Our little felines have a great hunting instinct, although it is less strong, for having food at home without effort, than that of their ancestors, the desert cats, who subsisted only on the prey they hunted. Still, some indoor cats still hunt for insects, reptiles, and even small mammals that come into their home, like mice and rats. At first, this seems beneficial, by helping to eliminate pests without having to hire a professional, but all that glitters is not gold.
Not only some insects can sting our cats and cause damage and even death, such as bees or scorpions. The ingestion of rats can lead to the transmission of diseases, also zoonotic, that is, with the potential to affect humans. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent rats and cats from coming into contact. In this article on our site we compile the main diseases that rats transmit to cats and give some tips to prevent them.
Toxoplasmosis
Rats can have cysts of Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite of the coccidia group that has cats and other felines as its definitive hosts, that is, the cycle is completed in them, but they can also affect other warm-blooded animals, including people. In other words, toxoplasmosis is a zoonosis
When a cat ingests an infected rat, the parasite travels to its small intestine, where it reproduces sexually, shedding its midstream forms, called oocysts, in the cat's feces. This parasite also has an extraintestinal cycle in which it multiplies asexually inside the cells of various tissues, causing clinical signs. Generally, these locations are the nervous system, the digestive system, the eyes, the skin, the muscles, the heart and the respiratory system. In many cases there are no symptoms, but younger cats and immunosuppressed cats or cats with retroviruses are more predisposed to manifest it.
The big problem with toxoplasmosis in humans is in women during pregnancy, as it can damage the fetus and cause serious complications, including miscarriage or, if they are born, low weight, damage to the nervous system, vision, hearing or organs.
Tularemia
Rodents such as rats can act as reservoirs for the bacteria Francisella tularensis, infecting cats and causing clinical signs such as the following:
- Fever.
- Dehydration.
- Anorexy.
- Ocular and nasal discharge.
- Enlarged liver (hepatomegaly).
- Enlargement of the spleen (splenomegaly).
- Muscle pain.
- Ulcers on the tongue and palate.
Also, cats can infect their handlers. Several types of tularemia occur in people, including glandular, oculoglandular, ulceroglandular, oropharyngeal, pneumonic, and septicemic.
Leptospirosis
Rats can also be carriers of the leptospira bacteria, responsible for leptospirosis. While cats are less susceptible to contracting the disease in its moderate or severe form, humans are more sensitive, developing clinical signs such as fever, vomiting, chills, headaches, anemia, jaundice and rashes, even requiring hospitalization on numerous occasions.
The main route of transmission of these bacteria is the rat urine, with which our cats can come into contact, as well as the rodent ingestion. Leptospira in cats, after spreading through the blood, is usually directed more frequently to the kidney, causing mild symptoms, although, if liver and kidney inflammation occurs, there are studies that have linked feline leptospirosis with kidney disease chronicle. Other signs that we can observe are the following:
- Fever.
- Polyuria.
- Diarrhea.
- Dehydration.
- Vomiting.
- Bad breath.
Hantavirus
Rats, as well as other rodents, can carry hantavirus, a virus capable of causing serious consequences in humans, but not in cats, which only act as asymptomatic carriers. The contagion occurs through dust contaminated with their excrement or through their saliva, urine and feces. Hantavirus in humans causes two clinical forms, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and the potentially severe hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
Plague
In rats can be found the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which is the agent responsible for plague. Cats become infected when they eat rats that carry it, while humans become infected after being bitten by fleas from infected rats. The clinical signs that cats suffer from are the following:
- Vomiting.
- Diarrhea.
- Fever.
- Muscle pain.
- Anorexy.
- Depression.
- Cough.
- Increase in the size of the lymph nodes.
- Oral lesions.
As a curiosity, it should be noted that in the Middle Ages, during the Inquisition, Pope Innocent VIII ordered cats to be chased and sacrificed. This order lasted for several centuries, with which practically the entire population was eliminated. The consequence was an increase in the number of rats, a fact that influenced the black plague of the fourteenth century.
Rodenticide poisoning
It is common to use rodenticides or rodenticides to kill rats, especially in places where the risk of pests is higher or to protect crops, although rodenticides can also be found in cities. The main problem with these products is that they will not only kill the rat, but also pose a great risk to our cats if they come into contact with poisoned rats
If they are partially or fully ingested, the poison will cause serious damage. Generally, rodenticides act at the level of blood coagulation factors, so the clinical signs are those derived from an anticoagulant effect, that is:
- Internal and external bleeding.
- Pale mucous membranes.
- Weakness.
- Weak pulse.
- Altered heart rate.
- Dyspnoea.
- Anemia.
How do I keep my cat from eating rats?
As we have seen, it is important that cats do not bring or ingest rats, for their sake and for ours. For this reason, care should be taken that they do not go outside or come into contact with rats. If our cat is used to going out, it is difficult to control it when we are not with it, but, at least, we must ensure that, when it does go out, it does so without appetite or thirst. By making sure that he has eaten well before, we decrease the risk of him hunting.
If the opposite happens, that is, if it is the rats that enter the house, we must hire a deratting company or, if they are isolated cases, we will not leave the work of elimination to our little feline, but we will try to expel the rodents with our means, such as use of traps, always keeping our safety and preventing our cat from coming into contact with them.
