Laurie, I totally agree with you about herpes and stress level. I told you folks about the rescued Persian, Snowy, I adopted. She was a very sick girl for 2 months and the foster mom got her healthy. Her eyes were swollen shut and she also had a URI. Since we've had her we have done everything humanly possible to make her life happy and stress free and she is absolutely thriving. Her one eye apparently has a bit of scarring but you would never know this poor little thing ever had a problem. We have had to delay her spaying because we discovered she had a toenail that had grown into her pad and needed surgery. She was so hysterical at the vets that she needed to be sedated. There was fear of her losing her one pad but she's recovered beautifully and on her return visit to the vet he was amazed that new skin was growing and after two weeks now there is a very small black scab left. She also was a perfect little lady at the return visit unlike the first time when the vet referred to her as a very bad kitty. Good diet and a stress free life are so important to these cats. She is now on L-lysine as a supplement as you suggested. I don't know if she really needs it but it certainly doesn't hurt. I so hope things continue to go as well as they have for her. She seems to be the happiest, most playful cat we've ever had.
Lynne ----- Original Message ----- From: laurieskatz To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 9:44 PM Subject: Re: New Member Welcome Laura and Laura! L- lysine is great for herpes. You might want to join the feline herpes group, too. Those kitties can have eye and mouth problems. Winston (probable herpes) also has unexplained high fevers and anorexia on rare occasions - it is touch and go at those time. For herpes, the main thing to to keep their stress level low (for FeLV, too). The feline acne group has lots of info on allergies (the fur loss could be allergies or stress grooming). Check out www.catinfo.org for food info. This site belongs to a veterinarian who also does rescue. She likes Wellness and suggests the grain free diets. The best food I have found for mine is Petguard turkey and barley lite. All five like it and all seem to be thriving on it. Of course, it does have grains. I feed it because Frankie had panreatitis and needed a low fat food. Good luck and I hope others may have more insight into your combination of issues.... (ps my Frankie is blind) Laurie ----- Original Message ----- From: Belinda Sauro To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 7:30 PM Subject: New Member I'm posting for Laura because she can't subscribe, list problems, Jim is working on them. You can post on the list to answer she is going to read the archives for answers! Her message is below: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi All, I've tried subscribing to this list but for some reason the form won't go through. I've sent an e-mail to the list holder. I figured for now, I'll just read from the archives but would like to introduce myself to you all :) My name is Laura, I live in Jersey and currently have 7 wonderful kitties. My newest family member is FeLV+, 2 years old, and also named Laura, (I'll fill you in on that in a bit) she is blind (very bad herpes infection as a kitten) has one bad eye and the other was removed last year. Her background: About 2 years ago my neighbor and I had to "clean up" a colony down the street from us of about 50 cats and kittens, we had them all "fixed", some were TNR'd and the adoptables were given to a local rescue to find homes. I fostered all the kittens except 2 which who went straight to my vets office since they had eye issues, and I knew the rescue I deal with would not take them and try to place them. The kittens were named Laura and Dave, and tested Neg for FeLV. About a 3rd of this colony tested Pos, so we knew it was in the colony...but all the kittens were testing Neg. I ended up keeping one of the kittens (Rusty) and had him tested 3 times, because one of the kittens we adopted out later tested positive when the family vet tested her. Anyway, Laura and Dave lived at my vets for the past 2 years with several other cats. My vet took Dave home several months ago and Laura started having problems with a new cat that was bullying her. I found out about it and offered to take Laura, since I already have a blind cat and have no problem with it. I brought her home and put her in a room with a screen door, so she could smell my other cats and get to know them without any issues, plus I work long hours and didn't want her wandering around my house unsupervised yet. My vet had sent out an IFA test for Laura just to be sure she was Neg, at my request. Well, it came back positive. She then did snap tests on cats that were living with Laura and 2 were also positive (ironically the bully is pos too). She also tested Dave who is living with her and he was pos. So, for now I'm keeping Laura in her own room with the screen door, I also put up a baby gate so that she can't dart out when I go in and out of the room, that would be disastrous when I'm leaving for work at 5:30 am....I just don't have time. Aside from the FeLV, Laura also has herpes, and has lots of bald patches which my vet thinks is from the stress of living with the bully. I'm not so sure, so I put her on Wellness instead of the crappy fancy feast she was eating to see if it might be food related? I don't know, I'm hoping in time, she'll settle in and her fur will grow back, she is a beautiful tortie. That's our story, sorry so long! I just wanted to say hello and ask if you all had any advice, especially when it comes to food for these kitties....Since I have Laura confined, I can feed her anything. I'm going to start putting L-lysine in her food for the herpes but is there anything else I should be giving her? I don't want to throw too much at her at once, her stools are lovely and I don't want to mess that up, and also want to see how her coat reacts to these small changes. Thanks in advance~! Laura -- Belinda happiness is being owned by cats ... Be-Mi-Kitties http://www.bemikitties.com HostDesign4U.com [affordable hosting & web design] http://www.hostdesign4u.com ForYouByUs.com [custom printing] http://www.foryoubyus.com
