#fhv

[doctordobailey]

Penny - (Main House)

Lunch time hang with Penny! 😎🤙

I’m sure you’re wondering what’s up with her eyes? Penny has Feline Herpes Virus (FHV) that causes colds and eye issues in cats. It is NOT contagious to people or dogs, only other cats. Once infected, they’re lifelong carriers and can experience symptom flare-ups during times of illness or stress. Penny was brought to us in the spring of this year after her family unfortunately lost their housing. The stress of the transition caused poor Penny’s third eye lids to become inflamed and protrude. She has been seen by the vet and is currently being treated for this flare-up 💕 I’ll share more on this gorgeous girl’s story in future posts, including a peek at what Penny was like when she first arrived, so make sure you follow for updates! 

[ask-a-vetblr]

My cat has FHV, and my vet, whom I've had for two years now and knows my void has FHV, just prescribed a steaming pile of pseudoscience to help my cat with a problem he doesn't have.

He doesn't have chronic flare ups. A couple times a year, one of his eyes will swell for 24-48 hours and go back down, with no treatment necessary. No sinus, snot, or breathing issues, just an unhappy eye.

He prescribed 1,000 mg a day of lysine. Lysine is supposed to inhibit arginine production so the virus can't replicate.

The problem is that every study I've read shows lysine does nothing to inhibit arginine.

One study said that roughly 87% of veterinary hospitals questioned had recommended lysine to cat owners.

I feel like I can't trust my veterinarian now. I don't feel like he is up to date and I don't feel like he actually knows what my pet needs, and I don't want to go back. What do you know about lysine?

vet-and-wild here.

My clinic uses it too. I hadn’t heard of it before I started here but now I’ve sent it home with some owners. The evidence does seem to be kind of iffy, but it’s the sort of thing that it isn’t gonna hurt and could help. So if someone wants to use it, I don’t really have a reason to say no. The newest recommendations for both canine and feline respiratory disease (basically herpes and kennel cough) is not to give antibiotics unless certain symptoms/severity are seen. So mild cases may end up going home with no meds or anything. Some owners don’t like that, so I usually phrase it as “well there’s some thought that this may reduce the incidence/severity of flare ups and it’s quite benign; wanna try it?” Anecdotally, a lot of vets feel that it does help.

We do our best to always be up to date on the latest science but we certainly have our own biases. It doesn’t necessarily mean that any other treatment your vet provides is not good. It’s a very similar situation to canned pumpkin, actually. Ever had your vet recommend canned pumpkin to firm up a dog’s stools? Turns out a lot of it is placebo effect! However, many vets that have been using things like lysine or pumpkin probably have many many cases that they look back on and say “hey this treatment may have helped and it was safe to give”. That makes it pretty appealing to offer again. So using something affordable and safe for mild flare ups doesn’t really bother me because best case scenario it helps, and worse cast scenario nothing changes. It’s when those sort of treatments are used in place of what’s actually needed that to becomes a problem. So if the cat developed pneumonia secondarily and was only given an herbal remedy instead of, you know, antibiotics.

[fiorenovella]

Jack: guys i can't curse in the new season :(

Jack, not even a few minutes later: *curses*

[isee-weirdthings]

Here's a clean white board pic from the last video waiting for you guys to get creative. What is Jack smacking?

[angieartness]

Did... Did I remember to remind you to draw today?? I can't remember??? Well just in case, DRAW TODAY! (this has been your daily [hopefully only one today] "yell at me to draw" ask ;v;)

LIKE A BOSS!!

.

[homeybadger]

Jacksepticeye's FHV

"One happiness scatters a thousand sorrows"

- Chinese proverb

(Just some of my favorite screenshots from Jack's FHV series)

[nekob00]

Everyone else is posting LAUGH memes and I’m just sneaking in like

[happyhealthycats]

Simcoe and Citra

These girls have been making their rounds on tumblr for a while. Mostly Citra for her endearing honk-meow. I figured it’s time to put in an update!

I will say that their origin gets a little sad. While I don’t normally cling to the “all shelter animals have a sad life” (Heimdall didn’t. Sif didn’t.) These girls absolutely had a rough start in this world. But I promise there’s a happy ending.

My husband and I bought a house and had a wonderful roommate who lived with us. She brought her cat, who got along with our cats wonderfully. When she moved out, we felt a bit of a hole in our hearts where our previous roommate cat had been. We contemplated adopting another cat. We were no longer in our apartment, and our local laws didn’t have any stipulation on the amount of cats you could keep inside (outside of serious instances where Animal Control is required, but 3 was hardly near that limit). So we thought about it.

As always, we went to get some food for Heimdall and Sif, and in the window were these two beautiful orange girls who were snuggling together as closely as possible.

We were told they were Clementine and Savannah, and they were in the store because they had almost no human interaction at 5 months old. They were found outside at 10 weeks, and their foster home kept them in a cage. Their foster had trouble handling them at all, so they just left them in the cage with their food and didn’t touch them or interact with them at all. They were only touched to get ringworm medicine (which they had a rather nasty case of), and other upper respiratory medication. So their only human interaction was stressful on them. Putting them in the store was the last ditch effort to get them used to people so they could realistically be pets and not just terrified of everyone.

