Congested Cat? Should You Give Lysine? Learn All About Feline Upper Respiratory Infections | Dr. Em
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Welcome one and all! Join Dr. Em as they discuss feline upper respiratory infections. Do you know how to prevent it? What to watch for? What to do if your cat gets one? Do you know what NOT to do? Should you give lysine?
Learn all this and more in the video!
Feline enrichment video:
• Cat Care Essentials | ...
Lysine research review:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Please comment with your ideas for future video topics!
Follow us!
Facebook - vetmedcornerpage
Twitter -
VetMedCorner?s=09
Instagram - vetmedcorner
![เกิดใหม่ทั้งทีก็เป็นสไลม์ไปซะแล้ว ซีซั่น 3 - ตอนที่ 57 [ซับไทย]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pNhft3YZFRE/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Live สด] การออกรางวัลสลากกินแบ่งรัฐบาล งวดวันที่ 1 มิถุนายน 2567](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3canzHC_d0k/mqdefault.jpg)
Hello again! Was really excited to see the lysine part addressed. I feel like it was just the other day that I asked about this. :) Thank you for taking the time to answer questions in an easily understood, evidence-based way. Your videos are an excellent service and resource for pet lovers!
Hi!!
Your suggestion was a great one so I just had to research/film/edit it next! It took a couple weeks, but here we are!
If you have any other suggestions, feel free to throw them at me! I truly want to get the information that is wanted/needed out there. ☺️
Very long cathartic rant ahead…
My cat became blind at just over a year old because multiple vets that she saw for a severe URI were still of the belief that lysine supplementation was the best way to treat an acute flare-up of herpes.
I adopted her in late 2019 shortly after she was found with a ruptured right globe as a feral kitten, severely ill from FHV. She was taken to the local hospital to have the right eye safely enucleated, and recovered well with her left eye intact. We then enjoyed an stress-free year together and I was never told anything about feline herpes and its tendency to recur during periods of stress.
During a stressful time for the entire household, she began showing signs of a classic herpes flare up. Sneezing, ocular discharge, conjunctivitis, fever. I took her to a new vet on Friday, November 6th of 2020 since my usual vet was booked out, and the new vet spent 20+ minutes on the phone with me after her exam explaining how FHV worked, why it probably was flaring, and the importance of protecting my cat’s only remaining eye. At the time of her visit there was no ulceration but a lot of conjunctivitis and inflammation.
… And then she prescribed lysine, a systemic antibiotic, and nothing else. I even called back that afternoon, knowing very little but enough to wonder about the why she was given an antibiotic but not an antiviral, and was told not to worry, the lysine would be fine.
A week later, my cat is admitted to the ER with a 4x5mm descemetocele (an ulcer penetrating to the deepest layer of the cornea) for an urgent corneal graft surgery from a team of half a dozen veterinary ophthalmologists. $2,000 later, she was discharged to me with a large corneal graft, and STILL NO ANTIVIRAL. Just the lysine she was already taking, plus buprenorphine for pain.
Unsurprisingly, over that weekend her condition worsened dramatically. The graft failed catastrophically, the ulcer doubled in diameter, and her cornea started literally melting. She was in so much pain.
I took her back in to be seen by the ophthalmologists and they explained to me that the graft had failed, her cornea was in terrible shape, and gave me serum drops to give her to try and halt the corneal melting. You know what they didn’t give her? An antiviral, still.
The following day, I was desperate, and pleaded with my normal vet (who had a background in ophthalmology) to see her, because I didn’t feel like she was getting proper care. He brought her in after hours, and the situation was so severe that he brought me in for a face-to-face (or mask-to-mask, since this was in the winter of 2020) discussion about how dire the circumstances were for my baby’s poor eye. He asked if she was on an antiviral and I said no, and he was visibly furious. Started her on a massive dose of famciclovir (250mg/day for a 4kg cat) that night and within 36 hours, her condition DRAMATICALLY improved. She was eating again, running around, her cloudy cornea started to clear, and her pain was clearly much less. The only issue was, she had a 7x8mm hole in the middle of her cornea from 10 days of clinical neglect.
We waited for a month for her eye to heal itself, but it appeared to just sort of give up. The bottom layer had fully epithelialized, but she never rebuilt much, if any stroma. A month later, she sees the team of ophthalmologists for the upteenth time (one of whom STILL told me that she would “hang her hat on the lysine” after I confronted them about not prescribing famciclovir) and they tell me, basically, it’s not going to heal. It had been 39 days from the original surgery and progress had completely stalled. What they should’ve done in that moment was tell me that I needed to bring her in so that her left eye could be safely enucleated. What they actually did in that moment was to recklessly tell me to take her cone off and “see if she could maybe live with this massive corneal defect.”
