Vaccination against toxoplasmosis for cats. Prevention of toxoplasmosis in cats

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

When you have a cat living at home, you should definitely know that the pet can become infected with toxoplasmosis. What is this dangerous disease? This will be discussed. This is a serious disease caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. You need to be extremely careful with pets in order to prevent infection and get vaccinated against toxoplasmosis for cats in time.

Forms of Toxoplasma

There are 3 forms of the virus inside the animal during the disease, these are:

1. Cysts. They have a dense shell, and drugs do not penetrate through it. The pathogen is very resistant to the environment and dies at temperatures below -4 and above 37 degrees.
2. Trophozoites. They multiply in all cells of the body during the acute stage.
3. Oocysts. They form in the small intestine of cats and are excreted in the feces. This is the main source of infection. After 2 days, spores begin to be released from the feces, which are carried through the air and retain the ability to spread the infection throughout the year. Fresh faeces contain oocysts that are not capable of infecting another animal species.or a person, therefore, removing the tray after a sick animal immediately, it is impossible for a person to become infected with toxoplasmosis.

Transmission routes

Toxoplasma is shed within a month in feces only from cats that have recently become infected. Further, the disease passes into a latent form, and the animal does not pose a danger. When re-infected, the immune system suppresses the spread of the virus, and it does not reach reproduction in the intestine.

Due to persistence in the environment and transmission through air, water, food, objects, animals, almost all outdoor cats and more than 50% of the world's population are infected with toxoplasmosis.

Symptoms of toxoplasmosis in cats

Immediately after the virus enters the body, it begins to multiply. It usually takes 1-4 weeks before the number of cells captured by parasites reaches a noticeable damage to the body. Only after that, depending on the state of he alth and age, the cat's disease will begin to proceed in a latent, moderate or acute form.

Symptomatics and manifestations of the disease, depending on the form, are as follows:

1. The latent form has the most mild symptoms and occurs in cats between 1 and 7 years of age. The disease is expressed in the form of redness of the eyes and a runny nose. Less common is a short-term refusal to eat and a decrease in appetite for a short time. The owners write off the symptoms as a cold, conjunctivitis or food poisoning.
2. Medium shape. The eyes turn red, purulent discharge appears. Due to damage to the mucous membranes and respiratory organs inthe animal has a runny nose, coughing, sneezing, breathing becomes difficult. Lethargy, refusal to eat. Significant stool disorder. The body temperature rises. Starting from this stage, the animal becomes dangerous to humans, since infection occurs through all excreted fluids.
3. In the acute form, all symptoms become more pronounced. Apathy, the animal does not get up, indifferent to everything. Violent fever. Salivation. At this stage, the virus affects the nervous system, so there are twitching of the tips of the ears and limbs, muscle cramps. In the worst case, paralysis.

Testing for toxoplasmosis

To establish an accurate diagnosis, one examination of the animal is not enough, even if many signs of the disease are present. To prove that this particular infection has entered the body, a number of tests are carried out.

Serological analysis - the most accurate analysis that will determine the presence of immunoglobulins in the blood. If IgM antibodies are found in the analysis and there are no IgG, this indicates an acute course of the disease, the infection has occurred recently.

IgM and IgG indicators indicate that the immune system began to fight the virus and the disease began to decline. IgG antibodies are detected one month after infection and persist throughout life, with a gradual decrease in titer.

If only IgG is present in the analysis, this means that the animal was infected a long time ago and now the virus does not pose any danger.

Analyze for the presence of oocysts. The cat takesa smear from the anus, after which the freshly collected feces are stained with a special solution that detects the presence of the virus. This analysis is the least informative, because when symptoms appear, the animal's body practically stops secreting oocysts, since more than two weeks pass from the moment of infection to the onset of symptoms.

PRS study is the most accurate, but also the most expensive type of analysis. Allows you to identify the virus in any type of biomaterial.

Cure disease

After diagnosis, treatment is prescribed only for severe symptoms of the disease, debilitated cats, pregnant cats, kittens under one year old, or elderly animals over the age of 10 years. After the start of treatment, the symptoms disappear quickly, within 1-2 days, but the entire prescribed course should be given, on average it takes 6-7 days. The disease resolves on its own in a moderate and mild form within a week.

Toxoplasmosis and pregnancy in cats

But is toxoplasmosis transmitted to kittens during pregnancy? If a pregnant cat has a primary infection with toxoplasmosis, then the disease has serious consequences for the offspring. Early miscarriages, stillbirths, live births of kittens with defects incompatible with later life are possible. It is not recommended to vaccinate against toxoplasmosis for cats during pregnancy.

