You’re sitting on the couch, giving your purring pal some pets, when all of the sudden, they decide they’re over it—and they flip around and bite your hand. Since toxoplasmosis can be transmitted via contact with cat feces, many pregnant women are told to lower their risk by giving away their cats or by putting their cats outside. Pregnant women or immunosuppressed individuals are safest when other household members clean the litter box. Rabies is more common in raccoons, skunks, bats and foxes than in cats … While cat scratch disease has not been proven dangerous to a fetus, toxoplasmosis can cause serious birth defects or a miscarriage. The parasite lives at the expense of its host, meaning it needs the host in order to produce offspring, known as "oocysts." References: Morris, D. (1986). The patients involved in the study were all bitten on the hand. Rather than being transmitted through scratches, toxoplasmosis is spread from cats to humans through their feces. Check out these cute cat reaction to pregnant women and write in the comments what reaction did your animals have during your pregnancy. If possible, a pregnant woman should not change the cat litter box and should avoid contact with cat feces. If a pregnant woman does find it necessary to change a cat litter box, she should wear gloves when doing so and wash her hands thoroughly afterward. About half the patients visited an emergency room, while the rest went to their primary-care physician. This is why pregnant women are often advised to avoid contact with the litter box during pregnancy. The average of the participants was 49 years old, and 69 percent were women. For a full list of cat articles, see the main Cats page. Three Rivers Press: Random House. Cat love bites can hurt. Ideally, another household member should change the cat litter box. Cat bites, however, are more likely to cause infection. Dogs are more likely to bite than cats are. Cover children’s sandboxes when not in use to prevent wandering cats from defecating in them. We might not always realize it, but cats can be very attracted to our simplest motions, such as the movement of our ankles as we walk around the house. Mikel says this can lead to a playful and high-energy cat chasing us around and partaking in some unexpected biting … Pregnant women can transmit toxoplasmosis, a rare parasitic disease, to their unborn babies, and a toxoplasmosis infection can lead to miscarriage or cause malformed babies. Viral Infections Rabies is a viral disease that is spread through the bite of an infected animal. See the Pregnant Cats and Kittens Page for information on caring for pregnant cats, kitten development week by week, kitten training, kitten care, and more. Doctors believe a woman who becomes infected during pregnancy is able to transmit the disease to the fetus, which could potentially result in severe brain damage or early death. 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