What affects us affects cats
Most of Kansas has been declared a high risk for West Nile Virus (WNV) and the disease has been reported in domestic animals including cats. I think this is a risk worth mentioning. I don’t know how commonly domestic cats are infected but there is a risk. It is also present in other areas …
Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada: A cat has been diagnosed with Q fever, a bacterial infection (Coxiella burnetii). Until today I hadn’t heard of domestic cats being infected with Q fever. It commonly affects farm animals such as goats, sheep and cattle. Farm workers can catch it from their animals so it is zoonotic (transmits …
The first point that should be said is that this is a very rare case but I think it needs to be discussed. In less than 5% of people infected by the bacteria Bartonella henselae the person develops generalised signs such as fever, fatigue, headache and loss of appetite but rarer still internal organs …
A twenty-three-year-old man living in Belgium suffered from erectile dysfunction because he had been scratched by a cat at his home – that’s the diagnosis. We don’t know whether the cat belonged to him or somebody else. Importantly, we don’t know where the cat scratched him! It invokes an interesting image in one’s mind …
If you search Google for “cats on kitchen counters” you bring up a series of pages on how to keep cats off kitchen counters. That’s the default position. There is little discussion about why, on a scientific basis, cats should be kept off kitchen worksurfaces. Of course the reason is about hygiene. However, 35% …
A Japanese woman has died of a tick-borne disease believed to have been caused by bite from a stray cat. This is serious cat news from Japan. It is unexpected. It is perhaps the first case of this kind of mammal to human transmission. But it is not yet certain. It has been reported …
You may have read about this: a drug resistant bacteria (a Salmonella strain) has been detected in a cat. And they say it can be transmitted to people but (a) how did the cat acquire this bacteria (b) why is it drug resistant (c) how can it be transmitted to people – bacteria are …
A 70-year-old pensioner developed sepsis because she let her dog lick her frequently. The lady ended up in intensive care in hospital. She had multiple organ failure. She survived. She contracted a bacterial infection from her dog’s saliva. Bacteria, it is thought, in her dog’s mouth, had been passed to the lady when he …
