Beware! A woman was admitted to the ICU after petting a cat? What are the things you should pay attention to when raising pets?

Today, the editor was shocked by a piece of news on the hot search. The report said: Ms. Ling from Foshan, Guangdong, came to the hospital for treatment because of fever and difficulty breathing for a week. The doctor said that at first, Ms. Ling's symptoms were alleviated through drug treatment, but her condition suddenly worsened and she fell into a coma. The doctor confirmed that Ms. Ling was suffering from scrub typhus through high-throughput gene testing. The reason for all this was that Ms. Ling often played with a kitten of unknown origin near the office. The doctor judged that it was likely that the scrub typhus was on the cat and bit Ms. Ling through this cat.

Image source: Pixabay

Chiggers usually parasitize on mice. Wherever there are mice, there are likely to be chiggers, and they will jump onto humans. They are usually found in grasslands and jungles. If you have a history of contact with the wild, you are likely to be infected with scrub typhus. This disease is caused by chiggers biting the human body, which spreads a microorganism called Rickettsia. Rickettsia multiplies in large numbers in the human body, causing damage to various organs of the human body. In severe cases, it can cause shock, multiple organ damage, liver and kidney failure, respiratory failure, etc.

Obviously, petting cats is not the main cause of infection with scrub typhus. Rodents are the main source of infection and storage hosts. Cats, dogs, poultry and some birds can also be infected with this disease.

With the changes of the times, keeping pets has become a very popular thing, but it is also common for pets to infect us with some diseases. How can we keep them healthy and safe? First of all, we need to understand the possible health risks of pets.

Diseases that pets may bring

1. Rabies

Rabies is a fatal infectious disease. After being infected with the rabies virus, the disease will not occur immediately. There is an incubation period ranging from several days to several months. The length of time depends on factors such as age, infection site, and severity of the wound. However, the course of the disease does not exceed 6 days. Once the disease occurs, the mortality rate is 100%.

Transmission route: The virus is mainly transmitted through bites, but can also be transmitted through the saliva of dogs carrying the virus, invading the mucous membranes and skin through wounds, scratches, and licks.

Main manifestations: Rabies mainly affects the central nervous system. The clinical manifestations of rabies in humans include hydrophobia, photophobia, dysphagia, mania, etc., and eventually death from respiratory, circulatory and systemic failure. Once a person is infected, there is currently no effective clinical treatment, and the mortality rate is the highest among all infectious diseases.

If you are bitten or scratched by a rabid animal, a suspected rabid animal, or an animal whose rabies status is uncertain, you should go to the rabies exposure treatment clinic as soon as possible. The principle of rabies exposure treatment is to prevent the rabies virus from entering the central nervous system and causing rabies.

2. Cat scratch disease

Cat scratch disease (CSD), also known as benign lymphoreticular histiocytosis, is an infectious disease characterized by self-limited local lymphadenopathy. The "culprit" that causes this disease is Bartonella henselae, and cats are the main hosts of Bartonella henselae.

Transmission route: It is often transmitted from cats to humans through scratches or bites from infected cats, cat flea bites, and contact with cat saliva through broken skin or mucous membranes (such as mouth, eyes, etc.). It is not contagious between people.

Main manifestations: The incubation period is 3 to 10 days, and in a few cases it can last for several months or even 1 to 2 years. It is easy to be missed or misdiagnosed clinically. Symptoms such as erythematous papules, swollen lymph nodes or fever may occur. A very small number of people will have severe symptoms that affect the liver, spleen, and even the nervous system. The most serious ones may even be life-threatening, but the chance is very small.

Cat scratch disease is a self-limiting disease that usually heals within 2 to 4 months, but treatment is still recommended for all infected persons to shorten the course of the disease and reduce the risk of systemic disease or long-term sequelae.

3. Toxoplasma gondii

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that prefers to stay in cats and felines, dogs, cattle, sheep, pigs and other animals and humans, especially cats. Cats infected with Toxoplasma gondii can excrete 20 million Toxoplasma oocysts every day, which can last for 10 to 20 days, and the Toxoplasma oocysts in these poop are contagious.

Transmission route: 1. Cats eat contaminated raw meat, raw water or raw milk, etc., and are infected with Toxoplasma gondii; 2. Cats infected with Toxoplasma gondii excrete oocysts in feces. Under the right temperature and environment, the oocysts are exposed to the air for 1 to 5 days to form sporozoites, which are contagious. 3. The owner touches the infectious cat poop and eats without washing hands, or touches the exposed mucous membrane. In this process, the oocysts enter the digestive tract, and the sporozoites invade the intestinal wall and enter various organs throughout the body.

Main manifestations: This disease has the greatest impact on pregnant women. When pregnant mothers are infected with Toxoplasma gondii, it may cause fetal malformation or miscarriage, neonatal encephalopathy and eye disease, etc.

