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The cat has been an indoor cat for last 8 months, does this mean it couldn't have toxoplasmosis? It eats "Natures Best" dry and wet food, and sometimes "High Life".
What do you think the chances it has Toxo?

2007-10-13 02:00:42 · 5 answers · asked by Blossom 2 in Pets Cats

P.S I am asking because I am 12 weeks pregnant and worried because my friends cat, who I have described scratched me. I have been told you can't get Toxo from a scratch anyway, but it still scares me, I was just wondering of the chances of the cat having Toxo in the first place.

2007-10-13 02:21:09 · update #1

Hi Loz! Hello again! Yeah, I am just totally paranoid, and you have reasured me, you really have. It's just it's all I can think of.....thanks for all your help, you must think I am mad, but it's just I am so worried about my unborn baby. xx

2007-10-13 02:23:37 · update #2

Oh - I forgot to say, it's about 9 / 10 months old.

2007-10-13 02:24:35 · update #3

5 answers

The chances of it getting toxo from commercial catfood is pretty well zero- it is all processed, and it doesn't take terribly high temperatures to kill the organism. How old is the cat? If is adult and was an outdoor cat and a hunter prior to this, then it could have toxoplasmosis. However, as an adult it is very unlikely to be shedding oocysts in its faeces.
ADD: Okay, if it's only 9/10 months old, and has always been an indoor cat, it would be very, very unlikely to have toxo!!

Is this still about your neighbour's cat and your cat scratch? I know you must be stressed, but please trust me when I say that you cannot be infected via a cat scratch!

Like I said to you before, if you've not already had past exposure to toxoplasma, you're far more likely to be infected by eating undercooked meat or by working in the garden and not washing your hands well afterwards than you are by contact with a cat! I wish I could do more to reassure you!

And actually Leu, it is you who is incorrect. Like any other animal, cats may have toxoplasma tissue cysts that remain dormant. If anything occurs to compromise the cat's immunity, the infection can be 'reactivated'. Even with subclinical infection (the main form in cats- clinical illness is rare) antibody titres persist for years following infection.

2007-10-13 02:20:30 · answer #1 · answered by Loz 6 · 1 1

Hi, thought i would add to this post as i myself have caught toxo whilst being 6 months pregnant, and i thought you could only catch it from cats!! how wrong i was, in fact you can catch it from uncooked meats without washing hands proprerly etc.
it can be life threating to unborn baby which was the case in my situation, but since then i have been over careful with handling any raw food aswell as cleaning out my cats litter trays, your best bet is wash your hands very well each time you have to handle raw food and indeed if you have to change any cat litter trays, you will be fine, dont worry.

2007-10-13 12:02:39 · answer #2 · answered by mereidmell 2 · 0 0

Toxoplasmosis comes from eating raw meats that are infected with the virus. Many commercial cat foods are made up of raw, reclaimed animal carcasses. The processing is not necessarily at high enough temperatures for a long enough time to kill the virus.

Toxoplasmosis can lie dormant in a cat's system for months or years. I know this because my cat carried it for many years.

2007-10-13 09:12:24 · answer #3 · answered by anna 7 · 1 2

Cats will only spread Toxoplasma in their feces for a few weeks following infection with the parasite. If your cat has been infected it will simply go away on its own.

I'm uncertain as to why you've listed the types of food your cats eat - this has nothing to do with the disease.

If you allow you cat out just take the usual precautions - cleanliness is the absolute must - but remember you can get this from uncooked meat that people prepare for themselves so much sure there is no cross contamination between food and wash all utensils properly after using them on raw meat.....and wash hands!

2007-10-13 09:11:25 · answer #4 · answered by Leu 4 · 0 3

Ok, what I found on Wikipedia says that only the first infection has the things 'shed', and after that it's not. So you'd have to have a cat who was infected by the thing. Since they say only 2% of cats are shedding it at any one point in time, it's something so rare it's basically offf the charts. I think you can relax. Washing your hands would kill anything on them even if you sifted through the litter box with bare hands. It seems like handling raw meat is a more dangerous way of getting it for humans. Though I suppose you could turn Vegan.
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[edit] Transmission

Life cycle of Toxoplasma gondii.Transmission may occur through:

Ingestion of raw or partly cooked meat, especially pork, lamb, or venison containing Toxoplasma cysts. Infection prevalence in countries where undercooked meat is traditionally eaten, such as France, has been related to this transmission method. Oocysts may also be ingested during hand-to-mouth contact after handling undercooked meat, or from using knives, utensils, or cutting boards contaminated by raw meat.[5]
Ingestion of contaminated cat feces. This can occur through hand-to-mouth contact following gardening, cleaning a cat's litter box, contact with children's sandpits, or touching anything that has come into contact with cat feces.
Drinking water contaminated with Toxoplasma.
Transplacental infection in utero.
Receiving an infected organ transplant or blood transfusion, although this is extremely rare.[5]
The cyst form of the parasite is extremely hardy, capable of surviving exposure to freezing down to −12 degrees Celsius, moderate temperatures and chemical disinfectants such as bleach, and can survive in the environment for over a year. It is, however, susceptible to high temperatures—above 66 degrees Celsius, and is thus killed by thorough cooking, and would be killed by 24 hours in a typical domestic freezer.[6]

Cats excrete the pathogen in their feces for a number of weeks after contracting the disease, generally by eating an infected rodent. Even then, cat feces are not generally contagious for the first day or two after excretion, after which the cyst 'ripens' and becomes potentially pathogenic. Studies have shown that only about 2% of cats are shedding oocysts at any one time, and that oocyst shedding does not recur even after repeated exposure to the parasite. Although the pathogen has been detected on the fur of cats, it has not been found in an infectious form, and direct infection from handling cats is generally believed to be very rare.

2007-10-13 19:27:54 · answer #5 · answered by Elaine M 7 · 0 3

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