Can you get sick from your cat?

lucidblue

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Aug 1, 2005
Messages
29
Purraise
0
Location
PA
So, this may be a silly question, but oh well...

If your cat is sick with a stomach bug or something, can you catch it? I'm only asking because my cat has been sick for 3 days and now I'm suddenly sick too... Never thought of this before, because she's never been sick.

Thanks
 

blue_monday_88

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jul 20, 2005
Messages
376
Purraise
1
Location
Hoboken
Hi LucidBlue...I don't think a human can catch like a stomach or URI from a cat. I think it might be physically impossible or rather the minute amounts of virus or bacteria that a cat might have can be almost instantaneously killed by humans on contact. But there are a few things to consider. One is, when you clean out her litter box, do you wash your hands immediately afterwards? Have you been disinfecting her box so germs don't spread around? If you have a URI and your cat has had one, maybe there is a mold problem or dust problem in your house that may have caused it for either one of you? Or maybe she ate something bad that you might have cooked as a "present" and you ate it too? I don't know! So many possibilities but I don't think that you can catch what you cat has. I am by far NOT an expert, so are there any out there???

Oh and another thing I thought of...could your kitty being sick cause stress on your immune system and then it manifests as something else for you? That could be coincidental. My cat has a little virus thing a few weeks back and I was so worried for her that I ended up getting...well, let's just put it this way, I was on the terlet for a loooooong time!
Good luck and hope you and your kitty are doing better
 

coaster

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 28, 2005
Messages
5,174
Purraise
7
Location
Wisconsin
Let's see...off the top of my head...Toxoplasmosis can be gotten from cat feces (pregnant women and immune-compromised people only need to take precautions); Catch Scratch Fever can be gotten from cat bites or scratches; some parasites (OK, that's not a disease); ringworm (wait--is a fungus a parasite or a disease); hmmmmm....still thinking.....

Really....don't worry about it. Cats aren't any more contagious, and less so, than some other animals.
 
Top