Scary Stuff
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As the thread has had 105 hits, with no comments, I have altered the title to more accurately reflect the content.
That said, a link "Scary stuff" tells me nothing about the content of the link or its relevance to me.
A few words about the subject with a link (with or without the URL - although a URL gives some clue to the source and its credibility (or otherwise) is more helpful to potential readers.
As it was, I only clicked on it to make sure that the er... ambiguity in the title was not a signpost to something ... inappropriate. :naughty:
It is food for thought but, Then they say that dog owners contract heart worms from their dogs too.
I think the risks of toxoplasmosis are reasonably well known - it is also a risk to pregnant women and can cause blindness/brain damage in the developing foetus.
The answer (for cats and dogs~) is to make sure they arte regularly wormed and get a veterinary check-up. I would guess that they would be a greater risk with cats that are allowed to roam - house cats that rarely go out are less likely to pick up the parasite.
And of course, personal hygiene, washing hands after handling an animal (especially after cleaning out the cat litter!)
we have a dog who gets advocate monthly, and drontal bimonthly, regular check ups, and the ole anal glands cleared regularly.And as said by peterb,regular hand wash with if possible the antiseptic hand wash is always good, more so for the kids who after playing with the dog and its toys outside or indoors tend to forget and put there fingers near their mouths without thinking.
that being said any decent mind control parasite i could give to the missus would be a massive improvement !!!!!!!!!
When Randall Munroe first observed this...
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cat_proximity.png
... I wonder if he realised it was just the effects of a feline-borne parasite...? ;)
There are so many things that cats could be infected with that don't bear thinking about, tbh - although most are far nastier for the cat than the owner. I half expected this to be some "horror" story about FIV, which is surprisingly common. For most cat owners, having their brains tweaked by toxoplasma bacilli would count as an acceptable cost of their relationship with their cat (again, see Mr Munroe's take on the cat/human relationship above ;) ).
hm interesting read! brought up with cats my whole life so meh probs have it...so what though?? doesn't affect me..to badly? ha
It's been known for a long time that a significant proportion of humans have toxoplasma, the thing that I find really cool is that it makes mice actively seek out cats to facilitate the transmission of the parasite.