Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
Discussion
Tb can certainly cross the species barrier. Many years ago when I was involved in the bovine Tb eradication programme here in NZ possums were a known vector and we had to be extremely careful (always wear gloves, face shield, respirator, disinfection etc.) handling infected material, whether from cattle or possums, and be subject to regular chest x-rays to check for infection.
Thanks for the replies everyone, our cat has always (the two, maybe three years we have had her) had one paw larger than the others, but not by such a noticeable amount and the local cat shelter we adopted her from never mentioned anything untoward but in the last two months we noticed it started to weep and blister, she was taken to the vets where they took a sample of the tissue and said it is either bacteria and can be cleared up or could possibly be cancer, well, a month or so after they sent off the results they have now come back and said it is Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and that this can be transferred to humans and other animals and that we should have her put to sleep as soon as possible, obviously this is a horrible thing to have to do but we do also have another cat and 5 dogs so we have to consider everything.
I took a look online and couldn't find anything of much use and the vet didnt offer any alternative, anyone have any advice?
Thank you again.
I took a look online and couldn't find anything of much use and the vet didnt offer any alternative, anyone have any advice?
Thank you again.
All I can say is that we DID treat a cat successfully last year, they also owned several animals. No one else has come down with it. I didn't think it was that easily spread?
The treatment was long and quite intensive but the cat coped really well with all of it and is currently clear of signs.
I cannot go against the advice of your vet as I don't know your individual case and there are lots of if and buts (eg have nodules been found internally) but we did not need to euthanase the cat we treated though that was always a possibility if things didn't go well with treament.
Have they sent tests/ cultures off to the ministery for more conclusive tests?
The treatment was long and quite intensive but the cat coped really well with all of it and is currently clear of signs.
I cannot go against the advice of your vet as I don't know your individual case and there are lots of if and buts (eg have nodules been found internally) but we did not need to euthanase the cat we treated though that was always a possibility if things didn't go well with treament.
Have they sent tests/ cultures off to the ministery for more conclusive tests?
bexVN said:
All I can say is that we DID treat a cat successfully last year, they also owned several animals. No one else has come down with it. I didn't think it was that easily spread?
The treatment was long and quite intensive but the cat coped really well with all of it and is currently clear of signs.
I cannot go against the advice of your vet as I don't know your individual case and there are lots of if and buts (eg have nodules been found internally) but we did not need to euthanase the cat we treated though that was always a possibility if things didn't go well with treament.
Have they sent tests/ cultures off to the ministery for more conclusive tests?
Thank you very much for your help Bex and I appreciate the situation, I will ask where the tests were sent, could you let me know the name of the medication or the treatment so I know what to ask for when I call them to find out the costing.The treatment was long and quite intensive but the cat coped really well with all of it and is currently clear of signs.
I cannot go against the advice of your vet as I don't know your individual case and there are lots of if and buts (eg have nodules been found internally) but we did not need to euthanase the cat we treated though that was always a possibility if things didn't go well with treament.
Have they sent tests/ cultures off to the ministery for more conclusive tests?
Some of the meds used were Zithromax oral 200mg/5ml, Marbocyl and Rifadin syrup.
The cat needed many blood samples over the months to check progress and ensure it didn't suffer too severe a side effect from the drugs.
It also had an oesophagostomy tube fitted to ease giving the oral liquid meds (animals tolerate these tubes very well)
Meds had to be spaced carefully to reduce side effects (the cat did suffer some bad reactions in the early days but it settled down well.
The treatment is months and needs serious commitment (and cost) so you need to be sure your cat could cope if you did decide he was a candidate for treatment medically and that you could cope.
We have actually treated two cats successfully but I think the one I've discussed was a more serious one.
I hope this is useful info and not too conflicting for you, it would be understandable if you decided against treating but it does show there may be possible options rather than just euthanasia
The cat needed many blood samples over the months to check progress and ensure it didn't suffer too severe a side effect from the drugs.
It also had an oesophagostomy tube fitted to ease giving the oral liquid meds (animals tolerate these tubes very well)
Meds had to be spaced carefully to reduce side effects (the cat did suffer some bad reactions in the early days but it settled down well.
The treatment is months and needs serious commitment (and cost) so you need to be sure your cat could cope if you did decide he was a candidate for treatment medically and that you could cope.
We have actually treated two cats successfully but I think the one I've discussed was a more serious one.
I hope this is useful info and not too conflicting for you, it would be understandable if you decided against treating but it does show there may be possible options rather than just euthanasia
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