4. Scrub typhus

Scrub typhus, also known as jungle typhus, mite-borne typhus, and tropical typhus, is an acute infectious disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi and is a natural epidemic disease.

Transmission route: The disease is mainly transmitted from rodents to humans through the bites of chigger larvae.

Main manifestations: Most patients have a history of field work, with an incubation period of 5 to 20 days. The clinical manifestations are diverse and complex, with many complications, often leading to multiple organ damage. The disease has an acute onset, with characteristic clinical manifestations such as high fever, toxemia, rash, eschar and lymphadenopathy. In severe cases, it can be life-threatening due to cardiopulmonary and renal failure.

The feeling after being bitten by a tick is basically the same as that after being bitten by a mosquito, so people generally don't pay too much attention to it. However, after a period of incubation, high fever, rash, and sepsis will occur. If it is not treated urgently at this time, the patient is likely to suffer from complications due to lack of timely treatment, that is, multiple organ failure, and even death in severe cases.

5. Fungal diseases

Xiao Min (pseudonym), a 20-year-old girl from Guangzhou, had small blisters on her face and neck, which were very indecent. Xiao Min was diagnosed with tinea corporis. At the same time, a dermatologist found a bald spot on the dog that Xiao Min raised. Later, a veterinarian confirmed that the dog had a fungal disease. The doctor inferred that Xiao Min might have been infected when she was hugging the dog.

"Never be overly intimate with your pets. Our department sees many patients like Xiao Min every year who suffer from skin diseases transmitted by pets." Xie Shuxia, deputy chief physician of the Department of Dermatology at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, pointed out that if patients with athlete's foot are accustomed to walking barefoot at home, there is a great chance that they will transmit the fungus to their pets at home.

Experts remind everyone to pay attention to whether your pets at home have symptoms of fungal diseases, such as hair loss. If these symptoms occur, take your pet to the doctor in time.

Image source: Pixabay

Things to note when keeping pets at home

1. Go to a regular pet store to buy a pet. This way the health of the pet you buy is guaranteed, and you must ask the pet store for a "health certificate" issued by the relevant department for the pet.

2. Give your pet a vaccination every year. Prevention is the key, and you should also contact the pet hospital regularly to have your pet undergo a physical examination.

3. Try to keep a safe distance when interacting with pets. You can call your pet "little cutie", "little sweetheart", etc., but do not sleep with or kiss your pet.

4. Special groups should be cautious about keeping pets. If there are key protected persons such as the elderly and pregnant women at home, pay close attention to their reactions to pets. If children have diseases such as asthma, they should not keep pets such as cats, dogs, white rabbits, and mullets.

5. Prepare emergency measures. * Commonly used hygiene medicines should be available at home. After being bitten by a pet, be sure to thoroughly rinse and disinfect the wound, and immediately go to a rabies prevention and treatment clinic or a hospital emergency department for professional diagnosis and treatment.

Why do more and more people like to keep pets?

01 Pets make you love home

When you have a pet at home, many people will have this feeling. That is, going to work every day is like parting with life and death, and you want to rush home as soon as you get off work. When you turn around at work, you see your pet looking at you pitifully, and that aggrieved little look makes you not want to go to work. After get off work, you want to go home quickly to see if your little pet has done anything bad at home, and go to the supermarket to buy it some snacks it likes. Then after returning home, you pick up the pet and kiss it again and again. Seeing the pet eating snacks happily, you also feel satisfied.

02 Pets make you feel responsible

You can't just keep a pet if you want to. If you adopt one, you must be responsible for it. You can't abandon your pet for any reason, because once a pet is abandoned, it will become sensitive and suspicious, afraid that its new owner will abandon it. So after adopting a pet, you will become more and more responsible. You can do things for your pet that you didn't dare to do before. So when you have a pet, you instantly feel full of positive energy every day.

03 Pets can express their loyalty

Most pet owners keep a pet in the city because they feel too stressed in the city and want to have someone to talk to. Pets are undoubtedly the best people to talk to. They are extremely loyal to their owners and will never say anything bad. When the pet owner is wronged, the pet will come to comfort him, which is very considerate.

04 Better physical and mental health

After having a dog, you will often take it out for exercise. While helping it exercise, you can also exercise and become healthier. Moreover, according to expert research, when pet owners stroke their dogs, their heart rate will decrease, which can reduce heart problems. People who keep dogs also have a higher happiness index than those who do not keep dogs, and the probability of depression will also be reduced.

The purpose of writing this article is not to persuade everyone not to keep pets.

I want to remind you

As long as you take precautions, you can keep pets with confidence

But if the above problems really occur

Remember to handle it promptly and carefully

Don’t let your pet take all the blame.

Source: Healthy China, Critical Care Medicine Solutions, Tencent Medical Dictionary, Leshan People's Hospital, Weibo, Zhihu

Source: Chongqing Tianji Network Co., Ltd.

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