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To all you people who snuggle with your pets at night...

We were home schooled, kept all finds of furry, feathered, finned and scaly pets and were almost never sick. Then when I was about 13 my mom went to work at a daycare a little up the street from us, she only worked there 10 weeks and the whole family was sicker than we had ever been for years combined!
 
Felines are generally the number one household (followed by birds) vectors/carriers for atypical Mycobacterium species. Which means other than M. tuberculosis. There are about 20-30+ other species that cats carry, that will infect (and possibly kill) the immunosuppressed, transplant patiens, children with leukemia and lymphoma, the elderly, etc.

DYK, here's the comprehensive list of what cat breath, cat sneezes, and cat tongue may contain, statistically, more than any other snuggly fluffy in-bed animal :
M. abscessus
M. africanum
M. agri
M. aichiense
M. alvei
M. arupense
M. asiaticum
M. aubagnense
M. aurum
M. austroafricanum
Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), is a group of species which are a significant cause of death in AIDS patients. Species in this complex include:
...M. avium
...M. avium paratuberculosis, which has been implicated in Crohn's disease in humans and Johne's disease in sheep
...M. avium silvaticum
...M. avium "hominissuis"
...M. colombiense
M. boenickei
M. bohemicum
M. bolletii
M. botniense
M. bovis
M. branderi
M. brisbanense
M. brumae
M. canariasense
M. caprae
M. celatum
M. chelonae,
M. chimaera
M. chitae
M. chlorophenolicum
M. chubuense
M. conceptionense
M. confluentis
M. conspicuum
M. cookii
M. cosmeticum
M. diernhoferi
M. doricum
M. duvalii
M. elephantis
M. fallax
M. farcinogenes
M. flavescens
M. florentinum
M. fluoroanthenivorans
M. fortuitum
M. fortuitum subsp. acetamidolyticum
M. frederiksbergense
M. gadium
M. gastri
M. genavense
M. gilvum
M. goodii
M. gordonae
M. haemophilum
M. hassiacum
M. heckeshornense
M. heidelbergense
M. hiberniae
M. hodleri
M. holsaticum
M. houstonense
M. immunogenum
M. interjectum
M. intermedium
M. intracellulare
M. kansasii
M. komossense
M. kubicae
M. kumamotonense
M. lacus
M. lentiflavum
M. leprae, which causes leprosy
M. lepraemurium
M. madagascariense
M. mageritense
M. malmoense
M. marinum
M. massiliense
M. microti
M. monacense
M. montefiorense
M. moriokaense
M. mucogenicum
M. murale
M. nebraskense
M. neoaurum
M. neworleansense
M. nonchromogenicum
M. novocastrense
M. obuense
M. palustre
M. parafortuitum
M. parascrofulaceum
M. parmense
M. peregrinum
M. phlei
M. phocaicum
M. pinnipedii
M. porcinum
M. poriferae
M. pseudoshottsii
M. pulveris
M. psychrotolerans
M. pyrenivorans
M. rhodesiae
M. saskatchewanense
M. scrofulaceum
M. senegalense
M. seoulense
M. septicum
M. shimoidei
M. shottsii
M. simiae
M. smegmatis
M. sphagni
M. szulgai
M. terrae
M. thermoresistibile
M. tokaiense
M. triplex
M. triviale
Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC),members are causative agents of human and animal tuberculosis. Species in this complex include:
...M. tuberculosis, the major cause of human tuberculosis
...M. bovis
...M. bovis BCG
...M. africanum
...M. canetti
...M. caprae
...M. pinnipedii
M. tusciae
M. ulcerans, which causes the "Buruli", or "Bairnsdale, ulcer"
M. vaccae
M. vanbaalenii
M. wolinskyi
M. xenopi
 
Why spend your life worried about bacteria anyway? I figure because I have exposed myself to probably most of whats on that list, my immune system is in tip-top shape. Probably why I rarely get sick. Well, that and I am childfree :)
 
ratsncorns said:
Why spend your life worried about bacteria anyway? I figure because I have exposed myself to probably most of whats on that list, my immune system is in tip-top shape. Probably why I rarely get sick. Well, that and I am childfree :)
Click to expand...

