I have a cat who lived in an apartment with a pair of dumbo rats who eventually both became sickly and died. They had bleeding eyes, respiratory probs, head tilt, constantly running in circles, bloody nose, and lethargy. She never ate them but she did used to sit on their cage for hours. I don't know in much detail about this disease so I was just wondering if any vets or rat/cat owners knew anything. THANKS!Are cats only susceptible to toxoplasmosis if they ingest rodents or can they get it just from being around?
Cats can only be infected by ingesting infective oocysts (from cat feces) or tissue containing pseudocysts. The feces require a sporulation period of at least 24 hours outside the cat host before they are infective, so keeping the box scooped out is important. Indoor-only cats are very unlikely to acquire toxoplasmosis, as were the rats. See this brochure from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures鈥?/a>Are cats only susceptible to toxoplasmosis if they ingest rodents or can they get it just from being around?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmos鈥?/a>
Your cat won't get toxo from your pet rats. There are many causes for toxo infection. See link above.
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