Sorry not horsey but did you Know Cats get TB?

B

basil99

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 June 2008
Messages
88
Visit site
I am lucky and live in lovely countryside with my horses dogs and cats. Unfortunately I have had to have 3 cats put to sleep and it seems two had TB. They went down hill, didn`t seem interested in food and started to have respiratory problems i.e fast breathing and a slight cough. Now I have to wait 6 - 8 weeks for them to analyse the type of TB they had. Obviously it is more of a problem if it is Bovine TB as it means they are picking it up somehow. I have discovered that a local farmer where my cats hunted regularly has had a long running problem with TB, but up until now I had no idea. However, even if you know what can you do? There is a strain that they can get from rodents and this manifests later in life if they have been hunters so I guess it would be better if they had that. My thoughts are if it is Bovine TB how do they pick it up as they do not graze with cattle but they do catch rabbits that do. So could that be the link. I guess I should have posted this elsewhere but I thought it might be useful to raise everybodys awareness as I did not know anything about it until recently.
 
Badgers carry it in their urine apparently which they suspect is how it is transfered to cattle etc. A women in Devon picked it up too, her cats also had it. Badgers mark their territories with urine so if your cats are out in the fields it is very likely they are crossing paths with the badgers.
(I will now duck as I am shot down for suggesting badgers carry it)
 
Thanks for the info re badger urine, did not know it was the urine. I am obviously upset that I am having to go to the vets to get my cats put to sleep and can empathise with farmers who have to have a whole herd slaughtered. The most frustrating thing is that you cannot do anything except confine your cats which is really not an option. I now have to wait the 6 to 8 weeks and then when I have the result Defra will probably become involved. I hope no one else is this unfortunate as you constantly worry for your remaining cats.
 
Yes, and horses and people and dogs. The bl***y badgers want culling IMO. If the horse or pet gets its they PTS, but the badgers are sacrosanct. Totally crazy. My uncle dies of TB in the 1950s, I know theres antibiotics nowadays but people are being putat risk and dairy farmers livelyhoods are in jeopody because of it.
 
TB is getting to be such a major issue in cornwall now, my OH has worked on dozens of farms over the past 20 yrs (he was an ag. contractor) and he has noticed how more and more of our customers are getting reactors. Even traditional closed herds with no contact from other cattle. It is time this was sorted out, if you have healthy badgers you don't want them disrupted as it will allow infected ones in to the set. With any disease control it is no good just culling one of the species infected which is what is going on. Interesting enough, researchers have found that it is usually the sick badgers that will enter farm buildings, they also range further and you won't have all the sett infected.
 
I had no idea they could get TB, poor puddy cats
frown.gif
 
Are you sure they had TB?
The reasons i ask is because.......
1, My mum got told that she had TB(got put on antibiotics for it)The doctors sent off samples to the lab,took a while for them to come back as the culture takes along time to grow for TB.Eventually she got told that she didnt have TB,it was just a healthy bacteria.
2, being farmers we have a TB test on all our cattle yearly.Alot of people i know who have a positve,intial result get their cattle taken for slaughter where they then preform a post mortem,and the animal doesnt actually have TB.
What im trying to say is dont believe in the TB testing system.I have no faith in it.
 
Well both my cats had X rays and as their lungs showed identical symptons they did a post mortem and from that concluded it was tuberculosis. I think they do blood tests with farm animals correct me if thats wrong. I hope they are wrong but the implication is that its just which strain of TB.
 
Thanks for the article very interesting. I don`t always get the WMN so I obviously missed that one. It does give me a hopeless feeling as I can`t do anything to avoid my animals maybe falling foul of it again in the future.
 
Cats can also get feline aides, male cats will rape a neutered boy and may pass on the virus as well as the ways humans pass it.It cant be passed to humans.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Are you sure they had TB?
The reasons i ask is because.......
1, My mum got told that she had TB(got put on antibiotics for it)The doctors sent off samples to the lab,took a while for them to come back as the culture takes along time to grow for TB.Eventually she got told that she didnt have TB,it was just a healthy bacteria.
2, being farmers we have a TB test on all our cattle yearly.Alot of people i know who have a positve,intial result get their cattle taken for slaughter where they then preform a post mortem,and the animal doesnt actually have TB.
What im trying to say is dont believe in the TB testing system.I have no faith in it.

[/ QUOTE ]

TB usually shows up on chest x-rays and is confirmed by blood test. A lot of GPs aren't particularly clued on TB, a lot don't pick up on it, and a lot prescribe the wrong anti-biotics and treatment.
TB is and would have been confirmed in a post-mortem. It affects the lungs, hence why it shows up on chest x-rays.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top