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- Oct 4, 2013
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I made an appointment last Friday for Simba to see the vet because the condition of his eyes had not improved since he was prescribed general antibiotics a couple months ago and his gums looked like they were getting redder. I have both "good" news and bad news.
The good news is the vet said he doesn't actually have gingivitis, despite my concern that he was actually starting to develop periodontitis. His gums are much redder than they've been in his whole life and I even thought his gums might me receding a bit around a couple teeth. I guess their gums can just change color without anything being seriously wrong, though. His breath is bad but not rotten, so that's good. He's also a healthy 10 lbs, 12 oz!
The bad new is he was diagnosed with feline herpes, which I actually began to suspect when I noticed the antibiotics weren't working and I looked up diseases that can causes his symptoms. It seems I'm really good at figuring out what's wrong with my cats, as I've been right 3 out of 4 times when I suspected illness. I was already giving him L-lysine treats before the diagnosis and was given an L-lysine paste from the vet on Friday. It smells like Waffle Crisp! It says it's "very palatable" but Simba hates it. He knows I'd never do anything to hurt him so he struggles but takes it, anyway.
We got all three of our kittens from a shelter and all were sick when we got them. I suspect that the survivor of our two original kittens may have transmitted the herpes to Simba via play-fighting, litter box use, sharing their food and water dishes, or mutual grooming. She sneezes a lot and constantly produces a relatively large amount of thick mucus under both her lower eyelids and some nasal mucus that crusts on the outer edges of her nostrils. I wipe her eyes away multiple times a day and her nose a couple times a week. Those appear to be her only symptoms, as well as having an upper respiratory infection diagnosed within a month after we brought her home, as did Simba when we got him about 3 weeks later. She and her sister were underweight, but Nala got to a healthy weight once we got her URI under control. Given that information, I don't think it's out of the question to think Nala also has feline herpes.
Ebony, the one kitten that did not survive, could have been severely immuno-compromised if she were infected with feline herpes, right? She had diarrhea, sneezing and mucusy eyes with a runny nose from the day we brought her home and she did not bury her excrement most of the time, though, she did go in the litter box. She barely grew and was severely underweight by the 10th day we had her, which is when we had to put her to sleep.
Here are a couple photos you can use to compare the sizes of Nala and Ebony, who were sisters from the same litter and approximately 8 weeks of age when we brought them home. Ebony is on the top in the top photo and on the right in the bottom photo. She weighed just over a pound when we put her to sleep and was roughly 10 weeks old, less than half the weight she should have been.
Here are a few very recent photos of Simba, looking very healthy, despite his illness. :3
he's a very big boy with a large, thick skull and neck, giant paws, and a 12.5 inch long semi-fluffy tail thats extremely flexible.
Here's one to show how broad he is. Simba has a huge ass...
Here are a couple photos of Nala from the other day, when she was cuddling on my bed. She is very active and affectionate, showing only a couple symptoms of illness. She weighs around 8 lbs and has a petite frame and features. She's gotten slightly chunky compared to how she used to look, but I'll take slightly chunky and healthy over underweight and sickly, any day!
The good news is the vet said he doesn't actually have gingivitis, despite my concern that he was actually starting to develop periodontitis. His gums are much redder than they've been in his whole life and I even thought his gums might me receding a bit around a couple teeth. I guess their gums can just change color without anything being seriously wrong, though. His breath is bad but not rotten, so that's good. He's also a healthy 10 lbs, 12 oz!
The bad new is he was diagnosed with feline herpes, which I actually began to suspect when I noticed the antibiotics weren't working and I looked up diseases that can causes his symptoms. It seems I'm really good at figuring out what's wrong with my cats, as I've been right 3 out of 4 times when I suspected illness. I was already giving him L-lysine treats before the diagnosis and was given an L-lysine paste from the vet on Friday. It smells like Waffle Crisp! It says it's "very palatable" but Simba hates it. He knows I'd never do anything to hurt him so he struggles but takes it, anyway.
We got all three of our kittens from a shelter and all were sick when we got them. I suspect that the survivor of our two original kittens may have transmitted the herpes to Simba via play-fighting, litter box use, sharing their food and water dishes, or mutual grooming. She sneezes a lot and constantly produces a relatively large amount of thick mucus under both her lower eyelids and some nasal mucus that crusts on the outer edges of her nostrils. I wipe her eyes away multiple times a day and her nose a couple times a week. Those appear to be her only symptoms, as well as having an upper respiratory infection diagnosed within a month after we brought her home, as did Simba when we got him about 3 weeks later. She and her sister were underweight, but Nala got to a healthy weight once we got her URI under control. Given that information, I don't think it's out of the question to think Nala also has feline herpes.
Ebony, the one kitten that did not survive, could have been severely immuno-compromised if she were infected with feline herpes, right? She had diarrhea, sneezing and mucusy eyes with a runny nose from the day we brought her home and she did not bury her excrement most of the time, though, she did go in the litter box. She barely grew and was severely underweight by the 10th day we had her, which is when we had to put her to sleep.
Here are a couple photos you can use to compare the sizes of Nala and Ebony, who were sisters from the same litter and approximately 8 weeks of age when we brought them home. Ebony is on the top in the top photo and on the right in the bottom photo. She weighed just over a pound when we put her to sleep and was roughly 10 weeks old, less than half the weight she should have been.
Here are a few very recent photos of Simba, looking very healthy, despite his illness. :3
he's a very big boy with a large, thick skull and neck, giant paws, and a 12.5 inch long semi-fluffy tail thats extremely flexible.
Here's one to show how broad he is. Simba has a huge ass...
Here are a couple photos of Nala from the other day, when she was cuddling on my bed. She is very active and affectionate, showing only a couple symptoms of illness. She weighs around 8 lbs and has a petite frame and features. She's gotten slightly chunky compared to how she used to look, but I'll take slightly chunky and healthy over underweight and sickly, any day!