Domestics or Russian Blue?

So, you’re pregnant or you or a member of your family has been diagnosed with an auto-immune deficiency disease. And “everyone knows” that neither of these groups can have a cat in the house because you will contract toxoplasmosis, right? So of course you’ll have to find a new home for Kitty or at the very least, put her outside.

Wrong. Although this disease can be dangerous to certain populations, it can only be contracted in a very specific manner. Using a sensible set of guidelines and keeping Kitty indoors will virtually eliminate the possibility of your contracting toxoplasmosis from your feline companion.

Cats do not naturally carry the toxoplasmosis virus. They have to acquire it from somewhere – usually from rodents or birds that they catch. The cat then sheds infected cysts in their feces and these cysts must have contact with air for at least one day for the organism to then be dangerous. Contact with these infected feces may result in a person at risk contracting toxoplasmosis. The only way for a human to contract toxoplasmosis from a cat is by exposure to feces containing these cysts.

Therefore persons at risk for contracting toxoplasmosis should follow these common sense guidelines.

· Keep your cat indoors where her exposure to any animal carrying the virus is minimal

· Have someone else change the litterbox or wear gloves while cleaning the box and clean it daily

· Wash hands thoroughly after cleaning the litterbox.

Want to learn more about cats and toxoplasmosis? We would like to suggest the following link

http://www.cfainc.org/health/toxo-pregnancy.html
(The Cat Fanciers’ Association report on toxoplasmosis and pregnancy)



Contributed by Teresa Keiger