Cat Viral Infection

We all try to live healthy lives and avoid contracting viruses to the best of our abilities. Cat owners should also place the same attention on their cats as there a wide range of infectious viruses that can invade the feline body. Viruses are quite the nasty specimen as they will latch on to a host body and use its energy to breed and manifest, expanding and bringing greater destruction in numbers. Pathogenic viruses are the sole reason for many serious cat illnesses. This includes cat flu, rabies and other severe conditions.

Viruses have varying abilities of survival and will need to be handled differently depending on what pathogen has been found as the underlying problem in a sick cat. Some viruses such as cat flu will easily be dealt with using disinfectants while others will require layers of treatment to immobilise and destroy them altogether. Protecting a cat from viral infections is a tough job and an owner can spend a considerable amount of time in securing the environment and following certain protocols to reduce expose to infection. Vaccine are perhaps the biggest line of defence but there are various viruses that are not normally vaccinated for, leaving a cat vulnerable. This is often the case in countries or areas that deem themselves to be at low risk for something such as rabies. If a cat is due to move or travel however, special procedures may be arranged to have it vaccinated from the known diseases.

It’s worth knowing the differences between infections and disease as there is actually a distinct difference between the two. Formally, a disease is any ailment that causes the bodily function of an animal to be hindered. The disease does not necessarily have to occur as a result of an infection and come from a number of hereditary reasons also. There would be no way to vaccinate against this. Sometimes cats will succumb to infection that is formally known as a virus, for instance the coronavirus. While being an active host of the virus, it may not show any symptoms or cause impairment of the cat as a disease would. Similarly, a cat that is infected may not always be a host that is able to transmit disease. Infections can be non-contagious and an understanding of how various infections transmit and spread needs to be understood.