Ditto (the kid free part too) :)
 
That is a long list, now that I look again at it. Of course, the only reason I know that weird stuff about Mycobacterium species...is because I worked in a hospital Microbiology/Bacteriology/Mycology dept. once, within a very large lab. Most of those are environmental species (soil, water, plants, etc.) and specific to certain locales or animals, but for some reason are abundant in healthy cats.
Note : If you click "show" on the blue bar at the bottom of this link, you can see the groups and relationships. Quite fascinating, really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycobacterium

Several cause hard to treat disease states only in AIDS patients or other immunosuppressed or immunocompromised individuals. Several cause very peculiar and interesting disease states from a clinical point of view. I used to die specimens and plant cultures to ID and grow out M. tuberculosis and other species. Not all hospital labs do this in-house, but they had me and my Mycology/Mycobacterium Specialist supervisor. I miss her. She was very brilliant and very kind. :D ;)

Anyhoo, I had to say _something_ because I was horrified that I had killed the thread. Thank goodness I didn't.
I never had children, but I kind of wish I did.
 
Haha! I have no doubt that pets of all kinds can carry LOTS of pathogenic microbes. Of course, I would like to see the list that HUMANS carry, too! I would be more concerned for babies, toddlers, very old or ill, or others with suppressed immune systems than for most of us. And I would have no problem if journalists let it be known that those categories of people should beware. But I HATE it when they go out of their way to try to scare people about one thing or another, without putting it into any kind of logical perspective in comparison to other daily dangers we face. When they (or politicians) cry "wolf" over and over again, I tend to ignore pretty much anything they say in the future - as do many others, I am sure.
 
Kathy, that reminds me of the "black mold" scare in the workplace, Strachybotrys chartarum or Strachybotrys atra. They are uncommonly found, and there are scads of other molds that are blackish (and other colors) that live all around us and we breath the spores in and out everyday.
I have scraped commercial and private ceilings and closets many times, but never grew out the evil Black Mold.
 
And humans have raised babies with cats for years and somehow survived... sometimes I agree with Kathy. They make it sound like a deadly danger (Fox News sure did when they covered the story last night) when it really is just one of any number of things that we are exposed to by being ALIVE.
 
ratsncorns said:
Babies and young children are bacteria-harboring machines.
Click to expand...

Not to mention they're also noisy little calendars . . .

Really, I do like kids, but I've also noticed that all my friends and co-workers who have them always seem to have colds.

kathylove said:
. . . or maybe just encourage adults to refrain from allowing kids into their bedroom (or inside the house, maybe)?
Click to expand...

:)


Gotta love the media . . . .

I've been sleeping with dogs and cats for almost 50 years, and I survived somehow.

Obviously, as others have stated, this could be a problem with immuno-compromised people, but I don't see how this could harm most healthy individuals. One of my dogs in particular likes to sleep with his spine pressed up to my lower back. I have a herniated disk, and it's like a nice little heating pad!

Kathy
 
Im sure there are more health benefits than risks to those who sleep with their pets. I know I am happy with them there and I sleep very comfortably knowing they are nearby. Nothing better than a warm furry body purring right next to you.
 
ratsncorns said:
Im sure there are more health benefits than risks to those who sleep with their pets. I know I am happy with them there and I sleep very comfortably knowing they are nearby. Nothing better than a warm furry body purring right next to you.
Click to expand...


Amen, Sister!

I also have my entire snake collection in my bedroom. It's a very large room (the entire upper level of my house), and that really creeps people out!

I wouldn't have it any other way . . . .

Kathy
 
insomniac101 said:
Amen, Sister!

I also have my entire snake collection in my bedroom. It's a very large room (the entire upper level of my house), and that really creeps people out!

I wouldn't have it any other way . . . .

