blogcutter

When we're still grappling with the logistics of positive/negative Covid-19 testing and contact tracing, some might say we need to put thoughts of other tests on the back burner for now. But that view strikes me as short-sighted and self-defeating. It's a bit like the fable of the kid who walked his bike all the way to school even though he was already late - so late he didn't have time to stop and get on the bike!

Wastewater analysis has been great as an early warning system, if only to warn us how rapidly the virus can replicate. But it seems to me we need to be looking much more closely at how people develop antibodies and immunity, and which people develop immunity and how long immunity lasts. Those are obviously crucial decisions in developing a vaccine and determining vaccination schedules once we have that vaccine. We need to get a handle on asymptomatic carriers too, which presumably would entail random testing - the simpler the test, the better, and affordable self-test kits from the drugstore sound ideal to me. And probably we still need tests to better determine how many different ways and over what distances the virus is spread (droplets, airborne, surfaces) and how long the virus persists in different conditions (heat, cold, indoors, outdoors).

One thing we may not have thought so much about is transmission between humans and household pets. So far, cats and dogs do not seem to be particularly susceptible to the virus themselves but the hope is that by studying pets whose humans have had COVID-19, we can gain a better understanding of the virus itself, how it moves through populations, and how immunity develops.

Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I received from Ottawa Veterinary Hospital, soliciting prospective participants for their seroprevalence study:

Seroprevalence Study
The current pandemic has affected us all in ways unimaginable only six short months ago but together we are learning how to adapt and manage in our new reality. At VCA Canada, we feel an intense responsibility to do our part to help protect our clients, Associates and of course our patients while still providing the exceptional care you've come to expect from us.
A large part of our collective success in managing the pandemic comes from our ability to better understand the SARS CoV-2 virus and how it may move through the population. To that end, we are working with the Ontario Veterinary College and the University of Guelph to help facilitate a SARS CoV-2 seroprevalence study in dogs and cats from COVID-19 positive households (the study will look to see if the pet’s immune system has identified and responded to the virus). This project is part of a broader research program evaluating the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from people to animals.
This component of the study aims to evaluate the prevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in dogs, cats, and ferrets whose owners had COVID-19. Serological testing provides a retrospective evaluation of exposure and is done after SARS-CoV-2 has been eliminated in the household. If you have had COVID-19 we would invite you to participate by arranging for your pet to have blood sampling performed at our hospital.
Study procedures and eligibility
• Dogs and cats from a household where one or more people were diagnosed with COVID-19, or who were told by a healthcare provider or other public health personnel that they likely had COVID-19, are eligible.
• You can call or email our hospital to arrange an appointment time for blood sampling.
• Sampling must occur at least 2 weeks after the last infected person in the household was identified by their healthcare provider or public health to be non-infectious. At this point, your pet is considered to be non-infectious (even if it had been previously infected).
• Sampling consists of routine blood collection during which a small sample of blood will be drawn and submitted for evaluation.
• You will be asked to fill out a brief questionnaire outlining the timing of illness, whether the diagnosis was confirmed, and the type of contact you normally have with your pet.
• Samples and completed questionnaires will be submitted to the researchers at OVC.
Participation in this study is completely optional and there are no costs associated with blood sampling and testing. However, if sampling is done at the time of other veterinary care, normal costs for care apart from blood sampling will apply.
Your contribution to this research is greatly appreciated. Please note, VCA Canada has not shared any client or patient information with the OVC team or any third-party affiliates.
Please contact us to schedule a time to participate in this study. Questions about the study can be directed to Dr. Scott Weese of the University of Guelph.


I'll be interested to learn the findings of the study.





 

It's been over 50 years since this song came out:

https://www.metrolyrics.com/crystal-blue-persuasion-lyrics-tommy-james-and-the-shondells.html

Tommy James and the Shondells were invited to play at Woodstock but turned the invitation down, something any surviving members of the band may still be regretting to this day! But today's story is not about finding religion or even missing out on Woodstock, it's about finding Crystal the cat.

Crystal is a young cat, a dark brown tabby with a white bib and stockings and gorgeous green eyes. As mentioned in a recent post, he's not ours for keeps - we're just looking after him for a while. When we brought him home in a carrier in the car, he was completely silent and still, though he looked awake. When we first brought him home last weekend, he was initially confined to one bedroom, where he mostly hid behind the bed or the record rack. But on Monday we let him out to explore a bit. Our own cat was curious about this feline newcomer too and circling the wagon a bit to figure things out. We still kept him in the bedroom overnight up to and including Monday night but then on Tuesday evening when the two cats had sniffed around each other a bit, Crystal managed to bolt down to the basement. So we let him be, figuring that he just needed a bolt-hole and would emerge once he got hungry.