I took the cone off, relieved for the period of 24/7 monitoring to be over. Gave her a can of her favorite wet food and left the room for 5 minutes. I came back and it’s clear that she had immediately scratched her eye and it had ruptured.
So then I go racing back to the ER, which was 45 minutes away, while my poor baby is crying in pain and fear because her eye was slowly deflating and she was losing her ability to see. By the time I got to the ER, the entire globe had collapsed. I waited outside in the cold with her while the ER team took their sweet time coming to get her, just trying to comfort and telling us both that it was going to be ok. I couldn’t just go in, because, you know, covid. This is three days before Christmas at nighttime and it’s very cold outside. She is terrified.
Finally they get her, take her back, tell me there’s no other option than enucleation, and that was it. Kept her overnight and I got her the following morning.
This was almost three years ago. She has spent the majority of her life blind now. I’ve made sure that she has the best life of any blind cat ever, and she amazes me every day with how well she has adapted, but she was never the same cat again. I got a new cat that day, one who is wonderful in all sorts of different ways, but who runs into walls and is clearly bored when nobody is actively playing with her.
One of the most traumatic events of my entire life. Especially that ride to the ER watching her eye collapse knowing there’s nothing I can do other than drive faster. All because of an antiquated understanding of how to treat feline herpes.
Thank you for this video, Dr. Em. I wish all veterinary professionals were as thoughtful and knowledgeable as you are.
Oof - I am so incredibly sorry that you and your cat went through all of this. It broke my heart as I read it.
A huge part of why I work so much on VMC is because I desperately want to get research based, best practices, information out to people so that they have the knowledge about what options are out there. I'm really hoping it will make a difference and help more pets get better care.
I'm so grateful to hear that your cat has adjusted to being without vision, they can have an absolutely excellent quality of life without it. She sure is lucky to have you advocating for her in her corner 💜 and I hope that you both enjoy many years together.
You are a wonderful cat parent. :)
😭😭😭❤❤❤
Definitely a Heartfelt story.....
I feel sooo bad for your cat (and you). Atleast as humans we understand, but animals, we are basically God to them...what we do for them affects 90% of their existence. . YOUR AWESOME!! You did EVERYTHING that you could do throughout this horrable time for your cat.
Wow! This is a very terrible story! I'm so sorry to hear what your kitty and you went through! You are a good mom to her giving her such care and love.
Hello, i can only speak for my experience but Lysine worked incredibly well for my cat. He had conjunctivis due to FHV and Lysine at 500mg x2 per day had an incredible impact. I trust scientific studies but I am seeing countless people online saying that Lysine worked like a miracle for their cats.
The thing with these viruses is that they tend to be transient... So the reality is that they would have resolved anyway, and that the lysine didn't do anything. People just attribute the resolution to it because they feel that 'doing something' will make a difference.
@@VetMedCorner Then we can say exactly the same thing regarding the efficacy of Famciclovir to treat FHV ?
Incorrect. We often use proven anti viral medications when the cat is struggling to clear the virus they have (ETA or if the cat is very ill). The difference is that these anti viral medications are proven to work.
@@VetMedCorner I really believe in scientific studies but I am also shocked by the number of people online who say that Lysine worked better than anything else for their cats who had recurring URI/FHV....
People also say that ivermectin treats covid... Unfortunately, what non experts say online has zero bearing on reality.
Thanks for the video. I thought all the points were very clear. You’re a great educator
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I really appreciate hearing feedback 💜
Thank you for sharing this information it’s very helpful ❤
EXCELLENT VID.....All the info I needed ....and more.....love it!!
Thank you! Your comment just made my day ☺️
Such a helpful video! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge ❤!
I'm so glad you found it helpful - thank you for the lovely comment ☺️
You have provided very helpful information in a thorough, clear discussion; and this new cat owner. Thank you!
I'm so glad you found it helpful! ☺️
Thank you so much! I truly appreciate the detail you've provided since it will help me with my kitty, who has FHV flare, that has him struggling the last couple of days. Yes, I'l be getting him to the vet (hopefully tomorrow since he hasn't really eaten or drank much the last couple of days).
