"Mind Controlling Parasite", Really? CNN and Fox Promote Panic in Cat Owners!

by Whitney M. 

My cat, "Biggs", attempting to use
mind control to get my husband to
do the laundry 

I recently received a panicked text from my husband after he read an article on Facebook put out by Fox6Now.com and originally CNN Wire Service  titled “Mind-controlling’ parasite that lives on cats may have infected 60 million people”.  After reading this article he was genuinely concerned about our mental health, seeing as we have three cats.  The reporter wrote about a “mind controlling parasite that can’t live without a cat, how it manipulates personality – and possibly suicide numbers.”

The article states that the parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, “has been shown to cause personality changes, correlating with mental health diseases like schizophrenia, autism and Alzheimer’s disease.” While the links between Toxoplasmosis and mental health disease are still being researched, I believe this article is inflammatory, misleading, and detrimental to cats.  While it’s true that cats can be a source of Toxoplasma infection, people are more likely to be infected by eating undercooked contaminated meat or gardening. 

Here is what we do know about Toxoplasmosis according to the Centers for Disease Control:

• Cats become infected by eating other infected animals, such as rodents and birds.
• Oocysts are shed in the stools for up to three weeks after infection which can then contaminate the litterbox of indoor cats.  Soil and water can also be a source of contamination for outdoor cats.
• Usually a cat will only shed oocysts after the first infection of Toxoplasma; a cat that has already had an infection will not continue to shed unless it is immunocompromised.
• It takes 24-48 hours for oocysts outside of the cat to grow into a form where they are infective to people.  This means that scooping your cats’ poop every day is a great way of reducing risk of infection.
• Cats themselves are not a source for oocysts; their feces are. 
• The CDC estimates that more than 60 million people may have been infected with the parasite, but of those, very few become sick.  A healthy immune system usually prevents the parasite from causing illness.

Basically you have little to worry about.  Though your cat may think he controls your mind, there is absolutely no scientific research that supports that he will do it through a mind-controlling, suicide-inducing parasite.  The best way to prevent Toxoplasma infection via felines is by cleaning the litterbox every day (hint hint, Husband of mine…), washing your hands, and wearing gloves while gardening.  If you have any questions or feel like your cat is getting inside your head, please feel free to call our office or check our website and search toxoplasma in our pet medical library.

Rabies Kills More People Than Ebola

by Michael Fagan, DVM

To follow up on our last blog, which discussed Ebola in dogs, we'll talk about another disease with an even higher mortality rate (virtually 100%), kills 5 times as many people every year (over 50,000)  than Ebola has in the past decade, and exists right here in the US.  Why hasn't this been in the news?

It's rabies.  And it's preventable.  Fortunately, here in the US and much of the developed world, cases of human rabies have been dramatically reduced, thanks to widespread vaccination of dogs, cats, and horses, as well as control of feral dog populations.  Our risk of rabies in the US is primarily from wildlife, especially bats. 

from: Centers for Disease Control

In 2010, about 6000 animals tested positive for rabies in the US, including approximately 2200 raccoons, 1400 skunks, 1400 bats, 400 foxes, 300 cats, 70 each of cattle and dogs.  

from: Centers for Disease Control

The 1400 bats represents about 1 in 6 that are submitted for testing.  All but four states had rabies positive bats.  Wisconsin had 27 bats that tested positive (we had a rabies-positive bat brought to Hallett Veterinary Hospital last month), as well as one skunk and one fatal human rabies case, which was transmitted by a bat. 

The third world, however, is a different story from the US. 
Tens of thousands of people die from rabies every year in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.  Almost half of those are children.  Their exposure comes mainly from dogs, often stray or feral.  In South America, vampire bats are a common source of exposure.

Every year, more than 15 million people worldwide receive a post-exposure vaccination to prevent rabies.  The cost of treating a person bitten by a rabid animal in the third world is about $400, which is more than an entire year's income for most of the population.    Vaccination after exposure greatly reduces the chances of developing rabies infection, which likely prevents hundreds of thousands of deaths per year.

The cost to vaccinate dogs in these countries would be 10% of the cost to treat people who have been exposed.   Click here for more information on how you can help, and here for informational videos.

Ebola and Dogs?

Can Dogs Transmit Ebola Virus?

by John Hallett, DVM

According to the CDC, "There are no reports of dogs or cats becoming sick with Ebola or of being able to spread Ebola to people or other animals," even in Africa. But then again, the CDC also downplayed the risk to medical workers in this country because our health system is so much better than in Africa.

So why is a dog in Texas under quarantine?
It appears that they just want to be sure. If you are paying attention to the media recently, you know that Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids from a person sick with Ebola or from contact with a bat or monkey that is carrying the virus. In Spain an Ebola patient's dog was euthanized, which sounds a little extreme considering what is known about the virus. I'm glad that pets of Ebola patients are not being euthanized in this country. I suppose if a dog stepped in or rolled in bodily fluids from an infected person and then rubbed that stuff on another person, they could be implicated in transferring the virus but an object like a chair could do almost the same thing. The important thing is that so far, dogs have not developed disease after being exposed to the Ebola virus. 

