Baby Noel rescued Dec 2007
Noel near death when rescued
We rescued Noel and Constance from Last Chance Cat Rescue at PetSmart during Christmas 2007. I started the adoption process in November, but they put us through a tremendously long wait (which I think was crazy). We had to wait almost a month. By the time we got them home, both kittens were sick and Noel was critically ill. Noel had an extreme case of feline Herbes. She required a tremendous amout of medicine and attention. She was about 9 months old and had never been held or played with that we could tell. When you rescue, you just really don’t know their stories.
Feline Herbes attacks the respiratory system and the eyes. We were not sure if she would be blind. So, for almost 2 months, I held her and gave her medicine, and we taught her how to play with cat toys. It was a long process, but slowly, month after month, she grew stronger and larger and more playful. Now Noel is the biggest cat in the herd and has become the leader. I still pick her up and hold her like a baby (even though she protests for a moment). She rarely lets anyone else near her, but even that, after 5 years, is getting better.
I have been told that Herpes infection is extremely common in young kittens, especially if they are stressed from fleas, poor nutrition, environmental cold, etc. Young kittens can produce so much ocular discharge that their eyes gum closed sealing the infected secretions around the eye. In severe cases, the eye could rupture and become permanently blinded. Treatment is crucial. That is the situation we had with Noel.
Herpes virus as a group are highly dependent on the presence of an amino acid called arginine. WIthout arginine, Herpes cannot reproduce. So I immediately put Noel on Lysine, which is also an amino acid, that is taken up by the virus in favor of arginine. You can take advantage of this situation and saturate the virus with lysine and thus suppress the virus’ ability to replicate. I bought lysine at the health food store in a capsule I opened and put in her food; just make sure that the formula is free of the preservative ‘propylene glycol,’ as cats can have blood reactions against that compound (wow, what we learn when our animals are sick). She also was on Clavomox and Vibramycin. Please seek a Vet’s knowledge on this!
Noel 2008 (1 yr later)
Noel in the window 2011
Look at Noel today! Other than being a nose breather (just like me) and having a scratch on her left cornea, she has no long term side effects that we are aware of. 75% of the rescues that come to us seem to be sick when we get them home. We know that it is a lot of work but Noel, and also Mr. Moto (a guinea pig story for another day) would never had made it, if not for them finding us and telling us they wanted to come home forever and be our special pets.
Just another CatDogDay morning at the zoo ❤ 
DogDaz Zoo 