Colds in Cats

My 12-year old (non-diabetic), Lucy, has been "sneezing" lately. She licks her nose afterward, but I don't see any discharge. In her sleep she snores heavily. However, her other activities are OK -- eating, toilet habits and roaming the back garden.

I've had so many vet bills lately that I hate to run to the office if this is something similar to a human cold, which will just take time to cure. On the other hand, of course, I don't want to endanger her health.

Any suggestions?

Kathleen & Fred & Lucy

 

L-lysine. You can pick this up where they sell vitamins or usually get the powder form in health food stores. If you get the pills, you will need to crush it using a pill crusher.

Give it daily and that helps with the cold. Also, if you have any other cats, give it to them to help reduce the spread of the URI.

 

Really!! I actually have some on hand - 500 mg pills. Just one pill per day? Or according to weight? Will they eat the food if the pill is mixed in?

Great information. Thanks!

Kathleen & Fred & Lucy

 

I usually give one pill a day and crush it into their food. They don't seem to notice that it is in there.

 

Thanks again. I'll start it right away!

Kathleen & Fred & Lucy

 

Make sure to read the ingredients in the l-lysine you have and make sure it does not have propylene glycol in it. Apparently it is not good for kitties.

 

Mine is a CVS brand "Natural L-Lysine 500 mg." Says it's for tissue maintenance, so I don't know why it's good for kitty colds.

Anyway, the other ingredients are Cellulose(plant origin), Croscarmellose, Vegetable Stearic Acid, Cellulose Coating, Silica, Vegetable Magnesium Stearate. None of these make much sense to me, but I don't see that bad stuff on the label.

I think Lucy "found" the crushed up 1/2 pill in her mid-day snack. She left most of the food!! UGH!!

Kathleen & Fred & Lucy

 

l-lysine blocks a protein that is needed for the replication of the virus that causes most cold symptoms in kitties ... I actually didn't really know what it did for humans :lol:

 

Try splitting the dose in half - 250 mg AM/PM maybe she won't notice it then. When Tigger had his very first URI last fall I saw results within three days (he got it from some visiting kitties).

BTW you don't have to give it all the time. Just when you see symptoms of a cold starting. Here is great thread on a study that Lynda and Scruffy posted on the old board - you would have to go to the thread to see the rest of the comments - I just posted one:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/phorum5/r ... sg-1933967

lysine research....
Posted by: lynda and scruffy (IP Logged)
Date: November 30, 2009 01:12PM


Posted on Facebook today by the Winn research foundation:



Lysine for Feline Upper Respiratory Tract Disease
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Drazenovich, T. L., A. J. Fascetti, et al. (2009). "Effects of dietary lysine supplementation on upper respiratory and ocular disease and detection of infectious organisms in cats within an animal shelter." Am J Vet Res 70(11): 1391-400.

Feline herpesvirus (FHV) is a common cause of respiratory infections in cats housed in shelter situations. Cats latently infected with feline herpesvirus are important sources of the virus for cats that are susceptible to infection. Medications that interfere with latency establishment or reactivation of latent infections would be extremely useful, especially in rescue facilities, where animals are often highly stressed, and have variable vaccination history and immune status. Lysine has shown promise in mediating antiviral effects in cats. These researchers investigated the usefulness of dietary supplementation with lysine for cats in shelters to decrease incidence of infection and detection of FHV shedding. Using 261 adult cats, basal diets (control group) and diets supplemented with lysine (treated group) were fed for four weeks. Unexpectedly, they found that treated cats were actually more likely to manifest severe disease than untreated controls at certain time points in the study (week 4). In addition, FHV was detected more commonly in treated cats (found in week 2 only). A confounding factor was that cats in both groups were also allowed access to commercial diets when hospitalized for illness in addition to the control and test diets. The researchers concluded that continuous dietary supplementation with lysine did not successfully control respiratory disease in a shelter situation, and is not an optimal use of funds in rescue facilities. Bolus treatment of cats with lysine may provide better plasma lysine levels than continuous dietary supplementation, and may provide more beneficial effects. (bolding mine)
>>PubMed Abstract

Related articles:
Maggs, D. J., J. E. Sykes, et al. (2007). "Effects of dietary lysine supplementation in cats with enzootic upper respiratory disease." J Feline Med Surg 9(2): 97-108.
>>PubMed Abstract

Rees, T. M. and J. L. Lubinski (2008). "Oral supplementation with L-lysine did not prevent upper respiratory infection in a shelter population of cats." J Feline Med Surg 10(5): 510-3.
>>PubMed Abstract


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Re: lysine research....
Posted by: Cassandra and Sasha (IP Logged)
Date: November 30, 2009 03:15PM

The same has been found to be true in humans using lysine to stop viral replication. It's best to only take when noticing the symptoms of a flare rather than all the time. For whatever reason, the body needs time off in between or it becomes used to the supplementation.

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