posted
Shortly after we moved to our new house (in March), our cat looked like he damaged his paw. We thought maybe he broke it and it healed funny. During the same time, we noticed he slept all the time, instead of being his active kitty self. Over the next few weeks, he got worse and worse. He lost muscle tone, was weak, couldn't move. When he tried to walk, his hind legs and back would flip from side to side like a fish out of water. Eventually, he couldn't move at all. At some point, we tried steroids, but they immediately made it worse. We tried abx, but they did nothing. We had to put him down last month. The vet had no idea what was causing it and his quality of life was so poor.
Now that me and some of my kids have been diagnosed with Lyme, and I have done some research...I'm wondering if that could be what caused Leo's condition.
Can cats get Lyme?
Posts: 4 | From Chester County, PA | Registered: Oct 2009
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James
Posts: 872 | From New York City | Registered: Jun 2008
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TX Lyme Mom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 3162
posted
YES, cats can get Lyme. How can I say that with certainty?
My husband is a professor in the College of Science here at Texas A&M University where we have an excellent College of Veterinary Medicine. About 15 years ago, he was on a committee for a PhD candidate from the College of Veterinary Medicine whose PhD dissertation was on the transmission of Lyme disease by cat fleas. At one point in time, he had a copy of that PhD dissertation on his bookshelf, but after the oral exam, we sent his copy of the dissertation to a Lyme support leader in the NE.
Thus, I cannot easily refer to it now -- without hunting a parking place and combing the stacks at the medical library. (Hunting a parking place is the deterring factor for me!)
Nevertheless, what I can recall from having read that dissertation some 15 years ago is that what led to the experiment was that a veterinarian had become infected with Lyme disease while doing an autopsy on a dead cat when a flea from the cat jumped onto his bare arm (above the rubber gloved area).
In order to demonstrate that cat fleas can transmit Lyme disease, a PhD candidate in the vet school chose to do his dissertation research project on trying to prove or disprove whether cat fleas can transmit Lyme disease.
The conclusion was that cat fleas can transmite Lyme disease, and this fact was even printed up in brochures distributed by our Texas Department of Health -- although those brochures were eventually taken out of circulation after Lyme disease became overly politicized.
Here's where things get murky though. Remember, all of this occurred back before there were any good tick and flea repellants for dogs and cats. Well, the bottom line is that this dissertation never saw the light of day in print in any veterinary journal, which is what would usually happen with research of this nature. Instead, it sat forgotten, collecting dust on the library shelf. One can only wonder why.
My guess is that this research was just too political to be published -- although in all fairness, perhaps someone on an editorial board found fault with the design of the research project and axed it without publishing it for that reason alone.
Think about it though. If this research had become common knowledge some 15 years ago -- ie, before the introduction of effective flea and tick prevention -- then many families might have become too afraid to want to own pets, especially household cats, and a lot of neighborhood veterinarians might have gone hungry. That's my cynical take on the matter.
Oddly enough, the research was finally published, but not until 10 years later! Here's the link to it:
The abstract doesn't explain as much about it as I've told you -- about how this research project came about. That discussion came out during the oral examination and was the most interesting part of it, to my mind -- although I doubt that it was written up in the journal article. All I can recall is what my husband told me about it after sitting in on the oral presentation.
You are probably wondering why I can't ask him more about it now to refresh my memory, but let me explain how these PhD dissertation committees work. My husband is not a veterinarian. He teaches in the College of Science. However, all PhD advisory committees are required to have one "outsider" on the committee, just to keep things on the up-and-up. For example, a PhD chemistry candidate might have a chicken farmer sitting on his PhD advisory committee, while a PhD vet candidate might have an astronomer sitting on his dissertation advisory committee.
Something else of interest to y'all here at Lymenet is what I found via Google Scholar, while looking for the link to this abstract, so here's the link to the results of my Google Scholar search. (Notice my choice of search terms because you might succeed in finding other good stuff by changing the search terms slightly. BTW, Google Scholar is superior to a regular Google search for this purpose. If you aren't acquainted with Google Scholar, you're missing out.)
posted
Isn't there a picture of a cat with lyme disease in Karen's book "Evrything you need to know about Lyme Disease"?
Posts: 822 | From midwest | Registered: Apr 2009
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I'm going to have to research this one more. I'll ask my vet. Whenever a dog comes in and looks sick, they test for lyme. But not cats.
Maybe cats can get it but it's they immune systems can fight it off better than dogs.
But this is a scary thought. There is a lyme vaccine for dogs, but not cats. None of my cats ( who often get to the country, where I was infected) have ever been tested for lyme, nor has it be mentioned by my vet.
However, what killed your cat is likely to be one of the other bugs and not lyme.
Posts: 872 | From New York City | Registered: Jun 2008
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lymeinhell
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4622
posted
I have no doubt. I found a tick on one of my cats on Thanksgiving, and by Christmas I realized she was quite sick - she was in kidney failure from an infection of 'unknown origin'. The lyme tests were negative, we put her on abx, but the damage was done. I kept her going for a year while in complete kidney failure.
-------------------- Julie _ _ ___ _ _ lymeinhell
Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed. Posts: 2258 | From a better place than I was 11 yrs ago | Registered: Sep 2003
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nenet
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 13174
posted
Hi toobeets.
I'm very sorry to hear what your cat and you went through. Yes, cats can get Lyme disease, and other co-infections from ticks and fleas. The following thread should be a sticky in this forum somewhere, because Melanie Reber did a wonderful job of compiling useful information on Lyme in dogs and cats:
The Borris files: Canine and Feline LD information
It appears that just like in human cases, it depends entirely on the vet's knowledge and experience with Lyme and other Tick-Borne Diseases, and the county or state health dept. Lyme case report numbers, as to whether they will know to look for or even suspect Lyme in an animal. Those that prove Lyme in cats kind of trump the ones that say cats can't get it.
Most say that Lyme is rare in cats as compared to dogs, because they groom, or that they are less susceptible. I think that is conjecture only.
I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this gets discussed there.
Long story short, yes cats can and have gotten Lyme disease, and have even died from it.
Again, I'm very sorry this happened, whatever caused your cat to get sick.
posted
Note that they still call it erythema chronicum migrans. (in the springerlink page) Nowadays some people keep deleting chronicum from the wikipedia page. (because they now say that chronic lyme does not exist, whereas they used to say otherwise before)
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Eventually, he couldn't move at all. At some point, we tried steroids, but they immediately made it worse. We tried abx, but they did nothing. We had to put him down last month. The vet had no idea what was causing it and his quality of life was so poor.
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