Is Clostridium Contagious In Cats??

[danielle4522]

hey guys just a short question, have any of your cats ever had clostridium over growth, and if so, did your other cats get sick from it? The vet tells me it is not contagious but both my cats got sick suddenly and one has clostridum, and something else could’ve gotten my other cat sick, but just curious if your cat has had this bacteria and if you had another cat that got it??

Thanks!

 

[white shadow]

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Clostridium perfringens is not "contagious".....period. It cannot be transmitted directly from person-to-person, animal-to-animal.

It's common in the intestines of human and animals. You already know that it can be present in 'spoiled' foods and "in the environment".

It's known to cause "hospital diarrhea" in animals admitted to Vet hospitals.

It's everywhere!

Now......exactly why your second cat developed an episode of it.....well, you'll never know, we'll never know....no one will ever know!

Here's a piece from Texas A&M School of Vet Medicine explaining that a large percentage of healthy cats and dogs harbor this bug in their guts:

...recent studies have shown that approximately 20% of healthy cats, 37% of healthy dogs, and 37% of diarrheic dogs and cats harbor the CPE gene. Similar results with no significant differences in prevalence rates of enterotoxigenic C. perfringens between healthy and diarrheic dogs have been observed in other studies. Furthermore, in only a small percentage of animals that harbor enterotoxigenic C. perfringens, the expressed enterotoxin can be detected in the feces....
LINK: Fecal ELISA for C. perfringens enterotoxin - Texas A&M Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences​

I know that your wondering about the "why" of all this is just going in circles and really upsetting you. The plain fact is that it happened and there's really no understanding of "why?" to be had/gotten.

From what you've written in other threads, the antibiotic is getting it back under control.........that has to be the best news!
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[FeebysOwner]

HI. I've heard both sides of this story - that is not contagious, and that it is, in the sense that it can be transferred from one cat to another through exposure to feces.

However, the second cat who is now sick should have a fecal sample tested to confirm or deny the same bacteria is there, and if so should also be put on antibiotics.

 

[momof3b1g]

All my cats have it. So unless all of them ate the same thing. It is contagious as they got it some how too