Diseases to Worry About With a Stray Cat

Many people attempt to adopt feral kittens or stray cats off the street, with the hope that if the animal is tamed, loved and cared for, it will eventually become a good house pet. However, these animals often carry diseases and infections that the person who adopted them, as well as other animals already living in the household, can catch.

  1. Roundworms

    • Cats get roundworm infections by killing and eating infected rodents, or through the fecal leavings of infected cats. Roundworms look like live spaghetti noodles. They live in the intestinal tract and organs. The symptoms of roundworms are diarrhea, vomiting and a bloated appearance. If the worms get into the lungs, they can cause pneumonia. Roundworms are transmissible to humans, but the larvae do not develop into worms in a human. Instead, the larvae infect the liver, lungs, brain and eyes, and they cause a disease called toxocariasis. The symptoms of toxocariasis in humans include vision problems and eye inflammation. If the larval worms enter the lungs, the victim can develop fever, asthma or other respiratory issues such as pneumonia.

    Hookworms

    • According to Cornell University, between 10 and 60 percent of cats are infected with hookworms. The worms can cause anemia in cats because they feed on blood from the intestines. This can eventually cause death in a cat. Hookworms can cause a skin infection in humans called cutaneous larval migrans.

    Tapeworms

    • Cats get tapeworms by ingesting fleas. Tapeworms are long, slender, flat worms that live in the cat's small intestine. Small pieces of the worms break off and are passed in the cat's stool, where they look like grains of white rice. Tapeworms are transmissible to humans if the eggs are accidentally eaten. Humans with tapeworms can have stomach pain and tapeworm segments in the stool.

    Toxoplasmosis

    • Stray cats can carry a disease called toxoplasmosis. This infection is caused by a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, and it is spread through the feces of infected cats. Toxoplasmosis causes general, flu-like symptoms in young kittens as well as in humans. These symptoms can last for several weeks. In severe cases, cats can develop eye inflammations, hepatitis and enlarged lymph nodes. Toxoplasmosis causes brain or eye damage in people with weak immune systems. It also can cause long-term physical and mental problems for babies infected while still in the womb.

    Cat Scratch Disease

    • Cat scratch disease is caused by a bacterium called Bartonella henselae. Humans can get the disease by being bitten or scratched by a cat. Kittens are more likely to carry the disease, but adult cats can carry it as well. A symptom of cat scratch disease is an infection at the site where they were bitten or scratched. The victim may also have a loss of appetite, lethargy, headache, swollen lymph nodes and fever. Cats with this disease do not show any symptoms, so there is no way to tell whether or not the animal is infected.