Dealing with a cat in quarantine.

alejandrocarrizales

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Hi! I'm looking for some advice about what to do with my cat during this quarantine times due to the coronavirus. My cat is used to get night walks and returns everyday at 6 am. But due to this quarantine times, I'm a little bit worried of letting him out because I don't know if he can carry the virus on his paws or even on his fur. This is my daily debate with my parents, so I wanna ask you what you think about this? I should keep letting him out? Or he should do the quarantine as we do?

I need to add thay my dad has diabetes so he is on a specially vulnerable group for this disease. But he is the first advocate of letting him out.

So thanks, and I hope that you, your relatives and your furry friends are doing fine during this strange times.

I attach a photo of beautiful Bisho, the cat that started this debate.
 

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Furballsmom

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I received this from my vet today, It might be something to keep in mind;

Cats live for social distancing. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean the same thing to them as it does to us right now.

We are seeing an increase in issues that are stress related now that cats aren't getting their "me" time.

Medical issues being seen

> Kitty colds - eye discharge and redness, blinking a lot or squinting, sneezing, runny nose

> GI issues - vomiting and/or constipation

> Urination issues - peeing outside the litterbox, increase in frequency or amount

What you can do

Life needs to stay as normal as possible for our pets to cope

> Give cats their space - allow them to come to you for attention, keep children from interacting with them during the day unless the cat seeks them out, try to stay out of a room if that is where the cat usually spends the day when you are gone to work/school

> Stick to routines - feeding time and amounts need to be consistent, play time should be the same as before the stay-at-home orders.
 

Dearjujubebe

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If your cat is used to get a night walk, it is better to let him walk in a wide place, and clean his paws every time he returns home. Not let him go to the crowded place.

Hope all of you stay safe.
 

StefanZ

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The real risk is sooner, if YOU were the active Covid sick. Because the cat would then get his passive share of viruses on him, being around you.
No big amounts, but noticeable with a sensitive enough testing methode.
And thus, he would be a theretically threat to a sensitive person...

Him coming in with random catched virus particles is even smaller.

That said, I understand perfectly your dad is the high risk person here, and you want to keep him safe at all costs.

So I do agree you should do everything to isolate him as well you can, at least till they have a working medicine against Corona.
This includes keeping your cat is some form of quarantine him too.

For example on working medicine, may be the blood serum from persons whom had Covid, but become healthy...Thay began to talk about this the other day. I do believe in that idea, works in many other situations, and should come fairly soon.
 

daftcat75

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While it's unlikely that cats themselves will be carriers of Coronavirus, they are surfaces that can collect viral particles--particles that are longer lived than previously thought (anywhere from hours to days.) These surfaces can include their oral and nasal cavities (because they like to smell and eat things they maybe shouldn't) as well as their fur and feet. If your father is vulnerable and you don't intend to wash the cat and flush his sinuses every time he returns, I would keep the cat indoors during this period. It's not worth trading his freedom for your father's health. Sorry, Bisho! This will pass.
 

Meowmee

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Hi! I'm looking for some advice about what to do with my cat during this quarantine times due to the coronavirus. My cat is used to get night walks and returns everyday at 6 am. But due to this quarantine times, I'm a little bit worried of letting him out because I don't know if he can carry the virus on his paws or even on his fur. This is my daily debate with my parents, so I wanna ask you what you think about this? I should keep letting him out? Or he should do the quarantine as we do?

I need to add thay my dad has diabetes so he is on a specially vulnerable group for this disease. But he is the first advocate of letting him out.

So thanks, and I hope that you, your relatives and your furry friends are doing fine during this strange times.

I attach a photo of beautiful Bisho, the cat that started this debate.
So I assume you have corona? There was one case of transmission apparently to a cat from their person in Belgium. So I would have someone else take care of him for now. Maybe your father can take care of him? Just skip the walks for now. I hope you are ok and taking care of yourself. Bisho is a gorgeous boy 💕
 

Tik cat's mum

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My boy loves to go out in the back unfortunately he's in lockdown because last time we were out heard the neighbour coughing his head off, we retreated fast back inside he's not happy about it but we are both safe. In your situation it's not worth taking the chance with your dad being vulnerable.
 

MissClouseau

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None of us can speak with certainity because you know studies about this virus are still on-going. To me it sounds unlikely a cat can carry enough virus to spread it to a human. Even that article from Belgium leaves lots of things in the air as there is no evidence the cat was sick with Covid19 (the only way to know would be an antibodies test which they didn't do.) And also no info on how much the cat interacted with his human who has Covid19 - as in we already know there was longtime exposure due to them living together but it's also possible the cat ate something half-eaten by the human or something like that in which case there would be far more than surface exposure but there would be also swallowing the infected human's saliva.