If infection occurs late in pregnancy, kittens are at risk of deafness, decreased vision or complete blindness, physical and mental delaydevelopment, which in the future will lead to the inability to train the cat to live in an apartment. The cat will not be trained to go to the tray, will not respond to the name, understand that you can not sharpen your claws on the sofa and not scratch the owners.

If the cat has already been sick, then re-infection will not affect the development of kittens. Immune cells will not let the parasites through the placental barrier.

Can a cat be cured by vaccination?

If you remember what causes the disease, it becomes clear that vaccinating cats against toxoplasmosis will not help to overcome the disease. The vaccine protects the body by injecting small doses of the virus to allow the body to fight it off, develop protective antibodies, and prevent the virus from spreading through the body through repeated exposure.

Toxoplasma is a parasite, it lives inside a cell, so the vaccine won't work on it.

Vaccination against toxoplasmosis for cats will not cure the animal, so the owners need to carefully consider the prevention of the disease. And if, nevertheless, an infection occurs, you need to know the signs of the course and consult a veterinarian in a timely manner.

Prevention of toxoplasmosis

It is better to prevent toxoplasmosis in cats than to treat them for the disease. Domestic cats are much easier to keep from infection than those who live in a private house or go outside. This is due to the routes of infection, oocytes can be located almost anywhere.

Coming home, you should adhere to the followingrules:

1. Limit cat contact with outdoor shoes and clothing.
2. Wash your hands after the street before petting a meeting pet. Make sure guests follow this rule as well.
3. Wash packs of pet food. To bring on them a source of Toxoplasma is easier than a lung. Moreover, every day you have to touch it with your hands.
4. Feed the cat industrial feed. If the animal is on a natural diet and eats raw meat, it should be subjected to a long freeze before feeding.
5. You need to cook the meat until fully cooked.
6. Do not allow trapping of rodents and birds. Mosquito nets should be placed on the windows to avoid a possible attack on a bird that has landed on the windowsill.
7. Drinking water should only be boiled, filtered or bottled. She should wash everything that gets into the cat's food if he eats vegetables and fruits.
8. If the owners decide to have another pet, he must be quarantined for at least three weeks. Contact between animals is allowed after this period and blood test for parasites.

Strengthening the immunity of cats

Strengthening the immune system should be given special attention. Indeed, if a he althy animal nevertheless becomes infected with toxoplasmosis, it will carry it in a mild form, almost imperceptibly and without harm to he alth.

Every year, even with good he alth, a cat needs to do a general and biochemical blood test to rule out incipient problems that have not had time to affect well-being. Every month it is necessary to treat the cat from fleas and every 3 months from worms, to vaccinate against toxoplasmosis for cats. Nutrition should be balanced, premium feed. Avoid stress whenever possible.

The most important protection against disease is the annual toxoplasmosis vaccine.

What else do you need to know?

What vaccinations do cats need to have?

Vaccination will protect the animal from the most common diseases, thereby preventing immunity from falling during the period of illness.

14 days before the first vaccination, the animal must be treated with a flea remedy and then, after 3 days, give a tablet for worms. Exactly 10 days after the anthelmintic preparation, the kitten is given the first vaccination, provided that no worms are found in the feces. If in doubt, it is worth giving the medication again after consulting a veterinarian.

At 2 months, the kitten is vaccinated against calcivirosis (inflammation of the mucous membranes and conjunctivitis), rhinotracheitis (the disease affects the respiratory system and causes severe inflammation of the eyes, mortality in 20% of cases), panleukopenia (distemper, mortality over 90%) and chlamydia (fever and inflammation of the eyelids and nose).

Vaccine is given again after 21, maximum 28 days + rabies vaccine is given.

Revaccination should be carried out annually, because the vaccination ends exactly one year later. If you delay the scheduled vaccination by more than a month, you will have to create protection, like a kitten, in two stages

The answer to the question is yes,Are cats vaccinated against toxoplasmosis? But vaccinations can only be given to he althy animals, kittens over the age of 8 weeks. If the kitten's teeth are changing (from 4 to 6 months of age), vaccination should not be carried out. Therefore, it is important to do everything on time when he turns 2 months old so as not to leave the animal unprotected for more than six months.

Knowing that this is toxoplasmosis, a caring owner will always protect his pet. And then he will give you a lot of positive and joy every day.