I'm glad that you will be consulting your veterinarian - I hope your cat recovers smoothly 💜
Thank you so much for your video! We're caring for an 8-year old semi-reformed feral cat. It took him 4 years to tolerate us, another year before we could pet him. He's always been outside, so we bought him a heated cat house. He disappeared for two weeks then came back a week ago, sneezing, gunky eyes, significant weight loss (TNR in 2022 listed 10 lbs, he's now 8 lbs). He let us put him in a carrier and go to the vet who prescribed Erythromycin (eyes) and Doxycycline. He's since been quarantined in my computer room. He's adapted beyond belief. The sneezing has lessened and his eyes are clearer but he only eats a tablespoon of stinky food at a time 3-4 times a day. He does drink water and uses a litterbox. We're just worried since it's been a week, and he's still very docile... no exactly lethargic since he leaves his bed for pets, talks to me, and purrs. But he hasn't ventured beyond a small alcove. It's just weird that a feral cat is so calm being inside. Do some cats just take longer to recover? Thank you for any insight. We're retired, fixed income. It's $150 a visit to our only local vet. If we need to talk him back, we will! Hoping maybe he just needs more recovery time. Thank you again.
If you're unsure you should update your vet clinic and ask them when a recheck might be reasonable if your cat continues to display URI symptoms.
I'm glad you found VMC - welcome!
@@VetMedCorner ❤ Thank you!
I love the information, but it doesn't help me. I have a small farm were cats are always left on my porch. I do have them fixed, but can't afford the vet bills to help them all when they get upper respiratory infections. I have 36 cats now and they just keep spreading the virus. Any suggestions on how to give so many medication? 10 cats have it now and being retire on a fixed income doesn't help. I have one cat that has cost me over $5000 for UTI he had PU surgery twice and large bladder stones removed, but I just can't afford much more. Please any advise would help. The last cat I took to my vet in January didn't survive on the antibiotics they subscribed for URI and I so miss my Wendy. 😢I love my cats and would spend ever cent I have to save them, but I don't have a cent anymore.
Thank you so much for this video! I have a feral cat colony that took up residence here and I have more cats than I can afford to take to the vet, and my area does Nothing for these cats, so I have to do it alone and I picked up many helpful things in this video and others, bless you
Thank you so much for this incredibly kind comment. I am very dedicated to getting people access to free, best practices, research based info and the fact that you've told me it helps you makes all the work worthwhile.
Thank you for helping to care for the ferals that you can.
I heard another Vet say that Lysine was very helpful. I would want to know who paid for the study and was it somebody who was vaccinating and supporting the vaccines I just don’t trust a lot of studies that come out but that’s me but I’m I would keep doing lysine if it helps it’s not gonna hurt.
Feel free to use the link in the description to find additional information on the lysine research
Hi Dr Em, I really appreciate evidence. Based medicine, as a human physician, I’m off and struggling with individuals latching on to some sham treatment, and a lot of the videos on TH-cam, talk about lysine, and I was thinking to myself along with carnitine, how those are such gimmicky type of recommendations, because unless you have some underlying innate metabolic disorder which would lead to a deficiency in any of those particular, amino acid, how would adding more of that amino acid suddenly increase the rate of whatever biological process? It wouldn’t because the animals body is already metabolizing whatever amino acid at its max. Keep up the good work, and one thing that I wish was mentioned was when you were talking about vaccinations, I live in New York City, and I brought home a stray who I thought was a bit differently, but the vet didn’t think so, but I think he’s also freshly out of that school, in any case my resident cat ended up developing this really bad URI, but I’m not familiar with any vaccines for those two viruses you had mentioned and it’s definitely not any of the vaccines my resident cat or the stray was given are the vaccines which are only upon special request?
Welcome to VMC, doc!
It also really bothers me how much misinformation is on social media, that was a huge reason why I pushed myself *way* out of my (quite introverted) comfort zone and started learning how to edit video and all the rest of it...
The vaccine is the FVRCP combination vaccine that protects against feline viral rhinotracheitis, feline calicivirus, and feline panleukopenia. This vaccine is generally considered to be part of the basic feline vaccines (alongside the rabies vaccine) so I would presume that your veterinarian does vaccinate (and give boosters) with FVRCP.
If you ever have a topic that you'd be interested in having covered in a future video, don't hesitate to say so! I am always happy to add it to my list of future topics.
Thanks for the video. I've been taking care of my cat for the past couple of days and trying to help her congestion with a vaporizer.
I hope your cat recovers well 💜 thank you for the lovely comment, it's very appreciated
@@VetMedCorner Thanks for the well wishes. She recovered from her URI and so energetic
Thank you
Thank you! We watched this while giving Little Miss Marmalade* her morning eye drops and weirdly even though she now knows a lot more about the science, it didn't make her suddenly love getting the eye drops--so strange! 😹
I do now actually remember watching this in the past and of course forgetting about it because my brain is a sieve, but it was the lysine that reminded me! I only know of it from human medicine (in Europe, maybe Canada too, you can buy ibuprofen+lysine that's marketed as faster acting and maybe it's placebo but I swear it works better). It's good to know there have been enough studies now in animals to show that it isn't necessary/helpful for URIs. Always nice to be able to stick with only what works...and cheaper, too!
