It’s not often that we get a good look at Simon’s baby blues underneath all his fur – but when we do, it makes us happy to see them. We got Simon in 2003 from the local animal control shelter after someone turned him in as a stray cat. His intake sheet described him as a “blind 10-year old Himalayan”. (The shelter assumed he was blind because his eyes had a solid white milky appearance – his pupils weren’t even visible.) To add to Simon’s misery, he was covered with fleas and had a sore on his nose. The fleas were easy to treat – with a couple doses of Revolution -- but the eyes and nose would foil us for some time to come.
Diagnosing the problem proved a challenge. The lab results from an eye-scraping were inconclusive, so we tried a “shotgun” approach to treatment -- applying ophthalmic drops to his eyes 3 times a day as well as antibiotics and steroids twice a day. In spite of this, the nose sore continued to bleed intermittently and the eyes continued to secrete pinkish pus, but since the condition had stabilized, we continued the treatment.
Then one day -- when applying drops to his eyes -- we noticed Simon’s right eye now looked like a raw meatball. We whisked him back to the vet and were immediately referred to an ophthalmologist. On the long drive there we assumed Simon would lose the eye -- but once at the clinic -- we learned he was only suffering from an extreme herpes virus outbreak. The red eye was blind but he still had some vision in the other – and through a regimented treatment plan -- both eyes would recover.
For a few weeks, Simon needed round-the-clock care. Eye drops, artificial tears, anti-virals, antibiotics – all given multiple times a day with 30-minute spacing between the drops -- so that one application didn’t wash out the other. In a few weeks time, the eyes quieted down, the pupils reappeared, and Simon could see normally again. Unfortunately, the virus would flare up again every 6 months or so for the next several years – requiring a repeat of the round-the-clock treatment. During the quiet periods, Simon still needed l-lysine supplements and artificial tears twice daily. His last major outbreak was almost two years ago. Since then we’ve added a steroid drop twice a week and that seems to provide more complete control of the virus.
Where did Simon get herpes? Herpes is one of the most common upper respiratory viruses that afflict cats – and the bane of these viruses is that after they get the virus – even in a mild form – it can lie dormant on the cat’s body only to fester again during stressful times. The virus can even pass from mother to kitten at birth. For Simon– losing his home would have been a major stressor and could have triggered the first outbreak. Then moving to our cat farm and living with other cats could have been another stressor playing a role in the subsequent outbreaks.
He’s only had one major outbreak since we closed our retirement program to new cats. This could be the added medication or it could be the lowering of his stress level by stabilizing his home– whichever – something has pushed the virus back into dormancy – and we’ll do our best to make sure it stays there. Simon’s eyes are much too pretty to be clouded by a nasty disease.
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