this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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Findings highlight role of cats as reservoirs of ‘as yet undiscovered bacterial species’

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[–] Default_Defect@midwest.social 25 points 1 year ago

A dog wrote this article.

[–] MinusPi@pawb.social 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If it's unknown I'm guessing it hasn't evolved antibiotic resistance.

[–] Lmaydev@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah bacteria are often a lot easier to deal with than viruses.

[–] MadMenace@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why? Just because it hasn't been noticed until now doesn't mean it hasn't been inside people before.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

I'm not a doctor, but I figured that we've seen every bacteria that regularly lives inside people in cultures.

[–] michael@lemmy.perthchat.org 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"It was, pure rage..." cat screaming like zombie

[–] loops@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One of my favourite scenes of all time is when he's in the church with all those 'dead' bodies and it takes you a second or so to realize they all just moved.

[–] araquen@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Oddly, this happened to my mother, with her cat (always indoors). He “love bit” and “cromched” hard. My mother didn’t think much of it. She’s had cats for decades and had been bitten and scratched without incident. Cats are furry murder machines, and being lovingly lacerated is just what you sign up for as a cat parent.

Well, her hand swelled up something fierce, and she almost lost her hand. She had never gone through anything like that, but her cat never bit her again. It was just a weird, one-off.

The takeaway is: whenever your skin is cut deeper than a scratch, have it checked out. The cat is not the problem, any more than a rusty nail is. Rather your skin is a barrier, and when it is breeched, you risk infection. This is why such care is taken to minimize exposure in advance of surgery (and why you follow surgery prep to the letter).

[–] Hirom@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

My takeaway is: Make sure your tetanus vaccine is current. Use disinfectant even for tiniest cut/wound. Hope prevention is enough, but know how to recognize infection symptoms.

[–] MadMenace@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Good advice, but it's worth mentioning that ANY animal bite is an infection risk because animal mouths harbor bacteria.

Any injury that opens your insides up to the outside should be thoroughly washed with soap and water to minimize the amount of pathogens that pass through, but animal mouths and claws can harbor some nasty pathogens that have evolved to coexist with animals. Ever heard of cat scratch fever?

[–] MtnPoo@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

That is such a cat thing to do.