Conference moira::parenting_v3

    OK here's my nutshell full of knowledge on the subject, both from my
    veterinarian and my OB.
    
    Toxo can be transmitted both through cat feces and urine, as well as
    through the handling of raw meat. (remember how most of us form hamburg
    patties and meatballs by hand).
    
    As for a "positive" blood test, your cat could have a "positive" test
    for Toxo, by the way this test drove me crazy while they did it because
    it has to be draws from the cat's artery-oh ouch-plus shaving the area,
    simply because it was transmitted to the cat from its mother.  My cat
    has never been outside, and test a "Low Positive", so there are degrees
    to the positive level, ask for an explaination from your vet.  Your
    test should follow along the same lines, there are low and high levels
    of it.
    
    A friend of ours developed a full blown case of Toxo after owning a
    small (he did everything from food prep to dishwashing and waiting
    tables) restaurant(coffee shop style place) for many years.  His
    disease was traced back to handling raw meat, NOT cat!  My naive
    opinion is that if you actually had a full blown case of toxo going on
    in your body you would have symptoms. (and there ARE MAJOR symptoms
    with this disease!) And also would just say don't be
    so quick to blame your cat, and strongly suggest you do have both cat
    and dog tested.  But don't be surprised if the test does come back
    positive.  Both my OB and Vet said the same thing independantly, almost
    everyone and every animal has some traces of toxo in their body.
    
    In one of AJ's many hospital stays I did meet one parent whose child
    was born with Toxo.  The baby was on a 10 day program of Intravenous
    anitbiotics, had a fairly good birthweight, (low birthweight is one of
    the problems) and was assured her baby would have no long term problems
    after treatment.
    
    I do agree that having hubby change the cat pan is a good idea, if I
    had to do it, it was done with me wearing disposable rubber gloves
    supplied by my OB by the way, and actually it wouldn't hurt for hubby
    to wear them to change the pan too.  Men can get the disease too.
    Just because you stopped changing the pan when you became pregnant,
    doesn't mean you've stopped the disease itself.
    
    And the usual disclaimer, contact yours and the cat's doctor for best
    advise!
    
    Lyn

    Jan,
    
    During my routine prenatal blood work, they found toxoplasmosis
    antibodies in my blood.   We have never owned a cat and I have never 
    eaten raw meat.  I was retested 2 or 3 weeks later and the antibody level 
    was the same, so the conclusion was that I had toxoplasmosis at some
    point, but that I did not have an active infection.  The disease can
    be picked up many ways - my guess is that I got it while gardening.
    
    Hang in there - it is my understanding that it can be treated even
    while you are pregnant.
    
    Penny
    

See also PARENTING_v2, topic 85 (20 replies).

    
    FYI:
    
    I think there are also some notes on this in the FELINE notesfile.
    I may have even entered one myself many months back, when I was
    informed about Toxo after finding a litter of stray kittens under
    my porch.  Where they were strays, my doctor advised me not to handle
    them.  Talk about HARD, try to feed and watch grow 5 beautiful 3-4
    week old kitten, while you can't TOUCH them. We finally had to bring
    them to shelter.
    
    Does anyone know the symptoms of this disease??  I wasn't informed of 
    anything during my routine blood work, but do wonder to myself
    everytime I am preparing a steak, or a meal involving red meat
    (meatballs, etc)... ?? (but I don't eat it raw) ??
    
    	Chris
    

    Regarding meat, the doctor told me to cook my meat fairly well where
    the inside was no longer pink.  I like med rare meat but was told that
    even under cooked meat could cause this.  Also told to avoid pork.   I
    was tested as was my cat and nothing was found so I felt relieved, but
    still took precautions; litter box etc.  My vet did not see any
    problems handling the cat, just litter, and my doctor did mention that
    any gardening (which I do not do anyway) should be with gloves as you
    do not know if any neighborhood animals have gone in your dirt.
    
    Michelle

    As for symptoms, I can't remember many of them except this man had
    constant disabling body, joint, and head aches.  I do remember though
    he was disabled to the point of multiple hospitalizations, unable to
    work at all, and most heartbreaking he was physically unable to play
    with his small children.  There was some neuro symptoms, seizures?
    maybe but I do know this man has made pretty much a full recovery, and
    has moved out of state and with his wife is running an Inn in Northern
    New England.  That would seem to indicate that while the symptoms are
    rough, the recovery of even the worst cases can be full and complete.
    

    Thanks for the replies and pointer. I just got back from the lab
    (they screwed up the paperwork and I have to go back). My doctor is
    on vacation so I talked to the tech about the second blood test.
    She said I could come in at my leisure, no hurry and that the lab has
    never had a second test come back indicating the presence of the
    infection. Well, that's fine for her, it's not her baby.
    