Wednesday morning he still hadn't re-surfaced but I wasn't too concerned at that point. I usually do laundry on Wednesdays and I knew I'd be up and down the basement steps several times over the course of the day. Surely I'd spot him at some point.

Except that I didn't. Wednesday evening we both had a good look around the basement but eventually conceded defeat. Cats can hide in pretty small spaces and a cat who doesn't want to be found can be pretty wily.

So Thursday was a worrisome day. We were pretty sure he couldn't have escaped the house altogether although we did look in the yard and the garage just in case. During a pandemic, it's difficult to just go up to people on the street and ask, "Have you seen our cat?" My partner set up an i-pad down there with cat noises and bird-calls in an effort to lure him out of hiding. When his main human phoned to ask how he was doing, we got her to talk to him long-distance, which used to be the next best thing to being there. All to no avail.

We set to clearing out some of the main storage and junk-collecting areas of the basement, particularly under the steps. We're a bit architecturally challenged in that there's no door at the top of our basement steps to block off the basement from the main floor. In the basement itself, there is a door between the laundry area on one side of the steps and the rest of the basement on the other. It separates the two areas for humans but not necessarily for cats.

The steps are... well, steps but not really what you'd call stairs. More like the steps on a stepladder, open at the back. We or possibly an earlier owner had put rudimentary risers on the back of each tread but over time, some had managed to detach themselves, leaving plenty of room for a cat to jump through into the storage area behind, and into the laundry room. So on Thursday, Dianora nailed missing step-backs back in place in an effort to divide off the two areas again for all but the most determined cat.

Around 4 PM, I thought I might have heard some timid mewing coming from the basement. I armed myself with a bag of Crystal's favourite kind of cat-treat as well as a sprinkle-shaker of catnip. I sprinkled it throughout the basement, focusing on areas close to where we figured he might be inclined to hide. I tried rustling the treat-bag and calling the cat and listening carefully.

After perhaps 20 minutes or so, a streak of tabby-and-white sprang out from behind a pegboard in the workbench section in the laundry area and headed under the steps. I tiptoed about trying to keep tabs on him but he was elusive. It looked like he was definitely in the laundry area however. I made sure he had food, water and a litter box there; the area was inaccessible to Nanook even if she wandered down the steps, so if food was eaten and the box was used, we would know by tomorrow.
After a fruitless stalking the cat in his lair, I decided to abandon the search for now and have some supper.

We didn't manage to capture him on Thursday or Friday during the day, but we had a few more sightings of him which was certainly a relief. And we knew he was a nocturnal beast too, most apt to make himself known in the wee hours.

So Friday night I dozed off but awoke around 1 AM, unsure if I had heard him or not. I tiptoed down the basement steps and sat at the bottom outside the laundry area, listening for any catlike sounds. No success for quite a while. But I was determined.

Then I very quietly opened the door and entered the laundry area, closing the door quietly behind me. I tried standing for several minutes at strategic locations near where I thought he might be lurking. I didn't want to risk sitting on a squeaky or rickety chair or stumbling over a box or anything. But after awhile I decided to sit down on the floor (hoping I'd be able to get up again!) thinking I might be less intimidating at something closer to cat's eye view.

Persistence paid off. Soon I noticed a pair of wide green eyes observing me from a pandemic-era distance. No sudden moves for me! I extended my fingers towards him, inviting him to sniff. Eventually he approached, cautiously at first, then allowing me to stroke and brush him. I was rewarded with throaty purrs and moist nuzzling.

After taking our time over these steps, he at last cuddled into my shoulder, still purring as I maintained a firm hold on him. The final step - or steps actually - was to spirit him out of the laundry room and up the steps through the kitchen to the hallway to the bedroom. We'd made it!

Needless to say, I didn't get much in the way of shut-eye Friday night. For Crystal, 3 AM is the absolute best time to play chase-the-bird or the laser dot or the string. I dozed off again but kept being awakened by plaintive little cries. It's a good thing he's such an appealing little creature. It's also a good thing this isn't a permanent arrangement. It's like having a new baby in the house again, except that we're not as young and energetic as we were back when we had a human baby around!

