I am a Mighty Bug Hunter!
My name is Cleo. I live in Grand Rapids, MI. I live inside the house with 3 other cats. My mom is a vet. She doesn’t let me outside because she says there are too many risks in our area between traffic and getting into fights with other cats in our neighborhood. I know I would win those fights but she doesn’t trust me! So, instead I like to hunt in our house for bugs. We have air conditioning, but we still get some mosquitoes, moths, and other flying toys in the house periodically. Sometimes the mosquitoes bite me, but I don’t care. I keep hoping we get a bat in the house so I can catch a big flying toy- my mom says she sees that several times a year in her patients.
My favorites though are the bugs that crawl on the ground. Spiders, sow bugs, the occasional cricket and other creepy crawlies give me hours of entertainment. After I catch them and play with them for a while, I like to eat them. (I even caught a mouse last year and left the best part (the head) for my mom. She wasn’t too thrilled. Sometimes I get no appreciation for all my efforts. Sigh.
Most of the time my mom never even sees what I am hunting as I find the basement and other out of the way spots are the best places to find my prey. When she sees me playing with what I catch, my mom usually takes them away from me before I eat them. She says I can get parasites and other infections from them. I am not sure what parasites are, but mom says they can make me sick. Those parasites are why she keeps me on a monthly parasite medication year around, and keeps my vaccines up to date even though I don’t go outside. She says I can even get some parasites from walking through dirt or digging in potting soil and then washing my feet afterward. This is what she says I can get from:
- Mosquitoes- heartworms
- Fleas- tapeworms, Bartonella infection (cat scratch fever)
- Mice and other rodents such as voles, rats: tapeworms, roundworms, lung flukes, and toxoplasmosis
- Earthworms- roundworms
- Cockroaches- roundworms
- Snails and slugs- lungworms
- Crayfish- lung flukes
- Ticks- Bob cat fever (Cytauxzoon felis), Ehrlichia, Lyme disease
- Dirt and potting soil- roundworms, hookworms
- Outdoor water- Giardia
- Bats- rabies
I figure I am not going to worry about those things because my mom does the worrying for me and keeps me protected with the monthly parasite preventative and my yearly vaccines. Bugs of the world be very afraid- Cleo the bug hunter is on the prowl!
But she never goes outdoors… Why indoor cats still need to visit the veterinarian
A cat food ad states “We know what every indoor cat needs- a big window, sunshine, healthy skin and fur” The pretty kitty sitting in a window may give the appearance of being healthy and safe; but there are dangers to his health, even if he never goes outdoors. The person who really knows what your indoor cat needs to enjoy life to the fullest is your veterinarian. Your cat’s doctor will make sure he is healthy both inside and out.
One misconception is that indoor cats do not need to receive vaccinations. An indoor cat needs to be protected against diseases that can come in even if he does not go out. Rabies is the most serious of the viruses to which an indoor cat can be exposed. The most common carrier is a bat. Many owners have come home to discover their cat has cornered or killed a bat. An unvaccinated cat needs to be quarantined. If the bat tests positive and the cat is not current on its rabies vaccine, the authorities’ first recommendation would be to have the cat euthanized. The other option is strict isolation for three months in a facility equipped to handle those stringent requirements. Then three months of strict home confinement. Indoor cats also can become ill by exposure to upper respiratory viruses, which are very hardy and can live outside the body for 10 to 14 days. There are cats that shed virus but show no signs of illness. An owner may pet a seemingly healthy cat and bring the virus home.
Infectious diseases are not the only risks for an indoor cat. Some issues are more common if a cat lives indoors: obesity, psychological disorders resulting from boredom ( for example-overgrooming or destructive behavior). Your doctor will make recommendations to prevent or correct these problems. ( See previous blog, “ Do we really know what it takes to keep a cat happy”.) Many health concerns, such as diabetes, thyroid disease, arthritis, or intestinal disorders can remain undetected until they are so severe they are obvious, even to an untrained eye. Unfortunately, the cat may have been in pain for quite a while or it may be too late to treat the illness successfully or without great expense.
Keeping your cat indoors increases the likelihood that he will live a long life. However Abraham Lincoln’s bromide that “in the end it is not just the years in a life that count, but the life in the years” applies to our feline friends too. Regular veterinary care will maximize the probability that your indoor cat will live not just the longest but the best possible life
Rabies: Risks and Remedies
“Why does my inside cat need a rabies vaccine?” I hear this question many times a week at my practice, and certainly the chance that Fluffy will break out of the house and get into a bloody battle with a rabid raccoon or fox is pretty slim. Then why do our pampered house cats need to get these vaccines?
One reason we want all pets protected against rabies is that if they become infected, they can spread that disease to people. This is why most states mandate through law that pets must be vaccinated against rabies, and also that pets will be quarantined if they are unvaccinated and either bite someone or are exposed to a rabies suspect.
Most of us are familiar with rabies. It is a terrible, horrible disease that is uniformly fatal unless treatment is started immediately. It is transmitted from an infected animal through a bite wound—more specifically, through that infected animal’s saliva. The rabies virus infects the brain and nervous system, and the classic image of a person or animal convulsing and in a “rage” state is what happens once that virus follows its deadly path.
Clearly, even though rabies is relatively uncommon, it is not something any of us wants to experience, and also not anything we’d want our cats to get exposed to. But because complications can occur with any medical procedure, including giving a vaccine, we might hesitate if we believe that the likelihood of an infection or exposure to rabies is rare. We know that there can be a risk of an adverse reaction with common, everyday immunizations. Even if we adjust that cost/benefit scale because rabies is so lethal, is the potential risk associated with vaccination worth the protection?
I vaccinate my three indoor cats against rabies. I do this to protect them, but also to protect my family. Why is this important? For me, it is really not that I believe the cats are going to get out of the house, but that I know something is more likely to get in…
Bats are the biggest carrier of rabies in North America, and I can’t tell you the number of times bats have been swooping around inside my house, and inside many of my client’s homes. All of our cats react the same way: party time! A bat is the ultimate animated cat toy. And sometimes that “cat toy” is carrying a dangerous and lethal virus. All it takes is one bite. Rabies vaccines are really, really effective, and dying from rabies is not at all pleasant.
And sometimes wacky things do happen. Last week one of my clients told me that he walked into his kitchen to get some coffee and found his cat sharing her food bowl with a raccoon! Evidently this raccoon had come into the house through the pet door, and decided things looked good enough to hang around. Happily, Sheba was vaccinated and didn’t need to spend 6 months quarantined (yet another reason to keep your cat protected!)
So, please protect your cats! There are intelligent reasons to do so, and the safe and effective vaccines available today make that decision much simpler.
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