Human - Feline crossinfection?

Krusty

Hi all,
Might sound like a stoopid question but if a human has the flu / vomiting bug, can cats (or in this case kitten) become infected with the same virus?
The kitten is due for it's shots next week (cat-flu/cat leukemia etc.) but my girlfriend is sick as a pike at the moment and we're worried the kitten might catch the same. Anyone know if this is possible?
Cheers,

K.

Gurgle

AFAIK, the odds are slim.
Most viruses / bacteria are partial to one particular type of host.

Alun

We had a cat a while back that died from bovine TB. We (and the Veterinary School at UCD) are still not sure how he got it, although he had a nasty abcess from a bite that wasn't healing at the time. Bovine TB is the strain of TB that was the big killer in "the olden days", when people caught it mainly from unpasteurized milk.

Anyhow the Health Board got involved since all cases of TB have to be reported to them by law, and I, my wife and the entire staff of the vets where he was treated were called in for TB tests and subsequently two chest X-rays with a 3 month period in between.

Doper Than U

Some diseases are absolutely non transferrable, such as feline leukemia (or human leukemia for that matter). The common cold/flu etc is species specific (ie cats can't catch human flu). However, some diseases can transfer across the species barrier (like TB, or just recently chicken flu has transferred to humans). Chances of your cat catching flu or gastroenteritis from your girlfriend is slim to none, but if your girlfriend ate something rotten (like bad meat) and your kitty also ate it, then of course it might get sick.

There's more chance of you and your girlfriend getting worms or fleas from your cat, so make your worming schedule is kept up to date.

Capt'n Midnight

Doper Than U wrote:

The common cold/flu etc is species specific (ie cats can't catch human flu).

Not true.
Flu can go from birds to humans. Remember they killed ALL the chickens in Hong Kong a while back because in 1918-1919 a flu pandemic killed more people than World War I (1914-1918) and in a lot shorter time.
Flu does not jump species often it's just that in south east asia there are hundreds of millions of animals and humans in close proximity for extended periods of time.

Krusty, so yes in theroy it is possible for the kitten to contract some thing from her it won't happen with most illnesses and not since you don't say you caught it, whatever she has may not be that contagious to humans let alone kittens..

Krusty

Nice one folks. Thanks for the replies.
I seem to have avoided this bug/flu thing she has so far anyway.
As has our kitten

So happy days I guess. We bringing her to the vet Saturday morning for the shots so hopefully she'll be grand. (the kitten that is )

Thanks again!

K.

Doper Than U

Not true.
Flu can go from birds to humans. Remember they killed ALL the chickens in Hong Kong a while back because in 1918-1919 a flu pandemic killed more people than World War I (1914-1918) and in a lot shorter time.
Flu does not jump species often it's just that in south east asia there are hundreds of millions of animals and humans in close proximity for extended periods of time.

Yes.. I did mention bird flu in my next sentence, and the fact that it has just recently again crossed the species barrier. But like you said, the conditions for this are so far removed from "natural" that it's not something that typically happens. Nothing is guaranteed, there will always be an exception to prove the rule. My point was that Human flu will not pass to cats, as the typical human flu is species specific, that was what I referred to when I said "common cold/flu".