Pregnant Ladies, Keep Your Cats

Pregnant Ladies, Keep Your Cats

Our pets are priceless, aren’t they? We rely on them deeply for emotional support, particularly when faced with major changes in our lives. Sadly, it was once quite common for physicians to address serious health conditions by ordering eviction of the family pet. You see, many diseases weaken the immune system so that it’s less capable of fighting off common germs, such as the ones carried by many pet dogs and cats. Nowadays, the CDC has reversed this old approach and recommends that patients with subpar immune systems keep their pets, because of the valuable emotional support that they provide. Some precautions are recommended, however.
Are you thinking you don’t know anyone who is “immune compromised”? A complete list of people with inadequate immune function includes chemotherapy patients, people with organ transplants, people with autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, and AIDS patients, but also small children, elderly people, and pregnant women. It is a rather expansive list—you might be on it yourself! Don’t worry—a few simple safety measures will satisfy even the CDC, our strictest authority on the prevention of illness.

Start with a routine parasite control so that pets don’t have the opportunity to carry intestinal parasites that could affect humans. Many of the modern monthly heartworm preventatives will do the trick. Not every single parasite is covered, though, so have a stool sample checked by your veterinarian three or four times a year. Litter box cleaning and outdoor poop duty should be performed every day by a healthy, non pregnant person. Many of the parasites that can be carried by normal pets, such as toxoplasmosis, take a day or more to mature in the environment. Daily removal will prevent them from reaching the infectious stage. Always wash your hands after touching your pet and before eating or putting your hands near your mouth, particularly if you are on the immune compromised list. You should also wash hands after touching pet food, because it is occasionally recalled for the presence of food poisoning pathogens like Salmonella. Salmonella and Campylobacter are often found in raw meat diets, so these are not recommended for pets living with someone on the list. The pet doesn’t often become ill from eating that, but he can become a source of infection for little children, elderly people, and others with weaker immune function.
Hand washing is the key to being ill (or elderly, or pregnant…) and still maintaining a safe relationship with your pet. Hand washing should be done with real soap and water when possible, with 25 seconds soap-to-skin contact before rinsing. Antibacterial products are not necessary. Hand sanitizers are modern and convenient, but they just don’t perform as well as a soap-and-water wash.

The CDC agrees that even a serious illness or other immune condition shouldn’t separate you from your pet. Nothing really complicated or expensive is required. If you take the simple precautions I’ve outlined above, your physician (or obstetrician, or oncologist, or pediatrician…) will give you an A+ at your next visit.
Dr M.S. Regan