Plague from a cat bite?!?!?

[Abnerrs]

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First, this guy is kinda dumb. Taking a stray cat's dinner?! Umm no. But this still freaks me out.....

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/ap/plague-confirmed-in-oregon-man-bitten-by-stray-cat

 

[Minnerbelle]

Yep, a vet, a tech, and I had a big scare last summer. Beware the cat with a giant lymph node in places where Yersinia is endemic. Top differentials are lymphoma, plague, and tularemia. Lymphoma sucks, but the other two are downright scary (for the people around the animal too!).

 

[bbeventer]

Here I am thinking that plague was only spread by fleas from rodents...

 

[Lissarae06]

You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about plague in vet school.

 

[cowgirla]

You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about plague in vet school.

👍 For a while I had plague-nightmares

 

[hai1983]

Here I am thinking that plague was only spread by fleas from rodents...

That's what my microbiology professor told me, too. :-/

 

[Abnerrs]

I just know this freaks me the fudge out

 

[jemappellejane]

I'm surprised we're gonna learn so much. Is plague common among cats?? 6 years working in a vet hospital and have never even heard of this being an issue...😕

 

[Lissarae06]

I'm surprised we're gonna learn so much. Is plague common among cats?? 6 years working in a vet hospital and have never even heard of this being an issue...😕

Plague is fairly common in the four corners region. To avoid writing everything I know about plague, you guys should check out the cdc website on plague. I can't cut and paste on my nook right now but a simple google search should get you to it. Pretty interesting stuff.

 

[Abnerrs]

Plague is fairly common in the four corners region. To avoid writing everything I know about plague, you guys should check out the cdc website on plague. I can't cut and paste on my nook right now but a simple google search should get you to it. Pretty interesting stuff.

Good lord.

http://www.cdc.gov/plague/

 

[orca2011]

Good lord.

http://www.cdc.gov/plague/

I know! Totally just started reading this.

 

[bbeventer]

I know! Totally just started reading this.

😱😱
All the methods of transmission makes me wonder why we don't have more cases?

 

[Abnerrs]

😱😱
All the methods of transmission makes me wonder why we don't have more cases?

Right?!?!

Sent from my LG-LS840 using SDN Mobile

 

[Tco87]

My problem with the story, at least how it was written in that new report, is that they don't establish a connection between the stray cat and the guy getting plague. Yeah, the cat bit him, but was it showing signs of having the plague? I know that they said that it died, but it was a stray. Maybe it had FeLV or FIP or something else that killed it.

I'm not saying that I don't believe he could have gotten plague from the cat, I just don't think they did a good job of reporting why anyone believes there's a connection.

 

[Minnerbelle]

But they never said there was a connection beyond known facts in the article. Man has plague. He was recently bitten by a cat that died. Dead cat and blood samples of the dude's pets are being sent to the CDC to try and figure out how he contracted it. I'm not sure how else they could have reported that better.

 

[Smilezz]

I remember learning about it in an Entomology class last semester. I was surprised as well to hear how endemic it was in some areas.

As scary as it sounds, I've heard that it's very treatable nowadays as long as it's caught early enough.

 

[jemappellejane]

as long as it's caught early enough.

Hopefully it's easy to spot early on...??

 

[PetMySausage]

Hopefully it's easy to spot early on...??

From what I understand, not really. But in the endemic areas, the ID docs are always on the look out for it. However, if you got it while in an endemic area (let's say on vacation) and then went back to a non-endemic area, I'd say the chances of the doc figuring it before it became serious are probably low.

 

[CanHardlyWait]

"There is an average of seven human plague cases in the U.S. each year."

Holy crap! This is something I wish I had never known.

 

[nyanko]

"There is an average of seven human plague cases in the U.S. each year."

Holy crap! This is something I wish I had never known.

Seven is pretty damn low odds.

An estimated average of 400 people (reported 280) get struck by lightning in the US per year.

There is an average of 124 reported human cases of tularemia in the US per year.

Average around 20,000 people get Bartonella infections (cat scratch disease) in the US per year.

About 31 cases of Hantavirus infection per year, which is much scarier than plague frankly..

And you're worried about some fairly easily treatable disease with an average of 7 cases per year?

 

[nyanko]

Along the same lines as the above post, in case you really want to feel like wrapping yourself in bubble wrap before leaving the house, I'm just gonna leave this link here..

 

[CanHardlyWait]

Seven is pretty damn low odds.

An estimated average of 400 people (reported 280) get struck by lightning in the US per year.

There is an average of 124 reported human cases of tularemia in the US per year.

Average around 20,000 people get Bartonella infections (cat scratch disease) in the US per year.

About 31 cases of Hantavirus infection per year, which is much scarier than plague frankly..

And you're worried about some fairly easily treatable disease with an average of 7 cases per year?

I knew about the lightning, it happens where I live multiple times a year.

Regarding everything else-as I said before, but times 1000. Thanks? 🙄

 

[Tco87]

But they never said there was a connection beyond known facts in the article. Man has plague. He was recently bitten by a cat that died. Dead cat and blood samples of the dude's pets are being sent to the CDC to try and figure out how he contracted it. I'm not sure how else they could have reported that better.

Maybe it's just me. When I read the title "Plague Confirmed in Oregon Man Bitten by Stray Cat" I thought it meant they had some proof the cat likely gave him the plague. And then I read the article and didn't see any strong reason connecting him contracting the plague and being bitten by a stray. They could have just said "Plague Confirmed in Oregon Man" and then mentioned the cat in the article.

 

[SilverSpyderGT]

Here's hoping someone at the CDC has the good sense to test the cat for rabies while they have the body, and hopefully the guy got post-exposure rabies prophylaxis shots already. It would suck for this guy to recover from the plague only to die of rabies in a few years. It's just another thing to worry about in a cat that died shortly after biting someone.

 

[PetMySausage]

Here's hoping someone at the CDC has the good sense to test the cat for rabies while they have the body, and hopefully the guy got post-exposure rabies prophylaxis shots already. It would suck for this guy to recover from the plague only to die of rabies in a few years. It's just another thing to worry about in a cat that died shortly after biting someone.

Co-infection of rabies and plague, considering how beat up the immune system is as a result of the plague infection, do you think the virus would reach the CNS more quickly or time to presentation would be the same since the virus can only travel so quickly through the peripheral nervous system to the CNS?

 

[StartingoverVet]

Maybe it's just me. When I read the title "Plague Confirmed in Oregon Man Bitten by Stray Cat" I thought it meant they had some proof the cat likely gave him the plague. And then I read the article and didn't see any strong reason connecting him contracting the plague and being bitten by a stray. They could have just said "Plague Confirmed in Oregon Man" and then mentioned the cat in the article.

You are assuming the writing would contain relevant info. I don't. Completely likely it was confirmed but the reporter didn't bother to lay it out clearly, because let's face it, most reader wouldn't have a clue either way.

 

[LetItSnow]

Co-infection of rabies and plague, considering how beat up the immune system is as a result of the plague infection, do you think the virus would reach the CNS more quickly or time to presentation would be the same since the virus can only travel so quickly through the peripheral nervous system to the CNS?

I'm only guessing, but if I were a betting man, I'd think the virus doesn't travel any faster or slower in the presence of a Yersinia infection. That's about 95% wild-ass guess, though.