My thought process is that there are lots of cat owners in China and Italy too, and lots of dogs. If cats or dogs could spread the virus through their fur like "surface transmit", I think there would be at least some rumor. (If the danger would be surface, dogs are in more danger as most of them go out everywhere and unlike cats they don't clean themselves daily.)

It's still a good idea to not hand food after touching the cat, not to touch mouth or nose. Another thing to think about is a cat who is use to going out will get stressed when they can't and that might trigger a health problem that prompts a vet visit. My cousin's cat got blocked once like that.

Again, I can't speak with certainity obviously, we are all still learning. This is just my thought process.
 

alphakitty

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The real risk is sooner, if YOU were the active Covid sick. Because the cat would then get his passive share of viruses on him, being around you.
No big amounts, but noticeable with a sensitive enough testing methode.
And thus, he would be a theretically threat to a sensitive person...

Him coming in with random catched virus particles is even smaller.

That said, I understand perfectly your dad is the high risk person here, and you want to keep him safe at all costs.

So I do agree you should do everything to isolate him as well you can, at least till they have a working medicine against Corona.
This includes keeping your cat is some form of quarantine him too.

For example on working medicine, may be the blood serum from persons whom had Covid, but become healthy...Thay began to talk about this the other day. I do believe in that idea, works in many other situations, and should come fairly soon.
I apologize for being off topic...

They have a working medicine now, its called hydrochloroquine or as its commonly known as the 'malaria drug', but it only costs $1.25 for a bottle of 30 pills, while all the big pharma companies are "racing to create a vacine" that'll cost $1200 a pill x 300,000,000 sick Americans. Typhoid, polio, St. Vidas Dance, syphlus, and whole host of other illnesses were **CURED** with 1800's technology medicine, but now there are no cures, here in our vaunted post dark-ages advanced technical society, but they got lots of therapies!

My wife has MS, her pill per day cost $82,000 last year.

Drain the pharma swamp..

Ad rem...back to the point of your post, I have four indoor kitties which I let out everyday around 9am ~ 10ish, and they all come in around 1pm for their nappyby. I'd let the kitty out.

However there have been a few studies that suggested that the Corona virus could be transmitted by both cats and dogs, but only they themselves become sick, while other studies counterdict that. But it also depends on the type of Corona virus, and there is no current information regarding the nCoV19 virus specifically. If you are interested I could cite the study, but it is technical and rather boring if one is not functionally edified in organic chemistry and biology.

Best Regards, and be safe

alpha kitty
 
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StefanZ

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I apologize for being off topic...

They have a working medicine now, its called hydrochloroquine or as its commonly known as the 'malaria drug', but it only costs $1.25 for a bottle of 30 pills, while all the big pharma companies are "racing to create a vacine" that'll cost $1200 a pill x 300,000,000 sick Americans. Typhoid, polio, St. Vidas Dance, syphlus, and whole host of other illnesses were **CURED** with 1800's technology medicine, but now there are no cures, here in our vaunted post dark-ages advanced technical society, but they got lots of therapies!

My wife has MS, her pill per day cost $82,000 last year.

Drain the pharma swamp..

Ad rem...back to the point of your post, I have four indoor kitties which I let out everyday around 9am ~ 10ish, and they all come in around 1pm for their nappyby. I'd let the kitty out.

However there have been a few studies that suggested that the Corona virus could be transmitted by both cats and dogs, but only they themselves become sick, while other studies counterdict that. But it also depends on the type of Corona virus, and there is no current information regarding the nCoV19 virus specifically. If you are interested I could cite the study, but it is technical and rather boring if one is not functionally edified in organic chemistry and biology.

Best Regards, and be safe

alpha kitty
Tx for the tip re this antimalaria-medicine hydrochloroquine, which perhaps may be used too against Covid19. As I understand it, there are tests on it now, and also other drugs, if they work against Covid.
So, nothing is clear as yet, but much is going on. :)

Re Corona in animals. Its much around sloppy reports, I think.
Because animals do have their own Corona variations, which arent infecting humans, and vice versa. Humans corona variation arent infecting animals.
Even if this corona comes from bats, but it cant be common among bats either. It mutated in some bats there in China. European and American bats dont have it.

But sloppy trigger happy journalist are gladely writing about Corona-infected animals.

And re Covid 19... THIS especial corona variation. Animals belonging to a Covid19 sick person, do get it on them, passively. Alike everything else around them. These pets dont get sick, but if tested with sensitive instruments, they of course show they have Covid- corona wirus on them...

That is why there are a couple of reports they found pets with Covid on them, a couple of cases in Singapore most notably.

Its no big amounts, and thus, the danger of healthy persons becoming contaged via them is low, but bigger than null.
Sensitive persons with bad immune system should beware.
 

kittenmittens84

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I apologize for being off topic...