He and Nanook are still negotiating personal (kittenal?) space with each other. I don't suppose they'll resolve all their differences before it's time to take Crystal back home, but we'll settle for wary watchfulness for now and catching up on our sleep in a week or so.

I had rather a sleepless night last night. Shortly after midnight, I heard a plaintive mew from Crystal's temporary digs. When I went in, he was standing in the middle of the room, gazing wide-eyed at the unfamiliar surroundings. I extended my hand towards him and he sniffed it a bit but it was mostly a physically-distanced visit. It looks as if he's having a wee bit of the food we put down for him, though not much, and he's definitely using the litter box. I spoke gently to him for a good ten minutes and then left. But then about half an hour later he was mewing again. This time he was over by the bed and when I tried talking to me he stood stock-still before hissing a bit. There was the occasional deep-seated growl and eventually he retreated.

Since then, we've sort of taken turns going in to see him. This morning I lay in there and read for a bit while he hung out behind the bed. He condescended to sniff my hand a little but does seem to be a bit bewildered, missing his main human. It'll take time, I guess.

It was quite an eventful weekend, driving down to pick him up on Saturday and getting him settled in as best we could. Sunday we went to a drop-in garage birthday celebration for our oldest grandchild, who turned ten on Friday. We also met the newest addition to the family, a white and black kitten named Zora. Then there were the usual Sunday activities like laundry and baking (blueberry muffins this time).

Life has a different rhythm and a different feel to it these days. We're adjusting OK, I guess, although I'm missing a lot of the activities and the spontaneity I enjoyed pre-pandemic.

Could your cat have COVID-19? Could your dog have it? What about other pets?

According to a recent study out of Dalhousie University, cats - both wild and semi-domesticated - are indeed susceptible to the virus. So are ferrets. Dogs are not. Here is a link to a CBC piece about the research:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/covid-19-study-dalhousie-university-cats-dogs-1.5656228?cmp=rss

Here is a link to the entire article, available through an open access (creative commons) licencing agreement:

https://academic.oup.com/emph/article/doi/10.1093/emph/eoaa021/5866981

It seems domestic cats may in a few cases be carriers, though they don't typically become all that ill from the virus.

I gather Asperger Syndrome is a much more serious threat to cats:

https://www.amazon.ca/All-Cats-Have-Asperger-Syndrome/dp/1843104814/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=%22aspergers+mystery%22&qid=1591590217&s=books&sr=1-11

Fortunately I don't think it's contagious. But maybe that's because people tend to self-isolate when exposed to an Aspy meltdown?

For many people, April and Easter are a time of new life and new beginnings. For me, this time of year is associated with loss.

As noted in my entry of April 30, 2015, my mother and my mother-in-law both died in April (though on different dates and nine years apart). And on Saturday morning of this Easter weekend, we said goodbye to Tony (also referred to in this blog as Albert), one of the two cats we adopted following my mother-in-law's death.

We had known since taking him to our vet for a checkup in 2015 that he was susceptible to heart problems and he did in fact undergo a number of cardiological tests that first summer before we decided we could risk getting him put under long enough to neuter and microchip him. There were no real complications and he seemed to cope well enough with the anesthetic. But the tests indicated one chamber of his heart was slightly enlarged and he had an irregular heartbeat. There was always the possibility that he might suddenly stop breathing, possibly dying in his sleep or even just being here one second, gone the next. But the scenario was suggested as being relatively painless, at least from the cat's point of view. I thought to myself that while I didn't want that to happen, there were certainly worse ways to go!

By the end of summer 2015, he seemed in fine fettle, having progressed from that scared little boy cowering under the china cabinet or on the windowsill to an oft-affectionate (though it had to be on his own terms) purry kneady and needy beast who loved to leap on furniture and people or chase laser pointers across the floor and up the wall. And this weekend, as recently as Friday night, he seemed very much his usual self.

But on Saturday morning, he didn't come running to get his breakfast the way he usually did. In fact, he wasn't in any fit state to run. We heard a yowl and I found him at the bottom of the basement steps. His back legs were paralyzed. Coronary thrombosis. We took him to the veterinary hospital and the prognosis was not good.

Still, we were there with him at the end and we're glad he was part of the family and our lives, although it was for too short a time.