*She is one of the somewhat rare orange girl cats, hence the name! She's so pretty and soft, and once she's big enough for her enucleation and spay, she's gonna thrive in her forever home. She's sweet and beautiful and so soft, I can't wait to see her glow-up! 😻
I think that's an amazing name for her! I hope that she grows and heals well and I hope that her pain medication is keeping her comfortable throughout the process too. She's lucky to have you caring for her!
Oh my, I just kind of found this video and listened. My cat has had drainage from her eyes for years and all the vets that have seen her basically said oh it just happens with some cats and there's really nothing to do about it. Except on my last visit, the that that saw her said put her on l-lysine. So I've just finished a first tube of it. I think it might be a little bit better. I don't see as much drainage. But from watching your video now I'm thinking wow she's not even on the right medication for this. She is 16 years old now. And a wonderful kitty.
It would likely be worth consulting a veterinary ophthalmologist for your cat.
I'm so glad you found VMC - welcome ☺️
Since we've had our 2 kittens a year ago we've been at the vet many times for respitory issues. It's so sad that one of them had a chronic stuffy nose and small eyes from a cold. We were advised to give lysine and they got rounds of anti viral. Nothing seems to work but they never told us if it should be herpes or something else. Gonna try to test them for all the other options you gave in this video!
There are times where a GP veterinarian has done what they are able to, so you may need to consult a veterinary ophthalmologist and a veterinary internal medicine specialist for the next steps of a diagnostic work up.
I hope a successful treatment plan is able to be implemented for your two cats.
@@VetMedCorner what if you can not efford a vet, how do you treat them
my cat has the upper respiratory infections. I helped to suck out the discharges from her mouth. Will I get her URI?
Hello lysine was recommended from my vet for feline herpes. 14 yrs old. What are side effects of lysine use? Anticipated and adverse. Ive been giving it, he doesn’t seem to like it. Does it need to be given with food?
i got lysine treats off amazon and it clear my cats cold and or herpes virus just fine vet would not give antibioatics just told about the treats
How long would it be active on their food they have been eating or should it be thrown away,?
Hello! Thanks for the question - but I can't try answer with the information given in your comment. What are you referring to?
What should i do ? What medicine should i give my kitty which is 3 months old . My vet isnt helping at all . One of my kitties even died..
If your veterinarian has done what they are able to, then you may need to see another veterinarian or an internal medicine specialist.
@@VetMedCorner thanks a lot for for your respond . Vets here said my kitties are fine as they are vaccinated . Anything you might want to suggest .
Thanks a lot!
I'm so glad that you found the video helpful 😊
I started to have a bit cough now.
As cats can get SARS-CoV-2 it would be advisable that you talk with your physician and test yourself for that virus.
Here's additional information about SARS-CoV-2 in pets:
th-cam.com/video/mOMELOVPS3s/w-d-xo.htmlsi=-i4AuH1i-JRwmPEq
Remember that if using a rapid test they are more accurate when the back of the throat, cheeks and both nostrils are swabbed. Testing should also be done on every day of symptoms because initially lower levels of virus may not be enough to show a positive test result.
I hope that you and your cat recover quickly and smoothly from whatever is going on and causing the symptoms.
I checked several times if I got SARS-CoV-2. The results were negative. My feline never steps out of home. I still suspect I got cat's flu.@@VetMedCorner
Do you believe L-Lysine is not effective for feline leukemia?
No, lysine is not effective at treating cancer. If your cat has leukemia then you should consult a veterinary oncologist for your best treatment options.
So I just wasted $26 on a tube of maple flavored lysine because there's no benefits....Thanks..LOL
You can ask your veterinarian about trialing it, but it's unlikely to make a significant difference. I'm sorry!
Excellent video. One awkward phrase jumped out at me regarding lysine. You say, "However, now we have a bunch more research into how effective lysine is, and the preponderance of the research does not support the use of lysine." Using the word "effective" in that sentence is the opposite of the point you're making. Editing the script a bit could give you something a little clearer. "However, now we have a bunch more research, and the preponderance of evidence does not support the use of lysine." I know that's super nit-picky, it's just something that caught my attention. You produced a seriously valuable video.
Thank you so much for commenting with your feedback! I appreciate it!
from her nose not mouth. Sorry
And it wasn’t incredibly informative video. Thank you so very very much for that. I have four kittens and a mother that have iron infections and they’re scheduled for the vet in two days. I am certainly hoping it is not the herpes.
PCR test??? You gotta be kidding, OOOOHH MY GOD. go to sleep
This was absolutely no help whatsoever.
This comment wasn't either...
What were you expecting from the video? Would you like to offer some kind, constructive feedback?