Control of flea problems is also important to prevent re-infection. If repeat testing (see below) indicates inadequate therapy, another course of treatment will probably be recommended. This course of therapy has been shown to clear infection in 83% of affected cats. Treatment:īartonella infection is usually treated with a 3-week course of the oral antibiotic azithromycin. Other diagnostic tests available include blood culture and PCR but these tests have their own drawbacks and can be more expensive and time-consuming. Drawbacks to this type of testing include the facts that there can be false negatives (meaning the cat is infected but antibody negative occurs up to 11% of the time) and that a positive titer might only indicate exposure to the organism and not active infection. Diagnosis is made by evaluating the clinical signs in conjunction with a blood test to look for a high level of antibodies to this organism. Proving that Bartonella infection is the cause of a cat's clinical signs can be difficult. We mostly think of Bartonella as a pathogen in cats but there is at least one report of it causing ocular effects in dogs as well. The biggest differential for Bartonella conjunctivitis is herpesviral conjunctivitis. Yet, it can respond rapidly to oral azithromycin therapy. The conjunctivitis attributed to Bartonella infection is commonly both chronic and refractory to a variety of treatments. Potential Ocular Effects of Bartonella Infection:īartonella infection in cats has been implicated as causing conjunctivitis, uveitis, blepharitis, chorioretinitis, and keratitis. The organism has been blamed for causing a variety of problems in cats including oral, respiratory, intestinal, and ocular diseases. There is some disagreement amongst veterinarians as to what Bartonella infection can do to cats. Most infected cats show no signs of illness. Cats can remain infected for years or even for life if untreated. However, since it is a potentially zoonotic disease (can be transmitted from animals to humans), you should bring any concern to your physician. The bacteria can be spread to people primarily by cat scratches and bites. The bacteria can be transmitted between cats by fleas and ticks. This is the bacterium that can cause "cat scratch" disease in people. Bartonellosis is caused by infection with one of five Bartonella species of bacteria including Bartonella henselae.
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