NOTE: This is the final instalment in our cat adoption story. If you are top-posting (or top-displaying) these entries from most recent to least recent (which is what I personally prefer and what most people seem to do and expect - though there have been some vigorous arguments about it around our place!) you may want to scroll down and catch up on any parts you may not yet have read. This is NOT the last you'll hear of these cats, but it seems fitting to be posting the last part of our adoption story on the August long weekend, two years after we found ourselves walking into a Pet Valu store and asking, "How much is that moggie in the window?"

So Albert got his heart tests done. Next day, the vet who had conducted these tests phoned to discuss the results. They were mostly positive, but did indicate that one chamber of Albert's heart was slightly enlarged. That meant a bit of extra risk with anaesthetic although the vet said if it were his cat, he would consider it a risk worth taking. And Albert had already had some sedation for the tests, and come out of it okay. The neutering operation, at least with the male of the species, is quite quick so he would not need to be under for very long. Dental work, on the other hand, would mean sedating him for significantly longer. We decided the priority for now was to get him snipped, and the dental issues could be addressed later or by some other means. But our vet was not going to be back from holidays for another week, so we decided to defer the operation until her return.

It was done on Tuesday, July 21. And he survived, intact except for his dignity and the intended physical modification. He did, however, breathe as if he were snoring, the aftermath of having had a tube down his throat for a while. He was prescribed drops to be inserted into his cheek to alleviate the pain. I was a little apprehensive about being able to successfully medicate him but fortunately it was quite easy - he had a hearty appetite right from the time we got him home and I was able to insert the dropper into his mouth while he was ravenously gobbling his food.

While we didn't want to risk the dental work at that time, we did get him microchipped and claw-trimmed while he was under, as those procedures could both be done quickly and easily.

Nowadays, when we're at home to keep an eye on them, we allow the cats to mingle quite freely except at mealtimes or when there seems to be trouble brewing. When we go out, we need to confine all the cats to one part of the house so that they can't activate the motion detectors and trigger the burglar alarm. Reigning Cat is not a problem - she comes running whenever she hears the "magic cupboard" opening - that's where the cat treats are kept. We're hoping she'll tell Victoria and Albert about it too, so that as they get more daring about exploring the house, we can round them up quickly if we need to, just by opening the cupboard door.

I think the cats still have a few issues they need to sort out with one other - and with us, too. I'm hoping one day I'll actually be able to stroke Albert when he's NOT engrossed in his food, and maybe groom him a bit as well. Victoria already seems to be losing a bit of the weight - she's more active these days but still walks with a limp and does not seem able to jump up on chairs, beds, etc.

But we're getting there.

Note: To read these in chronological order, you will likely need to scroll down to Part 1.

One thing we learned from the cat bite episode was that the carriers we had for the cats were not really very practical. We needed to invest in carriers that were a little more human-accessible and human-controllable. Our vet told us about some that had a door on top in addition to the door in one end. I located a picture of a model that looked ideal, on the PetSmart site. Better yet, I was able to search the inventory of local stores and find out that the PetSmart closest to us had them in stock. I get frustrated with our online world at times, but it does have its uses!

When we took the carriers home, Reigning Cat took to them right away, wanting to explore them through both the skylight-door and the end-door. It remained to be seen what Queen Victoria and Uncle Albert would make of them.

Since Albert's neuter/dentistry appointment on July 2 was scheduled for a bleary-eyed 7:30AM AND he had to be deprived of food for 12 hours beforehand AND the veterinary hospital is much closer to our place than to the inlaws', we decided to relocate him to our place on July 1. And we didn't really want to separate him from Victoria, so that meant relocating both cats on July 1. An added bonus was that since it's a public holiday, additional family members were available to help calm them down.

Surprisingly, Albert was pretty calm throughout most of the car trip. This time it was Victoria who was stressed out, vocalizing and salivating and at one point, throwing up. But we got them both safely home, and settled them in a bedroom with their familiar accoutrements - cat beds, scratching posts, food dishes, litterboxes, etc. And once we opened the doors in the carriers, Victoria soon reverted to being her affectionate, sociable self. Albert, on the other paw, just stayed in his carrier for quite a while - maybe figuring that if he couldn't see us, we couldn't see him.

We soon learned that unlike most cats, Victoria and Albert are totally unpicky about food - they'll eat whatever is put in front of them (and often what ISN'T as well)! So it's easy enough to give them what the vet recommended, a high quality brand seniors' food. But it does mean feeding them separately from Reigning Cat, who is young and still pretty active.

Next morning, we got Albert to the vet's on time... but for reasons I'll reveal in the next episode, he didn't get the snip that day.