Why are we now testing 13 year old cats for swine flu? So what if the cat has the swine flu, seasonal flu, or just a head cold? Are we going to get out the kitty face masks? Cat paw sanitizer? Cat litter sterilizer? No more sharing milk bowls?
Then they get a positive test and the news agencies are all over it like it’s some big story. WHOtv 13 News. KCRG TV9. Pioneer Press.
I’m sure some epidemiologist will come up with a reason for testing every conceivable genus and species for this disease. Woohooo! Now the swine flu can infect pigs, birds, humans, cats, and a couple of mangy ferrets. Catnip is now a vector for the disease. Combine all of these animals together and you can come up with some thing that looks like one of those freaky “Where the Wild Things Are” characters.
Maybe I’m uninformed of the significance of this breakthrough discovery and someone can enlighten me. Until then, my response to cats being afflicted with H1N1 is “So what?”
Oh wait … I forgot.
Quick. Everybody fly to Boston and put in an application for a job at Ropes & Gray. Then just mix in some of the Tamiflu you’ll get as a fringe benefit with your cat’s Meow Mix at the first sign of a sniffle.
Everything will be juuuuust fine.
Ha ha! The picture cracked me up and is adorable too.
I love my animals like family members..wait the cat.. let me think about that.. nah ..I love him too… yeah that’s it ..I love the cat too like a family member.
, but ..I would want every human to have access to the shot first. I would think that would be a priority.
I’ve always wondered why feline aids wasn’t transmittable to humans.
*The cat comment is a joke ..he’s just very destructive.
I am an ED nurse (and animal shelter volunteer). I received the H1N1 vaccination a couple weeks ago, too late for me, though; came down with the actual flu only 4 days later, too soon to have developed immunity from the shot. Needless to say, I did not work at my job or my volunteer one all week; I am now afebrile and have just a mild residual cough and will be returning to both after tomorrow.
The only reason this is of concern to me is that many pet-owners may feel colpelled to dump their household pets out of sheer paranoia that their little Fluffy could be a vector for this virus.
Even while I was ill, I cared for my own pets (2 dogs, 4 cats) using reasonable precautions such as avoiding overly close contact and good handwashing especially when handling their food and dishes, and none became ill. (Good thing, since I don’t know if Tamiflu works on pets, and don’t know if I could handle the $$$ involved multiplied by 6—mine was a $40 co-pay for the 10 capsules–and my pets aren’t covered by my health insurance)! Nonetheless, pet owners who look at their animals as family members are wise to be concerned, but not overly so, and use standard infection-control practices.
Apparently some vets think Tamiflu is great for dogs, because a Vet called some in for someone’s dog at the pharmacy i was working at. My pharmacist didn’t want to fill it… and had I been the pharmacist I don’t think I would have.
Some vets think Tamiflu is great for dogs for the same reason that some physicians think tamiflu is great for people, because it is an antiviral that can provide valuable treatment in certain cases. There is a canine influenza (H3N8) for which tamiflu could theoretically be a useful medication, although this has not yet been studied to my knowledge. Tamiflu is probably used most commonly in veterinary medicine in canine patients with parvovirus. It currently is a controversial area, as some studies have shown some improvement in recovery or prevention of clinical disease in infected puppies caught early, but there is no proven efficacy at this point, canine parvovirus does not express neuraminidase itself (the current theory is that if it is effective it is due to effects of bacterial infection/sepsis setting in secondary to the viral infection), it is expensive, and the proper dosage range has not been established. Personally I would not use it in a parvovirus (or probably a canine influenza) patient, but I can understand why a lot of veterinarians, particularly those dealing with shelter populations, would be interested in trying everything that has at least some evidence in helping with this very serious disease. There is also some interest in the use of tamiflu in feline viral upper respiratory disease.
I do agree that, given the concerns about pandemic influenza, it would make sense to be more restrictive in the use of tamiflu. I certainly would be fine with it being restricted from the normally broad extralabel prescribing powers available to vets, and don’t think this will much increase suffering or death in animals. But I have a hard time equating a veterinarian using his professional judgement and interpretation of the available evidence to prescribe a medication to treat a patient with a disease to a law firm hoarding drugs as a benefit for its healthy staff that may or may not become sick and may now feel that they don’t even need to worry about silly things like vaccinations.
Also, to get back to the topic at hand, the interest in a cat with H1N1 is twofold. First, it represents another potential vector for transmission and propogation of the disease. It is generally a good thing to understand these, especially in cats that tend to have large, highly mobile, and difficult to control feral populations in human population areas. It is also valuable information for those who care about the health of animals and especially companion animals and work to protect and preserve that health.
Also, although we don’t yet know if H1N1 carries the same high mortality rate in cats as in humans, it is well known that it is at least 5 times cuter in cats.
I know a lawyer named Matt…
who, if it made his wallet fat…
would happily defend the cat
“The owners were negligent” he’ll say
“And put this poor cat in harm’s way”
While the actual damages were small,
with punitives he’ll have a ball.
“I demand $60 million” he’ll cry,
(with $59.999999 million in fees!?! Oh my!)
Not bad guys. Made me chuckle.
Seriously ..I had no idea our pets could catch colds and the flu from us.
Back in the 70s..I did have a cat with a stuffed up (his breathing was weird..like congested) and runny nose and was never sick after that. We weren’t sick at the time. He was an indoor cat too.
Regarding “Some vets think TamiFlu is great for dogs…”:
Your comment makes it sound like you think vets prescribe TamiFlu like a vitamin. This is more than a little disrespectful.
Hey, I’ll stand up for the ‘mangy ferrets’ if no one else will LOL
I put the cat thing in context – pets are nowadays ‘fur-kids’ to a lot of people who endeavour to give them the bestus possible medical (vet) care just like peoples. This is why I have friends who spent a little under AUD 5K on their little dog’s congestive cardiac failure.
Now I love my cats (ok, & the dogs too, I’ll admit) & I’ll keep them happy & healthy but there is a practical & logical limit. Some people’s limit is obviously way above mine.
The pet health care business is big business.
Cats, dogs, birds, pigs, horses…. whatever it is, they get sick too! My Iguana (Matilda) has been sneezing and I bet is the flu, my Hamster (Hercules) is no longer paying attention to wheel and I think he has autism or depression. Finally, my Parrot (Paco) sings “Thriller” by Michael Jackson every morning; for sure he has been doing drugs.
The biggest significance is that this flu has apparently crossed species lines in a highly unsual way. Human influenza, depending on the type, might be a risk to pigs or certain birds (especially, but not exclusively water fowl and poultry), but there aren’t that many cites for a human influenza crossing to cats and dogs.
As a veterinarian who does volunteer work with a local cat shelter, this mostly means that people now have a new excuse to dump their cat (I’m afraid it will give the kids the flu). They also now have a new excuse for not adopting a cat from a shelter (”But Doc, we don’t know where it’s been”).Frankly, the cat is more likely to catch H1N1 from its owners than vice-versa, but that’s another story.
There are more speculative concerns about recombination in a cat of the H1N1 with a feline specific influenza; it’s reconbination events in swine that result in many of the new flu varients we see. I haven’t read a thing about this yet, and I doubt it’s something to be concerned about at this point.