Cytauxzoonosis, better known by the common name bobcat fever, is a diagnosis dreaded by cat lovers. In the past, only about one in ten housecats infected with this tick-borne disease survived. But survival odds have greatly improved in recent years, Dr. Anthony Pike of Animal Hospital of Eureka Springs said.
“A pretty good estimate is that fifty to sixty percent are surviving,” he said. “Getting them in early helps, but it’s still no guarantee.”
Rumors have been spread that the area cat population is gaining immunity to the disease, but Pike said he thinks not enough is known to come to that conclusion.
“One of the problems with this disease is it scares people, and they get all kinds of information that is not correct,” Pike said. “You can’t say anything about the resistance. There may be some resistance, but that’s pure speculation. There may be multiple strains, some really bad and some not as bad. The epidemiology of it has not completely been worked out.
“Another vet asked me if I was seeing strains that were easier to treat. Those kinds of things are hard to know unless they are studied. It is worth treating. The last round of cases I treated, a lot of those cats survived, more than average. That could just be chance. I’ve had runs where I’ve done above sixty percent survival and runs that ran below that.”
Years ago, vets had a success rate of only about 10 percent treating bobcat fever. The improvement to 50 to 60 percent is significant, Pike said.
“Bobcat fever is rampant in the Ozarks, and every vet practicing in the area is familiar with the protocol to treat it,” he said. “Definitely bring cats in if they get very sick very quickly. Typically, people will say their cat was fine 48 hours ago and now it is really sick. It is lying around, and won’t eat. Some cats will get jaundice, a yellowing of the whites of the eyes, but you hope you get them before that. They will have a fever of 104° when 101.5° is normal for a cat.”
There is no vaccine for the disease, which is a protozoa organism called cytozoon spread by ticks. Pike said probably the only thing that protects cats is to keep them inside in spring and summer.
Some people might worry their cat doesn’t get an enough exercise if kept indoors.
“It is hard to keep a cat exercised anyhow,” Pike said. “They are such lazy creatures. I let my cats go outside in the fall and winter. But when the season comes that we see cases, I don’t let them out. Or, I might let them go out on the deck if I am with them. I pretty much limit their outdoor exposure because that is the only guarantee they won’t get it.”
The prevalence of the disease seems to vary.
“It seems like when we get into some nice weather in the spring, we start seeing cases and in bunches,” he said. “We will see a lot of cases but then it will dry up. But it can happen anytime in the spring and summer. We don’t tend to see it in the fall and winter. There are other tick-borne diseases that cats can get, but everything else pales compared to this disease. I do not see a lot of other tick diseases in cats here. It kills a lot of them. For tick-borne diseases in dogs, for example, we have better ways to treat it.”
Although putting cats on flea and tick medication doesn’t prevent bobcat fever, he recommends it anyhow. It helps protect the pet owner from having fleas and ticks brought into the house, and can make the cats more comfortable.
“And it may be helping some,” he said. “We don’t know. If you had a population of cats not on anything, you might still see it.”
A lot of the research into treating this disease was done in the Ozarks by the University of Missouri College of Veterinarian Medicine. Pike said vets in our area are pretty well informed because this is something that has been studied across the Ozarks.
While bobcats are carriers of the disease, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other carriers. For example, cats that survive the disease can be carriers. Pike suggests it is called bobcat fever because cytauxzoonosis is a long word. Pictures of a bobcats photographed inside the city limits of Eureka Springs have been posted on social media, but Pike hopes no one will harm the bobcats.
“Bobcats are nice creatures and I wouldn’t give them the blame,” he said. “I’m sure it is spread around by other animals that are carry infected ticks. Until we know more about the disease in the wild, we don’t know which ticks and which carriers are involved. That is an active area of research. I don’t think we are going to know that whole story for a while.”
Although considered rare and elusive, Arkansas allows hunting of bobcats with the next season Sept. 1 through Feb. 28, 2019. There is a daily limit of two. Dogs are allowed to hunt bobcats during the day, and dogs are required to hunt bobcats at night. Bobcats can also be killed during the spring turkey season, according to the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.