Diseases shared by humans and cats

I have two male tabby/Siamese cross and one Heinz57 female grey tabby, besides a (presently unnumbered) barn cat pride outdoors.  I would like to start a thread about human to cat and cat to human disease.  I am suspecting we possibly just had H1N1, otherwise known as swine flu, which I have just learned CAN be passed from cat to human AND from human to cat.  I have not had myself tested yet, nor have I taken my indoor cats to the vet.  (We have a farm and have learned that we must treat our animals ourselves with common sense care before calling a vet, or we would soon "lose the farm" by spending all of our money.)  

All of my outdoor cats had this virus which caused moderate to severe respiratory symptoms, and caused a death of at least one half-grown young barn cat and, I suspect, numerous kittens that I did not ever see.  From December until now, my daughter and son-in-law, my parents, and most recently my indoor cats and myself, have been sick with a virus that seemed like "a cold" to me, without nausea, but which is lasting longer than normal and is causing much more severe respiratory problems in my indoor cats.  None of us had been vaccinated for H1N1.  

Most websites still do not have the information that humans and several kinds of animal, including cats, dogs, ferrets, pigs, and domestic birds, can all catch H1N1.  In an animal or human who has other conditions or are very young or old, the disease can be severe or even fatal.  My indoor cats were all very healthy but two of the three are having long-lasting respiratory congestion which is threatening them with dehydration. 

This information needs to be more widely known among us pet owners so we can exercise caution and not spread this disease unknowingly to our families or to other families, especially babies and the elderly.  Its incubation is only 2 - 4 DAYS, so it can spread through a school quickly, and it lasts for weeks.

If there are some other viruses out there that are shared by humans and cats and have cold/flu-like symptoms, I would like to know.  I have just been learning about this problem and have found very little information out there.

My three indoor cats have all had this - one is still sick.  The first, Gabriel, began to show symptoms (sneezing and coughing) at the beginning of last week, then progressed to stopped up nose and fever and lethargy, then began to recover.  I got his "cold" four days after him, same symptoms.  My other two indoor cats got the same virus about four days after me, and they had more trouble breathing.  It took 10 days for Gabriel to get well, and Jazzy (the female) is still sneezing a lot.  Hirishi, the second male, got it when she did, and I am still keeping him in the bathroom with a vaporizer, giving him Epsom salt baths (he LIKES baths), and trying to coax him to drink.  His nose is still badly stopped up, but he's somewhat better this afternoon; I'm just concerned about dehydration and am watching him carefully.

So... does anyone out there have a similar experience of catching your cat's "cold?" Were you ever diagnosed by a doctor or vet? How did you treat your pet's illness?

There have been documented cases of human-to-cat transmission ("reverse zoonosis"). This article talks about H1N1 Can you really give your dog or cat the flu?

Another: Pets May Get the Flu More Often than Thought

There are actually a number of zoonotic diseases. Cornell has a short list here: Zoonotic Disease: What Can I Catch from my Cat?

Honestly, the chances of getting flu from your cats are miniscule in comparison to the risk of contagion from other humans. I taught school (and commuted by train) for well over three decades and got my share of colds, flu, mumps, etc., from my students. I now work at an animal shelter, where I'm exposed to 50 - 75 cats, a few dogs and numerous small animals on a daily basis, and often work in the quarantine section where I'm exposed to zoonoses. I worry far more about being a vector at the shelter (so continually wash and disinfect my hands) than about catching anything from ill animals.

I think the main ones would be parasites and rabies.  I don't think kitty flu or colds are contagious to humans.  The one I am not sure about is the herpes virus.  I know a lot of people here have kitties with herpes and I hadn't heard of anyone catching it from their kitties.

I just saw this: http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/med...can-catch-from-your-pet/ar-BBjBfZO?li=BBnbfcL Zoonotic diseases like rabies is a main concern.

I had forgotten about ringworm.  I kind of think of it as a major annoyance and a pain to get rid of rather than an illness.

I'm pretty sure herpes viruses are very host specific, so you're not likely to get cat herpes or to give your cat human herpes.

If you have not yet I strongly recommend starting all cats on lysine.

Amazon sells brand called NOW! And its a 1lb bottle. The daily dose is 1/4 teaspoon. Mix it in some wet food that they will eat. Or mix it in babyfood meat flavor and they should lap it up.

Lysine stops the herpes virus from replication. Most sneezing and other garbage is usually the herpes virus. I don't know about catching from your pets But I can say that they have gotten a few sneezes from me whenever I have a cold and I too have caught a bit of cold but who knows if its from catching it out in public or at work. We never know.

If your cats are still struggling I recommend that you see your vet and get set up to do subfluids at home. They will keep them hydrated and helps with eating.

A sick dehydrated cat won't eat. It makes them feel absolute miserable. Get those sub fluids started along with appetite stimulants and you should see improvement. Unfortunately its a virus and rakes about three weeks to run its course.

Also make sure your cats don't have heart disease as sub fluids and heart disease don't mix but I think that they could benefit from the fluids ir at least half of the dose.

Adding water to tuna fish and mash it up good. Heat it for 5 second in microwave will help it smell more. I call it slurry. U can use any canned cat food but I find tuna is the best when they are ill and can't smell.

To jcat: Thanks for your thought and those articles! One of the articles was new to me - and a really good one to provide info about H1N1!  I am not really worried about cat to human transmission of disease under normal circumstances, and  I've lived with cats all my life, as well as all kinds of other animals. I was fairly certain that this was a viral disease, but a lot of articles have little to no information about viral "flu" diseases that humans and cats share - giving pet owners a false sense of security.  We as pet owners and parents need to be vigilant (as you have been in your job) about hand-washing and other common-sense actions that prevent the spread of virus.  I have a daughter with asthma and elderly parents, but was under a false impression that my cats could not spread a flu virus to humans. My barn cats had been sick, but aside from trying to prevent them from infecting my indoor cats, I had no concerns.  Now I realize how clueless I was, and that I could spread flu from the cats to my human family members, I will be extra vigilant about cleanliness. For instance, our little female Jazzy, who was still sneezing and probably shedding virus, was still sleeping on the foot of my daughter's bed!  

       To let you know how clueless I was: my father has severe eye problems from histoplasmosis, which probably came from cat litter since he also has always had cats indoors.  Even knowing that fact, I still had not really researched the issue of zoonotic  disease until now.

       My third indoor cat had to be kept in a bathroom with steam, force-fed liquids and fiber, and given an enema before he began to recover. He is now showing normal kidney and bowel function and returning appetite and energy, but it was touch and go for several days. Now, I am praying my husband and daughter do not catch the virus and sanitizing everything in sight.

When I took a course 4 years ago I did a paper on the Flu Pandemic of the early 1900's.  At that time I did find an article about a strain very close to bird flu becoming contagious among cats.  They first found it in a tiger sanctuary in Thailand.  They routinely loose a tiger here and there from contaminated poultry but they suddenly had a large number of sick tigers and the tigers don't survive it.  This sounds horrible but they took a group of domestic kitties, infected one and found that it was also contagious among domestic cats.  The virus had not yet made the mutation to be contagious to humans.