Visiting Cat Has Conjunctivitis

This little girl, Roxanne, has been making herself at home lately. We had her confined to one back room but two weeks ago, began letting her into the living room for short periods but not when our cats were in the room (thank goodness for all of the doors.) However, she either caught a virus outside or inside because she's not well. She had watery eyes Sunday; and watery eyes (no discharge) but slightly blood shot in one eye Monday. Watery eyes can mean a fever. Sunday through today I gave her lysine in case it's the herpes virus. And last night and this a.m. I gave her some Buprenex (a pain and fever reducer, anti-inflammatory agent.) I couldn't get her an appointment yesterday at any of the vets we use nor her own (her owner gave me the info) but she has one today with our vet. She didn't appear sick enough for the ER (no diarrhea or vomiting.) Either she caught one and brought it in, or caught a virus from our cats (they have the herpes virus although it's mostly dormant.) If she caught it from our cats, that means the virus can be picked up indirectly through humans (we hold or pet her and our cats) or furniture or cat bedding-anything our cats have lain on that she came into contact. That's not how it's suppose to passed on. It shouldn't be through bedding that a cat hasn't touched in a few hours. It's supposed to be through shared litter boxes, and food and water bowls, or grooming/cat fights. She's not come into direct contact with our cats nor their litter boxes nor food bowls. We also don't share syringes with her and she has her own bottle of immune liquid. So, we will see how many tests she has today and what they confirm.

Let's see how today goes. I'm hoping her vet will tell our vet what shots and tests she has had. We will test her for everything today and get any further shots in the future when she's better. And I'll have to ask the vet if our cats now need other shots. Typically-if you have a cat when it's a kitten-a kitten gets all sorts of shots and boosters against FLV, FIP, leukemia, etc. If a cat is an indoor cat, it only needs distemper and rabies going forward as an adult. If you don't know if your adult cat has had any of those shots, you should get them for the adult cat if it's going out. So, we will see.

Of course, our HCM cats may only need rabies and distemper and should be indoor cats. And our HCM cats may not be able to get even those two vaccines if they are not doing well because their bodies and immune systems are already compromised (Myrna stopped receiving hers in 2013 because the cardio ruled against it when Myrna was having a difficult summer, a difficulty that would increase over time. So, it was never a good time to get them. But luckily, she never got sick from distemper.)

I'll let you know more later after the vet visit.

Jimmy Stewart Develops Conjunctivitis in Eyes-May Be Part of Herpes Virus

June 15, 2016

The cats are prone to the herpes virus flare-ups because they were exposed to the virus as kittens. We give them daily lysine but it still flared up and caused Jimmy Stewart to have conjunctivitis in both eyes. We had a visitor stay with us over the weekend and Jimmy was the only one to hide out in the basement all weekend. If the virus was already acting up but not noticeable, it's possible the stress from the visitor caused a flareup. 

Jimmy Stewart had a lot of grey goop in his eyes, had vomited, had diarrhea, wouldn't eat, and was run down. They are prone to the herpes virus, he most of all (he was the first to get it as a kitten and was the sickest.)  I will give them all extra lysine in case it is the herpes virus coming back.


Jimmy Stewart update: herpes virus causing conjunctivitis. Slight fever, slight dehydration. Now on daily antibiotics, eye drops, was given a cerenia shot to calm stomach from vomiting. And we have Mirtazapine and Cerenia pills to use as needed. He unfortunately was not well behaved at the vet and threw a fit during blood draw-just when I thought he was weak from the illness. He came home, rested. Seems worn out today (6/1616) but the eyes are less goopy. Eating fine. Blood work was normal.

Cat Develops Conjuctivitis in Eye, Has Ugly Grey/Green Discharge, and Upper Respiratory Infection

Katharine Hepburn

In other cat news, Katharine Hepburn woke up today with watery eyes and thick, grey discharge, and blood shot eyes. A form of conjunctivitis but what is the cause?  We saw the vet.  She has a resurgence of the herpes virus which is causing upper respiratory illness.   One of the things the distemper shot does is provides protection from the herpes virus.  But upper respiratory is thought to be caused by the herpes virus so getting her vaccine didn't prevent a resurgence of the virus. They were all exposed as kittens and the first to be exposed got the sickest based on when they were spayed/neutered back in 2009.  But later in '09, Katharine came down with uveitis, an inflammation of the eye that presents with blood, etc.  That was a huge deal but corrected with two eye drops and some pills.  No other cat came down with it or any additional upper respiratory attacks-although Jimmy kept getting sick with diarrhea and vomiting on a regular monthly cycle, at which point, after almost a year, I realized that there was a cycle (some months it was worse and other months it was barely there but when I looked over my notes, I realized it happened at the same time of the month).  So we began giving him lysine every day, which solved the problem. They have all since been getting lysine daily and Katharine daily since the uveitis.

So, today, drops in the eye and UV light to check the health of the eye and look for signs of uveitis-all clear; blood and fecal test (I took in a sample just in case-test negative for parasites) antibiotic eye drops for the discharge; sub q fluids because she's dehydrated but NO fever which is very good; home fluid support by mouth and a little bit of food at a time to make sure she keeps it down (she vomited this a.m.) and they gave anti nausea shot. We will give more lysine, also.

As for the others and especially Myrna??? By now they've all been exposed so we are to keep a close watch. Give water by mouth and something like tuna juice by mouth if they vomit or won't eat. Bring them in if eye discharge, won't eat longer than one day, lethargic, etc. or sneezing, cough, runny nose.

How did this happen? Apparently, it just does. Could have come from any cat this past week which picked it up at the vet and brought it home and she could just be more susceptible. We could bring it in the house.   Or it just happened.  Luckily, I didn't let it go long without vet treatment. Remember, eye discharge, nose, sneezing, coughing-all need immediate vet care before the cat becomes sicker.