My cat gave me Cat scratch disease, what now?

Hi, let me start at the beginning; My wife has always been very allergic to cats but for some reason she is fine around this cat. I had never gotten any disease from cats before and i'm not allergic either. So this cat was perfect for us and we fell in love with him. His name is Nico and he's 11 months old.
Anyways, about two months ago he got me sick with Cat scratch Disease, which is caused by a bacteria called Bartonella Henselae. For most people this wouldn't be a big deal, with mild or no symptoms at all but I'm not that lucky.

I'm one of those people who develops complications from this disease, it traveled to my eye and i have a large blind spot now from the infection. If i get reinfected again it could affect my eye again. I'm still healing from this first infection. My doctor thinks the answer is simple. Get rid of the cat.

Needless to say, it's not that simple for us. I mean my head tells me to just get rid of him, but i just cant bring myself to just do it. He means a lot to my wife and to me, probably more to her since she thought she could never have a cat because of her very bad allergies.

I'm just looking for opinions, ideas, i don't know. What do you guys think? we could try things like keeping him flea free (he gets the disease from fleas) and see what happens, but its my vision we are talking about. Should i get rid of him?

Thanks for taking the time to read my long post. please reply. I'm losing sleep over this.

From what I am reading, it seems kittens are more likely to transmit it than older cats, so you may be able to get through this in time following some simple suggestions...

-Avoid "rough play" with the cat, especially kittens. This includes any activity that may lead to cat scratches and bites.
-Wash cat bites and scratches immediately and thoroughly with running water and soap.
-Do not allow the cat to lick open wounds that you may have.
-Control fleas. (Get treatments from a vet only!)
-Wash hands after handling the cat.


Again, these are only suggestions. Ultimately it is up to you and your wife. I hope this helps. Good luck. =/

I've had CSF several times in my life, but antibiotics always knocked it out. I'm sorry it's hitting you so hard. Good luck I hope you don't give up your kitty.

I surely hope it is not necessary to "re home" your kitty. I would think just usual precautions would certainly be enough to keep from getting sick.

Don't play with him with your bare hands. There are plenty of toys out there to eliminate hand to mouth or claw contact.

I would not rehome a cat because he was acting like a cat. Just use common sense. There are germs everywhere....I would rather deal with a cat than some children I have seen.

It would be a terrible shame if you were to re home the cat. You would be denying your wife her little friend and she may, in time, resent that. I'd just have limited contact with the kitty. Your doctor, I believe, is suggesting a radical move. Common sense should prevail here.

I agree, rehoming is a radical move especially when it seems you are already questioning the very idea of it. I would follow the other posted advice and keep your sweet kitty.

Good luck and I am sorry that the disease hit you so hard

Thanks everyone. We have decided to not give up on Nico, after all he is a member of the family. We're taking him to the vet to see if we can get him cleared of fleas and the bartonella. We'll try to get all the info we can from the vet on how to handle this.
Also we need to get rid of the fleas in the house, any suggestions on good products that are safe for cats and for people? I'm hoping to get better soon and never have to deal with CSD again.

Ask your vet for the flea treatments and never buy any OTC meds (That is my personal opinion, they are dangerous, imo) Revolution is held in high regard by many in this board, frontline may be an option too. I'm not sure if anyone here has anything against Capstar pills, but those are sometimes used as well, perhaps someone here can give more information on the Capstar... as I have a friend who gives them regularly to her managerie of cats but I wouldn't personally give them as regularly as she does.

The vet will have the best recommendations And thank you for not giving up on Nico!