Springfield vet warns of bobcat fever and preventing the disease from harming domestic cats

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) -A Springfield veterinarian is sharing how to best prevent domestic cats from contracting the tick-borne disease.

Cytauxzoonosis, most commonly known as bobcat fever, is a parasitic infection that spreads from a tick that bites a domestic cat after first biting a bobcat. The protozoan organism, Cytauxzoon felis, infects the blood cells of cats.

Primarily spread through the Lone Star tick, this disease’s survival rate, with early diagnosis and treatment, is around 60%. Signs of the disease, such as lack of appetite or difficulty breathing, usually show in cats within 10 days after a tick bite.

“What we can do best of all is to make sure all cats and dogs are on heartworm preventative, flea preventative, and tick preventative,” said Dr. Philip Brown, veterinarian at Animal Care Center in Springfield, when asked how to prevent the disease. “And you should use (preventative) twelve months out of the year.“

Dr. Brown urges those with indoor or outdoor cats to continue to use pet preventative throughout all seasons.

“People think ticks don’t live in the winter,” said Dr. Brown. ”A tick can live under leaves at -30 degrees.”

Bobcat fever does not spread between domestic cats. However, a tick that does not have the organism can still transmit it from a domestic cat with the disease.

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