Kathy
Click to expand...

When you have snakes in your bedroom you do get used to things that go bump in the night! HA!

We use our bedroom as our quarantine area, for most snakes, and we also have our Vietnamese Blue Beauty permanently set up there because it's always the coolest room in the house.
 
Hypancistrus said:
When you have snakes in your bedroom you do get used to things that go bump in the night! HA!

We use our bedroom as our quarantine area, for most snakes, and we also have our Vietnamese Blue Beauty permanently set up there because it's always the coolest room in the house.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the first time one of my adult carpet pythons fell off her perch, it scared me, and got the dogs growling! She's about 7' long, and it sounds like a phone book hitting the floor!

I'm the opposite - I quarantine in a smaller bedroom downstairs. How much cooler do the Blue Beauties like it? I keep the room at a constant 78 degrees for my chondros. My dogs and I like it warmer too, because we're all old, and have varying degrees of arthritis!

Kathy
 
The way NOT to keep snakes in a bedroom...

I remember back when we lived in a mobile home in the '70s, and kept all of our snakes in the spare bedroom. We were in our 20s - young and carefree, lol!

We had a big, walk in cage with several medium sized boids in it, including a young anaconda, retic, boa, Burmese (hey - it seemed like a good idea at the time!!). We also had a number of venomous snakes, such as tree vipers, rattlesnakes, and a cobra, all in individual cages.

One day, Bill got up early because he had to ship out one of the bigger snakes to somebody. An hour or two later, I suddenly woke up as I felt something cold against my back. As I reached behind me, the first thing I felt was a GREAT relief that the escaped snake in bed with me was MUCH too thick to be the cobra! It was merely the anaconda that escaped when Bill left the cage door slightly ajar.

I much prefer to sleep with my cats! But I guess many of us do things in our teens and twenties that we prefer not to repeat as we (hopefully) mature later! Hopefully those who keep snakes in their bedroom will not repeat some of the things we did when we were young. Amazing we ever made it to our ripe old ages today, lol! But no matter what stupid things we did when we were young, neither of us ever caught any disease (that I know about) from any of our animals.
 
kathylove said:
I remember back when we lived in a mobile home in the '70s, and kept all of our snakes in the spare bedroom. We were in our 20s - young and carefree, lol!

We had a big, walk in cage with several medium sized boids in it, including a young anaconda, retic, boa, Burmese (hey - it seemed like a good idea at the time!!). We also had a number of venomous snakes, such as tree vipers, rattlesnakes, and a cobra, all in individual cages.

One day, Bill got up early because he had to ship out one of the bigger snakes to somebody. An hour or two later, I suddenly woke up as I felt something cold against my back. As I reached behind me, the first thing I felt was a GREAT relief that the escaped snake in bed with me was MUCH too thick to be the cobra! It was merely the anaconda that escaped when Bill left the cage door slightly ajar.

I much prefer to sleep with my cats! But I guess many of us do things in our teens and twenties that we prefer not to repeat as we (hopefully) mature later! Hopefully those who keep snakes in their bedroom will not repeat some of the things we did when we were young. Amazing we ever made it to our ripe old ages today, lol! But no matter what stupid things we did when we were young, neither of us ever caught any disease (that I know about) from any of our animals.
Click to expand...

You are lucky you woke up in time.. Don't you know, they measure you before they eat you....LOL
 
I can sympathize with children carrying so many germs. My hubby is an grade school teacher.

But you know you can fix all that just by dipping them in boiling hot disinfectant when they get off the bus. Although they scream though. Kinda causes other problems with the ears.

Just kidding!

There's a very good reason I don't have kids!;)

Devon
 
insomniac101 said:
How much cooler do the Blue Beauties like it? I keep the room at a constant 78 degrees for my chondros. My dogs and I like it warmer too, because we're all old, and have varying degrees of arthritis!
Click to expand...

They can tolerate low-mid 70's but seem to prefer the 60's. Definitely temperate species.
 
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