Bacteria rapid test kits

[sophie1]

Even though I'm completely happy with my cats' diet plan, I still have concerns about pathogens making them, me or visitors sick.  Thinking about it more right now because my brother is visiting with his 3 year old daughter.  I'm aware the risk that the cats can be infected with a pathogen (whether subclinically or overtly) is small, but it is there nonetheless.  My risk is probably also higher due to feeding grocery-bought meats.

One way to deal with that is to have the vet do periodic stool testing on my cats, but a cheaper and easier alternative would be to buy a bacterial test kit like this one:

http://weberscientific.com/app/catalog/index.php?_wsAction=view-product&id=1324&clearance=0

I don't have an incubator but could easily make one with an incandescent lightbulb and a small box.  There might also be test kits out there that don't require incubation, or maybe I could just wait longer for results. 

Has anyone tried a kit like this, or considered home testing? 

 

[mschauer]

This is an interesting topic for a thread!

I know little about this type of testing but I'm interested in learning about it. So I hope you don't mind that  I'm going to throw out some questions rather than provide answers. 

There are all sorts of bacteria. Would you only test for specific ones that are of most concern to you? 

I would think salmonella is one that would be of concern but aren't we pretty much guaranteed that our cats are shredding salmonella? 

Wouldn't you have to test more than just stool? Bacteria could be elsewhere in your environment having been deposited by a cat at some time previously but wouldn't necessarily be in the stool at sample time.

I guess I'm wondering specifically what it is that could be learned from doing the type of testing your are suggesting and what you would do with what your learn.

 

[Willowy]

Doesn't stool always have harmful bacteria? :dk: Isn't that why we try to avoid contact with feces? For instance, e.coli is always in your intestines/feces; it's just when someone ingests too much, or when the good bacteria in the gut get sick and can't keep the bad bacteria in control, that it causes problems. Would you be testing the food prep surfaces like it says in the description, or the cats' stools?

 

[sophie1]

Hope this is just the start of an interesting discussion!  I don't have nice tidy answers but just some thoughts.

Bacteria of course are everywhere, so it would only make sense to test for those strains that most commonly cause foodborne illness, and that are typically acquired from raw meats.  If these test kits just test for any/all bacteria then they wouldn't be so useful, but hopefully there's one out there that tests specifically for pathogenic strains.  The problem with "salmonella" is that, like all bacteria, there are multiple strains and only a few will cause illness.  So statements like "11% of retail poultry is contaminated with salmonella" are meaningless.  (And if that referred to pathogenic strains, there would be an epidemic of epic proportions going on.)

Ideally, here's a short list of bacteria to test for.  The FDA has a publication on food-borne illness:  http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/UCM297627.pdf

Campylobacter jejuni - per the FDA, "20-100% of retail poultry is contaminated".  (really???)  It is the most common food-borne illness.

Clostridium perfringes and botulinum

E. coli O:157/H7 (though nearly all cases have involved ground hamburger meat)

Listeria monocytogenes

Salmonella (enterica, bongori)

What I'd do is test my kitchen counters (food prep area) and stool samples from the litter box separately.  If stool tests positive then I'd have it confirmed by the vet and then confer with him on what to do next (treat, or wait a while and re-test). Alternatively I could simply ask the vet to do stool cultures, but I assume home testing would be cheaper and easier. 

If anyone knows about specific test kits I'd like to hear about it.  And I'm very curious how many households on this forum would test positive.  According to the AVMA it should be pretty close to all of us, but how would they know?  Testing foods is a far less direct way of answering that question.

 

[sophie1]

Youtube video review of a home salmonella test kit - which there don't seem to be a lot of unfortunately.

 

[mschauer]

Coco has had two bacterial infections since starting raw. I've started adding a probiotic to their food in the hope that will prevent future infections. I'm also thinking about periodic stool testing to see if the bacteria is getting out of control.

Her 2 infections involved Campylobacter and Clostridium. I think in my case 2 or 3 times a year testing by my vet would probably suffice.

 

[sophie1]

 
Coco has had two bacterial infections since starting raw. I've started adding a probiotic to their food in the hope that will prevent future infections. I'm also thinking about periodic stool testing to see if the bacteria is getting out of control.

Her 2 infections involved Campylobacter and Clostridium. I think in my case 2 or 3 times a year testing by my vet would probably suffice.

What do you have your vet test for specifically?  And would you be willing to relate some details about the two infections?

