If you are pregnant and a cat lady, you’ve probably heard more than one friend telling you to stay away from your pet. This is part myth and part fact. This mystery caused confusion for cat ladies and made them think if they are safe around their cats or not.
Toxoplasmosis, from a specific parasite, infects cats and their owners. It is a rare parasitic disease that affects people with weakened immune systems and pregnant women. Studies show that toxoplasmosis is transmittable when a person gets in contact with an infected cat’s pee or feces. However, should this really be a cause of concern that makes people want to distance themselves from their pets? What’s the truth behind all these questions?
What the CDC says…
The CDC is one of the most reliable sources of information when it comes to diseases, viruses, parasites, bacteria, and health. They claim that statistics of toxoplasmosis infection from your cat is not significant enough to be a source of fear. It is unlikely for owners to get exposed from their cats, but not entirely impossible. Unfortunately, they did say that humans might get the infection from eating uncooked meat or holding the soil in bare hands.
How do Cats Get Toxoplasma?
The parasite is not exclusive to cats because other animals can also get toxoplasmosis. Cats get it when they eat or lick infected small animals, or play with infected soil. Other animals can transmit the disease when they come in contact with humans or other animals. But cats are unique in a way that they can infect others by coming in contact with their poop. So aside from cleaning your cat’s litter box, you can get toxoplasmosis when you eat the infected uncooked meat of an animal.
More About Toxoplasma
Toxoplasma parasite (T. gondii) infects mammals. Animals that get infected for the first time create infectious microorganisms in their body that get transmitted to other nearby hosts. Once you or your pet gets infected, you will build an immunity from the parasite and not suffer from the symptoms that it can possibly give. Reinfection very rarely occurs.
How Toxoplasmosis Affects Pregnant Women?
When infected during pregnancy, women are at higher risk of passing the parasite to their child. Pregnant women get exposed to the parasite when they clean up after their infected cat, using their bare hands to touch the soil, eating raw or undercooked meat, or putting their hands near the mouth after getting in contact with the parasite. In this case, the baby is at risk of suffering from serious complications like birth defects, brain damage, eye problems, or possibly miscarriage. The mother, on the other hand, may experience headache, fever, body pains, redness of the eyes, or fatigue. The good news is that if the mother gets infected prior to her pregnancy, she will not pass on the disease to her child. A blood test usually confirms if the mother was infected with immunity or currently carries the disease.
Probability of Toxoplasmosis Infection in Humans
If a pregnant woman gets in contact with an infectious reproducing microorganism, transplacental transmission of the parasite to the unborn child occurs. But human infection with toxoplasmosis is fairly low because domesticated cats are not fed with commercially-packed foods. They aren’t likely to eat the flesh of an infected animal outside.
As a cat lady, you don’t need to stay away from your cat if you do get pregnant. There are a few safety precautions that you can follow to stay away from getting toxoplasmosis.
If pregnant or sick, have someone else clean your cat’s litter box or it’s better to get a self cleaning litter box
Wear gloves and thoroughly wash yourself after cleaning if there’s no one available to do it for you.
Avoid undercooked meat.
Use disposable gloves when handling your garden because you never know if your cat does their business in the soil.
Have your cat checked by a veterinarian if you want assurance.
When you do get in contact with the parasite, the incubation period of the microorganism goes from one to five days where you won’t encounter any symptoms at all. After the incubation, you might feel the symptoms mentioned above. Fortunately, the body starts building immunity from the parasite and it will eventually go away from a few weeks to a few months. One previous infection gives you the immunity you need to be free from the parasite ever bugging you again. Thus, you won’t pass on the disease to your child when you get pregnant.
And lastly, if you’ve been a cat lady for years, you’ve probably gotten infected before and you just don’t know it; then you are probably immune to it now.