They have a working medicine now, its called hydrochloroquine or as its commonly known as the 'malaria drug', but it only costs $1.25 for a bottle of 30 pills, while all the big pharma companies are "racing to create a vacine" that'll cost $1200 a pill x 300,000,000 sick Americans. Typhoid, polio, St. Vidas Dance, syphlus, and whole host of other illnesses were **CURED** with 1800's technology medicine, but now there are no cures, here in our vaunted post dark-ages advanced technical society, but they got lots of therapies!

My wife has MS, her pill per day cost $82,000 last year.

Drain the pharma swamp..

Ad rem...back to the point of your post, I have four indoor kitties which I let out everyday around 9am ~ 10ish, and they all come in around 1pm for their nappyby. I'd let the kitty out.

However there have been a few studies that suggested that the Corona virus could be transmitted by both cats and dogs, but only they themselves become sick, while other studies counterdict that. But it also depends on the type of Corona virus, and there is no current information regarding the nCoV19 virus specifically. If you are interested I could cite the study, but it is technical and rather boring if one is not functionally edified in organic chemistry and biology.

Best Regards, and be safe

alpha kitty
Just for clarity, hydrocholoquine is definitely not proven to work against covid-19 yet. There are a handful of small studies suggesting it may help patient outcomes so they’re giving it to people on the off chance it might work since it’s the best we’ve got right now, but it’s nowhere near medical consensus that it’s THE treatment or even a broadly effective treatment.

Also there is still no cure for polio...the vaccine was invented in the 1950s, but they definitely didn’t cure the disease in the 1800s because we still haven’t done that. In general it’s much more difficult to develop effective drug treatments for viral diseases than bacterial ones.
 

Meowmee

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None of us can speak with certainity because you know studies about this virus are still on-going. To me it sounds unlikely a cat can carry enough virus to spread it to a human. Even that article from Belgium leaves lots of things in the air as there is no evidence the cat was sick with Covid19 (the only way to know would be an antibodies test which they didn't do.) And also no info on how much the cat interacted with his human who has Covid19 - as in we already know there was longtime exposure due to them living together but it's also possible the cat ate something half-eaten by the human or something like that in which case there would be far more than surface exposure but there would be also swallowing the infected human's saliva.

My thought process is that there are lots of cat owners in China and Italy too, and lots of dogs. If cats or dogs could spread the virus through their fur like "surface transmit", I think there would be at least some rumor. (If the danger would be surface, dogs are in more danger as most of them go out everywhere and unlike cats they don't clean themselves daily.)

It's still a good idea to not hand food after touching the cat, not to touch mouth or nose. Another thing to think about is a cat who is use to going out will get stressed when they can't and that might trigger a health problem that prompts a vet visit. My cousin's cat got blocked once like that.

Again, I can't speak with certainity obviously, we are all still learning. This is just my thought process.
Tiger Nadia in the bronx zoo now tested positive for covid 19, and the others have symptoms, they think they got it from their care taker. Dvm are now recommending if you are symptomatic to isolate from your cats.

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo tests positive for coronavirus
 
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Meowmee

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I apologize for being off topic...

They have a working medicine now, its called hydrochloroquine or as its commonly known as the 'malaria drug', but it only costs $1.25 for a bottle of 30 pills, while all the big pharma companies are "racing to create a vacine" that'll cost $1200 a pill x 300,000,000 sick Americans. Typhoid, polio, St. Vidas Dance, syphlus, and whole host of other illnesses were **CURED** with 1800's technology medicine, but now there are no cures, here in our vaunted post dark-ages advanced technical society, but they got lots of therapies!

My wife has MS, her pill per day cost $82,000 last year.

Drain the pharma swamp..

Ad rem...back to the point of your post, I have four indoor kitties which I let out everyday around 9am ~ 10ish, and they all come in around 1pm for their nappyby. I'd let the kitty out.

However there have been a few studies that suggested that the Corona virus could be transmitted by both cats and dogs, but only they themselves become sick, while other studies counterdict that. But it also depends on the type of Corona virus, and there is no current information regarding the nCoV19 virus specifically. If you are interested I could cite the study, but it is technical and rather boring if one is not functionally edified in organic chemistry and biology.

Best Regards, and be safe

alpha kitty
That is not a proven treatment for covid 19 in fact studies showed it does not work, and it can be very dangerous.
 

MissClouseau

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Tiger Nadia in the bronx zoo now tested positive for covid 19, and the others have symptoms, they think they got it from their care taker. Dvm are now recommending if you are symptomatic to isolate from your cats.

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo tests positive for coronavirus
They didn't do an antibodies test on them either so that's also not certain if they were infected with the virus (or had another respiratory disease.) They just found tracks of the virus on them, like they could find on a surface too.
 
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