My cat gave me toxoplasmosis. Does she need treatment for the parasite?

Pasteurella is often an opportunist bacteria, which means that it's usually hanging around on the body somewhere and will grow and cause disease when the environment is right. It's not a bug that tends to be very infectious from one animal to another. It's interesting that your doctor is suspicious that your cat for the infection...this is not a disease that we vets are usually concerned about people getting from animals. If your cat is otherwise seeming in normal health, then there would be no indication for treatment. If he does have some condition, then it would be good to take him to the vet and explain what your doctor told you. I hope that helps and you feel better soon.

Hi, thanks for using PetCoach! Your Doctor can test you. If you are negative then you should avoid gardening or doing things with the soil as toxoplasma lives there as well. Then I would have your husband clean Cecile's litter box or you do it wearing gloves and wash your hands. I would also keep your cats indoors. As a Vet, I have been exposed, who knows when or how, and I had a normal pregnancy. Below is a link to the CDC's page on toxoplasma. It should answer all of your questions! I hope this helps and I wish you the best! https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/index.html

I'm assuming you mean your cat has intestinal worms. That requires a deworming treatment which you can get OTC, and I recommend getting him Panacur. It's available at a pet store. He will need another deworming treatment two weeks after the first one to kill all the worms. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after handing him and cleaning his litter box to prevent you from getting them. In terms of sleeping with you, it's fine for him to sleep with you as you can only get the worms if you accidentally ingested contaminated feces. If you are talking about fleas, I can give you a flea treatment program for him. First, I would give him Capstar. It's a one time pill that starts killing fleas within 30 minutes. Then follow up with a spot on treatment, such as Advantage or Revolution. This is a treatment that has to be used once a month. You will also have to disinfect the environment. Wash his bedding in hot soapy water, and vacuum the furniture and carpet surfaces. You can use a spray to kill fleas in the house, such as Indorex, or a flea bomb would work well to kill the fleas in the home.

Hi and thanks for this interesting question! No you cannot give your cat toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis can infect humans but it cannot complete its life cycle in people. Cats shed the parasite for 2 weeks in their feces when infected and then never again. People cannot shed the toxoplasma in their feces since the parasite cannot complete its life cycle in humans. I hope this helps and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

This has been a topic of study recently in human medicine, you can read some articles at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2526142/ though the significance is not truly known yet, and this would be a question more suited to a human physician as they are trained in human medicine. I can tell you, however, that cats are not the only source of toxoplasma and individuals are much more likely to become infected from eating undercooked meat or contracting spores from gardening/vegetables in contaminated soil than from their cats themselves https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/epi.html . If this is something you are concerned about you can clean your cat litterbox daily as the parasite requires 24 or more hours to sporulate and become infective, so if you scoop your litterbox daily and wash your hands well your risk from your cats is incredibly small.

It is a bit complicated as positive toxoplasmosis titer does not mean that your cat has toxoplasmosis. It means that she was in contact with the virus at some point during her life and that she developed some immunity. Repeating the blood test and confirming rise in toxoplasma titer is consistent with ongoing toxoplasma infection. However, if Susan does have toxoplasmosis (which is not that common disease in cats) your wife should not be in contact with her during pregancy. Please, note that the source of infection for us are cats' stools, particicularily not the fresh ones but a few days old or older. I would suggest your wife to discuss this situation with her GP or obstetrician and see what they would recommend.

Flies don't carry the toxoplasmosis parasite per se, but they can spread contaminated soil or cat feces. Cats can get toxoplasmosis by eating infected rodents, birds, or other small animals, or anything contaminated with feces from another cat that is shedding the microscopic parasite in its feces. In that way, it could be possible that Noushi could get toxoplasmosis if the flies she ate were carrying toxoplasmosis oocytes, but it would be highly unlikely. Keep the fly population under control in your house to reduce any chances. Best of luck, I hope this helps.