Interesting that it was just one of your cats, even though presumably the others ate the same diet.  Are you testing their stools as well, and have any of them been positive for the same strains that Coco had?

 

[mschauer]

What do you have your vet test for specifically?  And would you be willing to relate some details about the two infections?

I would have them test for any bacteria that shouldn't be present just as they normally do with a fecal. My vet does fecals in house so it isn't like having to ask for a lab to test for a specific pathogen. I'd have to talk to my vet about interpreting the results. I don't know if they should never see Campylobacter and Clostridium or if it is only if they are seen in conjunction with clinical signs that there is a concern.

What details about the infections are you interested in??? Symptoms wise she was lethargic and not eating.

 Interesting that it was just one of your cats, even though presumably the others ate the same diet.  Are you testing their stools as well, and have any of them been positive for the same strains that Coco had?

Yeah, I thought that was interesting also. With the most recent infection I had fecals done on the others thinking they would show the same bacteria but that wasn't the case. Their fecals came back OK. I suspect it has something to do with Coco being a Bengal. They are notorious for having GI issues. Coco had chronic loose stools for the first 6 month after I adopted her. I found that a prebiotic/priobiotic/digetive enzyme supplement cured her of that. When I gave her that supplement she could eat any commercial processed food with no problem. I was able to stop using that supplement once I switched them all to a raw diet. Maybe what ever it is that makes her unable to tolerate processed foods also makes her prone to bacterial infections. 

 

 

[peaches08]

One would think as a nurse (with experience in the OR) and the fact that I used to lightly sear the outside of the chicken thighs AND am treating a bartonella-infected cat (contracted it before I got him), I'd be more worried about pathogens.  But, anyone can get to a point of "well, nothing has happened yet" so I'll be following this thread closely.  Good thread!

 

[sophie1]

 
One would think as a nurse (with experience in the OR) and the fact that I used to lightly sear the outside of the chicken thighs AND am treating a bartonella-infected cat (contracted it before I got him), I'd be more worried about pathogens.  But, anyone can get to a point of "well, nothing has happened yet" so I'll be following this thread closely.  Good thread!

And if nothing has happened yet to enough people for enough time, that would make us all less worried.  I'm concerned that unlike mschauer, others who encountered problems with infections may have stopped feeding raw and dropped off the list, so we may not have the benefit of that experience.

mschauer, perhaps GI problems might indeed cause some cats to have more trouble with pathogens in raw food?  There's an immune system in the intestinal lining (Peyer's patches) that is supposed to clear potential pathogens, and if that is impaired then I imagine a cat might be rendered more susceptible to infection.  It sounds like that worked fine in your other cats.  I hope the probiotics help Coco.

Next time I order from Amazon I think I'll try that home test kit...I'm curious about not just the litter box but also other areas around the house that get lots of love from little kitty paws and noses, and perhaps a meat sample or two.  I like the idea of stool testing by the vet, but I can reserve that for following up positives on the home test.  If anyone else decides to try it I would really like the hear the results.

 

[mschauer]

And if nothing has happened yet to enough people for enough time, that would make us all less worried.  I'm concerned that unlike mschauer, others who encountered problems with infections may have stopped feeding raw and dropped off the list, so we may not have the benefit of that experience.

 Yup. That's the problem with relying on anecdotal information with regards to the safety of raw feeding. A lot of the information comes from people on forums like this who currently feed raw. The people who had a problem and stopped feeding raw obviously won't be contributing to a raw feeding forum. Even if they tried to communicate their problem in a forum I've seen some of the more militant raw feeding advocates on other forums berate and dismiss people when they try to discuss problems they've had saying that if they just did things "right" there would be no problem even when there was nothing obvious they did wrong. That kind of treatment discourages people from posting about problems, pathogen or otherwise. I haven't seen that happen at TCS but I've seen it elsewhere.

I'm not trying to suggest that pathogens are more of a problem than we think I'm just saying that if pathogens were more of a problem than we think we might not know it just based on what we read in online forums of peoples experiences.

 mschauer, perhaps GI problems might indeed cause some cats to have more trouble with pathogens in raw food?  There's an immune system in the intestinal lining (Peyer's patches) that is supposed to clear potential pathogens, and if that is impaired then I imagine a cat might be rendered more susceptible to infection.  It sounds like that worked fine in your other cats.  I hope the probiotics help Coco.

Maybe. It was 4 years between her 2 infections so it will take a long time to know if the probiotics help unless the fecals show something.