    I gather that once I've tested positive I will always test positive?
    I didn't 3 years ago with my first. We've only had the cat since
    March (my Grandmother went into supportive care and we got Charlie)
    and the cat was always an indoor cat until then. He catches mice,
    birds, rabbits but I always find the carcases intact. But he's the
    most likely suspect. I guess I'm just worried that there hasn't been
    that much time for him or me to get rid of the microorganisms if that
    is the case.
    
    The symptoms I read of were body aches, low grade fever, red rash, and
    something else (sorry)... Please don't tell me headaches, I've been
    suffering from headaches for 3 weeks and I'd really panick.
    
    Logic tells me not to worry but now I'm not feeling too logical.
    Thanks as usual, JAn 

Many people get it with symptoms a lot less severe than the man who was 
mentioned who works in the restaurant.  I had it and my major symptoms were a 
mild fever and swollen painful lymph nodes.  I thought I had cancer.  Boy was I 
relieved (but then I wasn't pregnant, this was after my two boys were born).

The doctor had told me when I was pregnant to avoid rare meat also.

He said that (as one note mentioned) almost everybody gets it at some time or
another and that usually one case is sufficient to protect against recurrance
although it does recur in some people.  It is rarely serious unless the woman
is pregnant and then it needs to be (and can be!) treated.

ccb

    According to my OB/GYN and the books he gave me, toxo can be treated
    while pregnant.
    
    I was told not to handle the cat, litter box, food, raw meat, etc while
    I was pregnant.  I had the blood test for toxo and thank God it can
    back fine.  But I read up on it (just in case) and I learned that if
    toxo is not treated in pregnant women, certain birth defects may
    develop.  One of the serious ones was blindness in the baby.  
    
    But I guess this is why the doctors are so up on testing for this sort
    of thing, so they can treat it before anything serious can happen.
    
    If you have any questions/concerns, I would talk to your doctor or
    nurse and read some books.
    
    

    I asked my doc about this when I was pregnant and she said 
    that she'd been discussing this with her collegues, and they came
    to the conclusion that it would not really be worth doing the
    testing because the results, according to her would be the same.
    If you'd have had it, then the antibodies were there and there
    wasn't the problem. If you hadn't had it, then since there is 
    no vaccine, she would not be able to treat you anyway (and certainly
    not during pregnancy!).
    My understanding is that unless you've been around cats, its likely
    you haven't had it. And since we've never had cats (Dad is almost
    deadly allergic) I probably never got it. So, I just stayed away 
    from touching the cats in the neighborhood and didn't eat anything
    out of our garden unless it was cooked (those little fluffy guys 
    really enjoyed sleeping in our tomato patch).
    
    Monica
    

    Interesting antedote on this, I took my older cat to the vet recently,
    and the cat ended up being admitted overnight.  The vet advised me to
    call her the next morning, then hesitated and said to call her after
    noon instead.  Seems the vet was going to have prenatal blood work done 
    for......
    
    Toxoplasmosis!
    
    I have to call her this afternoon about my cat, think I'll make it
    a point to ask her the results of her blood test.
    
    She said she only had " a few weeks left", about what stage in the
    pregnancy does the OB generally test?  
    
    Lyn 

    RE: .11
    
    My doctor tested me around 3 months.  It's weird how all of us got
    different answers to treatment while pregnant.  It would be interesting
    to find out the truth.
    
    Gail

    I am NOT trying to be contrary, but do you think that if you contacted
    a reputable veterinarian, such as Tufts veterinary school in Grafton,
    that you might get straigt, objective answers?  After all this is a
    disease transmitted by animals primarily, right?
    
    Lyn
    

    While I was pregnant, I was told a *positive* test was good because it
    showed that I had already been exposed to Toxo.  I was tested again and
    then both serums were tested a third time.  If already exposed to Toxo,
    you should be immune to it and your baby should be ok.  I know I
    shouldn't have, but I changed my litter boxes my full pregnancy.  I did
    worry that something would be wrong with my baby, but she had
    absolutely no problems and was born absolutely perfect.
    
    Good luck.
    Mary
    

    Just thought I'd relay the information I got from my doctor.
    They consider a positive test for toxo a titre level of 16 or more.
    Mine was 170 something. That is the number from the IGI. Then when
    they get a positive reading they do the IGM to check for a current
    infection. In my case it was negative. However, the titre level 
    detected in the IGM drops within a few weeks of an infection so
    they can't completely rule out that I was not infected while pregnant.
    
    I hope this makes sense or helps someone. Thank you all for the
    feedback, you know how you get when your pregnant and emotional.
    
    Jan