Help! anyone know about TB in cats?

IMPORTANT: If your cat is in any distress or discomfort, please consult your own vet as your first priority.
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Stewy
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Help! anyone know about TB in cats?

Post by Stewy »

Hi all, we rescued a gorgeous black girl kitten who was living in our garden a few months back, we've been back & forth to vets with what they thought was cat flu. She was spayed last week & vets took a sample of an abscess while she was under. Today they phoned to say it seems to be a bad bacterial infection and quite possibly TB even Bovine TB. We live in the country and when we first rescued her we thought she smelled of the pig farm. We have to wait till beginning of November to have further blood tests. I'm absolutely gutted she has just fitted in with the family and she's so confident, funny and bossy.
I was so shocked I didn't ask too many questions, I called back but no one available. The vet did say she could pass it on to us but didn't say anything about our other pets, we have dogs and another cat.
Sorry for long post, i know its not common but just wondering if anyone has any experience.
Thanks
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Ruth B
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Re: Help! anyone know about TB in cats?

Post by Ruth B »

I am so sorry to read this, I have never heard of TB in cats, but I guess it might be possible. Did your vet mention anything about isolating her until the blood tests come back. Even if they didn't I would seriously think about it, and to follow all the advice we had about controlling Covid when the pandemic first came out when you. Washing hands well, disinfecting things, making sure you keep her bowls separate etc. I'm no expert but it would seem to me that what would help prevent a virus spreading would help prevent TB spreading. If you live in the UK there is a good chance that you and your family have been vaccinated against TB, it is one that is often done in schools (or at least it was, I presume it still is), but if you are concerned then there is a test that is normally done before the vaccine is given to see if your body is already able to react well to the TB bacteria.

I'm not wanting to panic you, and hopefully it will all turn out to be for nothing and she just has a more common infection. The other thing I will add is that TB is a Bacterial infection and does respond to antibiotics, but it can take some time and more than one course to clear up fully. Unfortunately too many people who have TB (not common in the UK but does happen in other countries) don't finish the antibiotic courses thinking as the symptoms have gone the infection has gone, where as it is just lying quiet for a while, which means that some strains of TB are building up a resistance to the antibiotics.

All fingers and paws are crossed here that it isn't TB in the end.
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