I dont like cats unlike many of the readers here. I have good reason . not the cats fault but the things they can carry,
Parasites .
what do all you cat owners know about cats and what they can carry .?
i spent 3 months one year in the eighties paying weekly visits to the eye dept in local hospital to find out the cause of my rapidly worsening vision in my left eye . it took a simple blood test eventually to give the answer. Toxoplasmosis gondii. a parasite carried by cats . I had eaten food contaminated by cats while on holiday in greece. Afterwards I knew where and how but too late after i had eaten . And so many cats around in greece ! the type of immunity levels shown defined the time of infection doen to a week or two being those spent in Greece. I had eaten unwashed fruit .
i had toxo in my eye . It can affect your heart , eyes or brain. or if you are pregnant then can affect the foetus . Y ou can hear about the similiar parasite infecti ng dogs. we know about that and childrens playgrounds. the surgeon lasered the site of infection in my eye to kill the parasite . the fogging remained until i had a cataract op a few years ago
Also these parasites y do encyst until your immunity levels drop in later life and then come back to life . it can affect the brain in that the behaviour becomes more risky . in a mouse this shows as an absolute lack of fear of a cat and in a human as a worsening of judgement of risk . it is all in an attempt to further infection.
But there is some thing else. It has been shown to affect the immune system and this can then be utilised to identify specific cancer cells and to allow the body's immune system to deal with the cancer.
I read bout this being investigated in the last year and hope to read more in the future .
sorry cannot give a better reference
Nothing to do with lungs but i had a personal reason to draw your attention to this parasite which is very l ittle known to many cat owners .
Thanks for an interesting post xxx
That’s a terrible thing to have happened to you Jaybird and l genuinely feel sympathy for you. Sadly cats are left to roam uncared for in Greece, Spain and other countries but many responsible owners ensure their animals do not carry Toxoplasmosis. We had a cat for 19 years and made sure she had all of her vaccines and check ups. We certainly knew about parasites etc.
I can understand you not being a cat lover but not all cats are to blame for diseases, nor dogs, many human beings are the worst carriers of all sorts of things in my opinion.
Thinking of you and hearing what you say.
Best wishes to you. Xxx
Yes I agree that Uk cats that are looked after shouldn’t carry parasites etc. Morrison is cat my daughter brought me few days after my husband died. She had seen him at vets who had treated him where he had been bitten on neck for few months in Morrison car park after we think owner in sheltered housing had died. He’s a very clean cat, and goes vet for regular check ups.
You called him Morrison, love it.
Thanks, seemed appropriate, he answers when called Morrison