immediately. Our vet has recently learned that this antibiotic blend is not being used on cats any more (in surgery, etc), because so many cats are having adverse reactions, some deadly. I’m always game for an inexpensive remedy, but the neosporin did MUCH more harm than good for us.