The CDC info that is being distributed to veterinarians says "There is limited evidence that dogs become infected with Ebola virus." So I checked around a little more. In 2005 a study in Africa showed that dogs can develop antibodies against Ebola but no virus was found in those dogs (antibodies are produced by an animal to fight a disease). This suggests that dogs can develop an immune response (antibodies) if they are exposed, but the immune response is apparently effective at keeping the virus from staying alive in dogs. It is possible that dogs could develop antibodies to Ebola without ever being infected (by just being exposed to the virus) but it doesn't look like much research has been done on dogs. I'm sure someone will write a paper on the Texas dog. 

I suspect that someone will suggest that I shouldn't even be concerned about Ebola and that the media is promoting panic about Ebola while ignoring other things that kill many more people. For example, 51,000 people die of Rabies in India and Asia every year and in Baoshan, China, 5,000 dogs were killed because 5 people died from Rabies in July and August. That doesn't mean we should panic - about Rabies, or about Ebola, but we should learn all we can about new diseases to be prepared for things that are going to become more common.

Have mice? Some mouse poisons have no antidote!

Bromethalin has no antidote!

Quite often we are presented with a dog who has eaten rat or mouse poison and we have to sort out what brand of poison, when they ate it and how much they ate, so we can induce vomiting and give the antidote along with messy oral activated charcoal to stop absorption of the poison.  We also send home oral medication for two to four weeks and draw blood to check clotting times after finishing the medication. Sometimes, the owners don't know that poison has been ingested. They just know that their dog is bleeding. It could be bloody urine, blood in the stool or just bruising on the skin or in the eyes. Then we try to sort out if there is a medical reason for the bleeding or just poison exposure.

Most rat and mouse bait contains an anticoagulant that can be treated with Vitamin K for varying lengths of time depending on the product.  Some mouse bait contains warfarin or diphacinone, so called "first generation" anticoagulants that require 14 days of vitamin K. Other products contain "second generation" anticoagulants like difenacoum, brodifacoum and bromadiolone that require 30 days of treatment with vitamin K.

Fortunately, the EPA set new rules in 2011 to save wildlife from exposure to second generation anti-coagulants. This was after they measured anticoagulant residue in up to 70% of the wildlife tested. Apparently, there has been a 50% reduction in cases of poisoning in children since the new rules took effect. Seems to me that maybe keeping our kids safe should trigger some rules of their own, but keeping wildlife healthy is important too.  Second generation anti-coagulant poisons are still available but only in bulk packaging to be used by professional exterminators. The makers of d-Con finally agreed to comply with the ruling in May of this year after fighting it for three years. 

Anticoagulant rodenticides are pretty scary, but now there are some newer poisons in rodenticides that contain bromethalin - a neurotoxin with no antidote! Many dogs can recover from bromethalin poisoning if detected early and given supportive care for as long as 6 weeks (expensive supportive care).

So what can you do?  

• Check the active ingredient before purchasing a rodenticide product. Make sure it has warfarin or diphacinone - first generation anti-coagulants. 
• If you have an exterminator come to your house, ask for a list of active ingredients of the products that they are using and make sure they don't use bromethalin or one of the second generation anticoagulants. 
• Make sure the bait is in a protective container and not just scattered loosely.
• You can also check the shelves at your local grocery or hardware store and send the store a nice note if they have second generation anticoagulant rodenticides or bromethalin on the shelf. Ask them to discontinue stocking those products. You could even send the store a copy of this blog. Who knows, maybe it will save a pet's life or even a child's?

Oh, No! Heartworm Preventatives Aren't Perfect Anymore

Year Round Heartworm Prevention is Important                  by Dr. Michael Fagan

For twenty-plus years, we've enjoyed the privilege of telling our clients that our heartworm preventative medications were 100% effective in preventing heartworm disease if given monthly throughout the entire mosquito season.  Now we have to settle for telling you that they are Very Effective. 

Very Effective is still a good thing, but some aspects of our overall prevention strategy have become even more important.  Over the past several years, there have emerged a few strains of heartworms that are resistant to the entire class of drugs used as heartworm preventatives (known as macrocyclic lactones, or ML).  So far, it appears that none of the available products (Heartgard, Iverhart, Revolution, Interceptor, Advantage Multi), are superior to any other:  while every product is still very effective, each has been documented to be less than 100%. 

What this means for our patients:

• It is very important to give monthly heartworm preventive year-round.
• Annual heartworm testing is essential to identify any dog that have acquired a resistant heartworm infection. 

One of our patients, a year
after heartworm treatment

Dogs that do become infected with ML-resistant heartworms tend to be infected with lower numbers of worms than dogs that are not on preventatives at all.  They still need to be treated with injections of melarsomine to eliminate the adult heartworms for their own health, but also to eliminate the source of resistant worms that could be transmitted to other dogs.

Treating dogs that are infected is expensive and painful. The drug (melarsomine) is currently only available on a case-by-case basis from European production facilities. Melarsomine is injected deep into the muscle along the spine and it hurts! Dogs must be kept quiet for two months during treatment which means no running or playing. We are currently treating a really sweet black lab who moved here from the Southern U.S. where resistant heartworms have been identified.