Q: I’ve a compromised immune system, and I need to undertake a cat. What do I have to learn about defending my well being?
A: Many individuals are immunocompromised due to physiological elements like being pregnant or extremes of age, metabolic circumstances resembling diabetes, infectious illnesses resembling HIV, or therapy with immunosuppressant medication for autoimmune illnesses, most cancers, or organ transplantation.
Individuals with compromised immune methods can benefit from the well being advantages of residing with pets offered they take precautions. Speak together with your well being care supplier concerning the specifics of your individual well being whereas maintaining the next normal pointers in thoughts.
Undertake a wholesome grownup cat as a result of adults are much less more likely to carry illness than kittens. Ensure the cat is sterilized, present on vaccinations, and assessments detrimental for the feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency viruses, as a result of each suppress the cat’s immune system, making the cat prone to illnesses you may catch.
Preserve your cat indoors to stop looking and publicity to different animals which will carry illness. Don’t let your kitty drink from the bathroom or stroll on kitchen counters or tables.
Have your veterinarian look at your cat no less than as soon as every year. Preserve vaccinations present, as a result of illnesses like rabies are transmissible to people.
Deworm your cat month-to-month and ask your veterinarian to conduct fecal testing twice per yr. Intestinal parasites like roundworms and hookworms can infect indoor cats and unfold to people.
Have another person scoop the litter containers. If that’s not attainable, put on gloves and a masks, scoop day by day, and wash your palms afterward.
Feed the cat a high-quality, cooked, business weight-reduction plan. By no means give your cat unpasteurized dairy merchandise or uncooked meat, poultry, fish, or eggs as a result of they enhance your danger of growing food-borne infections.
Even indoor cats can host fleas, so apply a flea preventive all year long. This is not going to solely maintain your cat snug but in addition defend you from cat scratch illness, which is transmitted by flea feces.
Preserve your cat’s claws trimmed. In case you are scratched or bitten, don’t permit your cat to lick the wound. As an alternative, wash it with cleaning soap and water, and name your well being care supplier.
Wash your palms after dealing with your cat and earlier than consuming.
Your veterinarian is certainly one of your loved ones medical doctors, so confiding in your vet about your individual well being will assist be sure that each you and your new cat stay wholesome.
Q: Our canine Bogie typically nibbles acorns. I discourage him once we’re exterior collectively, however when he’s alone within the fenced yard, he could eat them with out my information. Are acorns poisonous?
A: Acorns comprise tannins that style bitter and dry out a canine’s mouth, so most canines don’t like them. Nonetheless, if Bogie does nibble a couple of acorns, their poisonous results—lack of urge for food, delicate vomiting, and diarrhea, which normally resolve on their very own—usually are not particularly harmful.
Nonetheless, if Bogie swallows a big amount of entire acorns, they might block his intestines, inflicting lethargy and repeated vomiting. If this happens, take him to his veterinarian instantly.
If the acorns are moldy from mendacity on the bottom, the molds could cause tremors and different neurologic issues that require aggressive therapy.
Given the dangers and Bogie’s curiosity, it might be greatest to rake or blow the acorns out of your yard so he can’t eat them.
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