Q: I’ve a compromised immune system, and I wish to undertake a cat. What do I must find out about defending my well being?
A: Many individuals are immunocompromised due to physiological components like being pregnant or extremes of age, metabolic situations akin to diabetes, infectious illnesses akin to HIV, or remedy with immunosuppressant medication for autoimmune illnesses, most cancers, or organ transplantation.
Individuals with compromised immune techniques can benefit from the well being advantages of residing with pets offered they take precautions. Speak along with your well being care supplier concerning the specifics of your personal well being whereas maintaining the next basic pointers in thoughts.
Undertake a wholesome grownup cat as a result of adults are much less prone to carry illness than kittens. Be certain the cat is sterilized, present on vaccinations, and assessments adverse for the feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency viruses, as a result of each suppress the cat’s immune system, making the cat vulnerable to illnesses you possibly can catch.
Preserve your cat indoors to forestall searching 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 at the least 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 12 months. Intestinal parasites like roundworms and hookworms can infect indoor cats and unfold to people.
Have another person scoop the litter bins. If that’s not doable, put on gloves and a masks, scoop day by day, and wash your fingers afterward.
Feed the cat a high-quality, cooked, business weight loss program. 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 creating food-borne infections.
Even indoor cats can host fleas, so apply a flea preventive all year long. This won’t solely maintain your cat comfy but additionally defend you from cat scratch illness, which is transmitted by way of flea feces.
Preserve your cat’s claws trimmed. In case you are scratched or bitten, don’t enable 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 fingers after dealing with your cat and earlier than consuming.
Your veterinarian is considered one of your loved ones docs, so confiding in your vet about your personal 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 after we’re exterior collectively, however when he’s alone within the fenced yard, he could eat them with out my data. 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 just a few acorns, their poisonous results—lack of urge for food, gentle vomiting, and diarrhea, which often resolve on their very own—will not be particularly harmful.
Nonetheless, if Bogie swallows a big amount of complete 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 remedy.
Given the dangers and Bogie’s curiosity, it could be finest to rake or blow the acorns out of your yard so he can’t eat them.
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