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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pregnancy shouldn’t force cat out the door


There's no need to cast away a feline friend during pregnancy.
 (File/ / The Spokesman-Review)
Carolyn Morrill D.V.M. Correspondent

Among the multitude of potential disasters that pregnant women get to worry about, toxoplasmosis is one of the biggies. Well-meaning relatives may advise women to either give away their cats or risk the life of the baby they’re carrying.

While it is important that pregnant women do everything possible to avoid this disease, getting rid of the cat is not the solution.

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan (a one-celled organism) that causes toxoplasmosis. It can infect virtually any type of animal, but cats are its definitive host, meaning toxoplasma can only produce its little one-celled offspring if it makes it to a cat’s intestine. People (and other animals) can catch toxoplasmosis by eating either its offspring (known as oocysts, and found in cat feces) or the adult toxoplamsa which could be found in the meat or organs of virtually any other animal that an omnivorous human might eat.

What does the disease look like? Well, people infected for the first time often have no symptoms or very mild flu-like symptoms. That is how 30 to 40 percent of people in the United States have already been infected with it and have no idea.

If a woman first contracts the infection during or just before pregnancy, there is a small risk of miscarriage or birth defects. For most people, unless they have an immune system problem or are on immuno-suppressive drugs, being infected with toxoplasma will never cause them any ill effects. In fact, if you ask your doctor to test you for the infection before you become pregnant and find out you are positive, that would be good news, because that means you would have almost no chance of becoming infected again while pregnant. If you test negative or you do not know your status, a few precautions can help you be safe.

Can you tell if your cat has the infection? Probably not. Just as in humans, cats often have no clinical signs when they get infected. Cats get infected from eating the adult (or “tissue-stage”) toxoplasma in a mouse or bird. They could also get it, if they are fed a raw food diet or are given raw meat as a treat. Also, kittens could get it from an infected mom-cat.

It is rare to find oocysts in a stool sample, and testing the cat for antibody against toxoplasma will generally only tell you your cat was infected at some time in his life, (as most cats have been), not whether he is currently capable of transmitting the disease to you.

How can people avoid this disease? The most important thing is not to eat any raw or undercooked meat, especially lamb, pork and venison. Wash hands after handling raw meat and do not let the utensils, cutting boards or marinades used in preparing the meat, contaminate any other foods.

Next, avoid accidental ingestion of cat feces. This sounds like a no-brainer, but think about it. You’re harvesting vegetables from your garden, brush the dirt off a carrot and take a bite. Stray or neighborhood cats might have used your garden as a toilet. After several weeks, what was cat feces has broken down and looks and smells as innocuous as fertile soil. But, toxoplasma organisms are still there and can still cause infection. Wear gloves when gardening and wash vegetables thoroughly.

Try to minimize the risk of infection in your cat. If you have an indoor-only adult cat, and you feed her only commercial or cooked cat food, the risk of her shedding toxoplasma oocysts is very low. Outdoor cats who hunt, immunosupressed cats and young kittens are at higher risk to be shedding oocysts in their feces. However, one more fact about toxoplasma can allow you to relax, even if your cat falls into those higher risk categories. It takes at least 24 hours after leaving the cat’s body, for the oocysts to become infectious to people, so if the poop never stays in the box longer than 24 hours, people are safe. Scoop the poop or change the litter once a day. Still wear gloves and wash hands thoroughly after handling the cat box, or, better still, have someone else in the household take over that particular chore.

With these precautions in mind, you can relax, look forward to your baby’s arrival, and still keep your furry friends with you.