Am I sharing blood with my cat?

June 24, 2008 1:59 AM

We're well into the rainy season here in Tokyo, and that means mosquito season too! It seems to be quite a bad year for them here, at least it seems so in my area. Boots the Cat is being especially bothered by them, and I've even seen one probing at her nose as she sleeps. I'm of course getting bit too, and that makes me wonder - as Boots-chan and I are the only residents in this house, and it's quite possible that mosquitoes have been going 'back and forth' between us, am I 'sharing' blood with her? Is this something I should be concerned about?
posted by woodblock100 to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

In short no, there are very few diseases that are likely to be transferred between the two of you. I'd try getting a plug in repellent to put near the area where the cat sleeps though, might help keep them away from her.
posted by MrC at 3:06 AM on June 24, 2008

Wilma's Nordic Summer mosquito repellant - keeps everything away, even your friends. It's the shiznit.
posted by three blind mice at 3:47 AM on June 24, 2008

When I last gave blood and told the blood-bank folks that I had given myself a needle-stick in the process of injecting my cat with insulin. they were supremely unconcerned about any blood-borne diseases my cat might have. I figure if it doesn't bother the blood bank, I probably shouldn't worry.
posted by Stacey at 4:08 AM on June 24, 2008

Sorry for a very peripheral answer, but if you're in an apartment your landlord should be willing to change out your screen windows if you pester them enough. I stopped paying rent for a month once as I asked regularly, and they did it quickly after that.

If you have the sliding kind of windows, check that they are matching correctly--if the right-hand window is behind the left-hand window, the screen should be on the left-hand side. Otherwise, when the window is partly open there is a big gap between the edge of the screen and the partly-opened window. Towels under doors can be good too.

Good luck...
posted by biwa-shu at 4:39 AM on June 24, 2008

I wouldn't worry about the blood bit at all. There's nothing that would pass that way human-feline.

If you're looking to get rid of the mosquitos though, may I humbly suggest something like the Skeeterbag? If your cat sleeps in the same area, she would make excellent "bait" for the skeeterbag, and after running it for a few weeks the local mosquito population tends to get decimated, I've noticed.
If you're not keen on paying $20 plus shipping and handling for one, I found after I purchased mine that you can also use one of these stroller nets for $5 on a box fan with identical results.
posted by barc0001 at 11:50 AM on June 24, 2008

In short, no.

The only cat-human health hazard I know of is toxoplasmosis and it's not blood-borne
posted by doppleradar at 8:01 PM on June 24, 2008

This kind of question always takes me back to the "flying hypodermic needle" idea that caused so much concern wrt AIDS transmission. I asked many people, medical and lay, over the years why mosquitos can't transmit the disease, and the answers usually ranged from "well, they just can't!" to "the disease can't live outside the body that long" -- neither being a satisfactory answer since a mosquito could certainly move from me to you in less time than, say, a poorly screened blood transfusion might take, and we haven't stopped worrying about those.

Finally, the actual answer surfaced, though it was still annoying to find so many people wedded to an answer for which they had no evidence. Even here I'm surprised that the answers focus on the lack of common cat and human diseases, rather than this important fact about mosquitos.

Mosquitos are not mini hypodermics. Excerpt:

Most people have heard that mosquitoes regurgitate saliva before they feed, but are unaware that the food canal and salivary canal are separate passageways in the mosquito. The mosquito's feeding apparatus is an extremely complicated structure that is totally unlike the crude single-bore syringe. Unlike a syringe, the mosquito delivers salivary fluid through one passage and draws blood up another. As a result, the food canal is not flushed out like a used needle, and blood flow is always unidirectional. The mechanics involved in mosquito feeding are totally unlike the mechanisms employed by the drug user's needles. In short, mosquitoes are not flying hypodermic needles and a mosquito that disgorges saliva into your body is not flushing out the remnants of its last blood meal.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:33 PM on July 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

So, to your stated question, no, you are not sharing blood with your cat.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:34 PM on July 19, 2008