In the cage, Savannah allowed us to pet her when she ate. Clementine would not approach us at all. We asked to see Savannah in their meeting room.

She hid and hissed at us the entire time. Hair on end, ears flat, completely terrified. But I saw something in her while she was in that cage where she had spent so much time. Savannah had the ability to warm up, she just needed the time and patience to help her. 

We couldn’t decide if we wanted to adopt her though. It would take a lot of work, and they would probably NEVER be comfortable with people. My husband and I knew that if we took them home, we would be the ones to feed them and give them places to hide and exist as comfortably as possible. Take them to the vet and care for them. They would never be as friendly as Heimdall or Sif. 

But the Pet Valu manager told us that they were getting out of their cute kitten phase where folks were willing to look past their issues because they were so young. They were already hard to home, but in a few weeks, they’d go back to their foster home permanently. Kept in a cage and kept away from people like feral cats.

So we asked if the girls were a bonded pair. The manager said “Well, Savannah would be okay since you have cats at home. But Clementine would probably decline.”

So without skipping a beat, my husband chimed in with, “Then we’ll take them both.”

They normally didn’t do this, but our friend let us take them home on a foster to adopt 2 week window.

At first, Clementine ran under the bed and stayed there. We made sure food, water, and a litter box was close by for them and just left them alone. Savannah stayed in the carrier, too terrified to even run out and join her sister. But eventually I moved the carrier closer, and Savannah darted under the bed and sat with her sister for HOURS.

But, they would eat and drink after a few hours. We heard them use the litter box in the night. We left them alone and just spent a lot of time in the room with them. We didn’t reach for them, or try and grab them or pet them. Everything was on their terms. As long as they were eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom, they were okay. 

In less than a week, something amazing happened. These two kittens who were so scared of people began to come out of their shells. We couldn’t hold them, but they climbed into the cat tree and made noises in order to get our attention. Savannah did it first. Clementine tried to imitate her sister, but never quite got the hang of it, (and Citra has her wonderful little honk from that).

We thought of names. We just couldn’t think of anything that fit them. But then my husband, an avid beer drinker, suggested “Citra and Simcoe”, after hop variants. Cute names for little orange girls, and it kept the “C” and “S” names from Clementine and Savannah.

With that, they were named. And obviously, they were home with us.

They had a lot of growing to do. After a trip to the vet, we found out that both girls had FHV. Citra was able to eventually shake it after an ear infection, but Simcoe remains symptomatic on and off to this day. We work with our vet to keep her symptoms in check. Sometimes it’s just her being a little sniffly. Sometimes she sneezes. Sometimes she has discharge from her eyes or nose. She’s on some vitamins to help her immune system, and we keep a humidifier for her running all the time.

So how are they now?

I’m honestly still emotional over the huge turn around these amazing girls did. I’ll give you the run down one at a time.

Citra:

Our funny little Citra bear has gotten so much better at looking for human attention. At first, she didn’t want ANY. But now, she approaches our friends for pets, even if she’s not quite sure how to do it. Since she missed that ideal socialization window, she’s a little unsure about how to seek affection. She’ll often lean her head forward in that typical “head-butt” way, but while doing that she’ll walk away. She’s still skittish when it comes to people, but she will stand on the table and honk at you until you reach your hand out and let her try and pet herself on your hand.

However, she absolutely ADORES the other cats in the house. When we finally introduced them (slowly, slowly OH so slowly) to the other cats, she immediately gravitated towards Heimdall and Sif. She became fast friends with Heimdall, while remaining absolute best friends with her sister. They sleep, play, and groom together so well. As I type this Citra is laying with both Heimdall AND Seymour on the bed. 

Citra also has an A+ blep, along with just being incredibly silly. She’s an absolute joy.

Simcoe:

Our shy little girl has become a huge snuggle bug. She sleeps with us every single night and she absolutely loves being touched and pet. She’s very shy around people who aren’t my husband or I. But I tell people who visit if they want to see Simcoe, just come into the bedroom, close the door, and sit down on the floor. Sooner or later, she’ll come over and rub up against you. She requires a gentle voice and a gentle touch, but she was so starved for affection I feel like she’s making up for it now that she knows she’s safe.

I mentioned her health, and because she’s so sick, sometimes she gets too nauseated to eat from being congested. And, as I said before, we’ve worked very hard with our vet to get Simcoe to the best weight she can be and keeping her as healthy as possible. One of her triggers for FHV is stress, and with such a skittish cat, it’s very difficult. However, living in a cage would have been infinitely worse for this wonderful girl.

Simcoe has the sweetest expressive eyes. Sometimes I just sit down and pet her for so long because I remember how happy she was when she finally let us touch her. She was so starved for attention and when she finally got it, she didn’t want it to stop (it never will).

Citra and Simcoe are still each other’s best friends. They sleep together, play together, groom each other, share their food (they have separate bowls but they will just switch back and forth). 

I’m always so proud to see how far these amazing little cats have come. Simcoe used to hiss at me when I put her food down. Citra never made noise before coming to live with us. It was worth every single long hour waiting for them to get comfortable enough to eat with me in the same room. Or being willing to walk down the hallway and go into the kitchen. Or finally rolling over and showing us their bellies.

These girls are the ones that inspired me to get my certification. 

We took a chance on them, and they were their own beautiful reward.