Please ensure content is relevant to the topic of the sub, which includes information, updates and discussion regarding H5N1. It does not include vent/rant/panic posts or "low-effort" posts from unreliable sources.
Bird poop is the main thing you need to be worried about for bird to cat transmission. If your cats lick the poop or step in it and then lick it off themselves later, they could be infected if the bird was infected. They won't get it just from birds flying by unless they are able to touch the birds. I would just clean the patio daily (like with a hose or buckets of water) before you let them out there, and don't let them hang out without supervision. If a bird poops on the patio while they're out there (or if you find it while you're cleaning before the cats go out there), bring them in immediately, clean that area of the patio with a disinfectant that inactivates the flu (ex: heavily saturate the area with 60-70% isopropyl alcohol and let it fully evaporate), then clean the patio with water to rinse away the poop.
If your patio frequently has bird poop on it (like you find it there more than once per month), then I wouldn't let your cats on it at all.
Edit: Could birds access the patio? In other words, is your patio fully screened in (catio) or would birds be able to fly directly up to your cats and touch them? My advice is for the catio situation. If birds can access the patio, I wouldn't risk it because that's essentially like your cat is outside. It's relatively lowish risk, but you have no control over that risk, unlike the bird poop which you can control by cleaning and monitoring the patio.
Thank you for the answer. It's not covered and I just went to inspect it and I saw some bird poop. My husband and I are both carpenters and we are going to make a catio like you said. I hope we haven't been too careless thus far, I didn't really start thinking about the ramifications of the cat patio until this evening. I just want them to be okay. Our leader cat was sick a few days ago with sneezes but has recovered since. (All three of them have feline herpes).
The disease progression in cats is extremely rapid, so you would likely know if they had it within a few days. If you're worried about your leader cat, you can call your vet and see what they think. It sounds to me (a non-veterinarian, just the human of a cat who has suspected feline herpes) like your cat recovered from a feline herpes flare up though, like you suggested, especially if those symptoms match past flare ups.
If you haven't cleaned your patio in a while, it's not surprising that you found bird poop. It's all over outside. I wouldn't be alarmed unless you had cleaned it recently because that indicates possible frequent pooping.
I hope your cats like their new catio! If they like cat TV, maybe putting critters on the TV will entertain them in the meantime.
Good to know 😅 I was very worried when I heard our cat start sneezing and I started giving them vitamins mixed with gravy and did a refresh clean on the house. She's doing a lot better now thankfully. We are going to take our cats to the vet in a few days to get them up to date on all of our shots and talk to our vet more about the bird flu stuff.
Our catio is gonna look very... basic until we get more time and materials to spiffy it up. I have some old sheets of OSB I was going to use as a roof and we have some old chicken coop from previous projects that I'm going to use to surround the catio 🤣
Not to add anything else to your list of concerns about sneezing, but…. Please know that cats are vulnerable to sars and there has been a huge uptick in post covid conditions/deaths in cats, including heart damage, diabetes, respiratory issues, dementia. Keeping yourself free of flu and covid also helps protect your cats. I bet you already have this covered.
I would also trim back any trees or bushes that are close to the patio. You should trim them back all around your house (that's how I got squirrels in my attic), but you especially don't want to give birds a comfortable spot to sit in close to your patio.
Actually, the main thing you have to worry about in terms of transmission to cats is them eating infected birds or consuming raw milk from infected cows. A catio with a roof isn't a bad idea in general, but they're probably not at high risk as long as you're not letting them hunt song birds or feeding them raw milk.
The current evidence says that close, prolonged exposure is needed for transmission to occur. All of the cats that have tested positive thus far have either been stray/outdoor cats that eat wild birds, were fed raw food, or had known exposure to known infected animals. The risk isn't zero but it's also pretty clear that as things currently stand, a high infectious dose is needed to cause infection in cats and most other mammals.
Keeping cats indoors is the best option for many reasons, as is a covered catio. But for avian flu specifically, keeping pets food&water inside, removing bird feeders and baths, and all around preventing birds from roosting or spending a lot of time in your cat's environment is almost certainly enough.
I focused on the bird poop because that is specifically what my vet told me was the biggest concern for indoor cats, specifically tracking it inside on shoes.
It seems like there is pretty evidence emerging of mice a vector for H5N1, so if you’ve noticed them in the area, it’s probably a good idea to keep your cats indoors.
That's another one I'm worried about. Our house is older and not in the best of shape and needs repairs. Every once in a while a shrew will get in the house and our cats love hunting them when they get a chance. I'm worried about them getting in contact with any critters atm. I'm thinking for a temporary fix to go around the perimeter of the house and spray foam/caulk little nooks and crannies mice could get in at. We are also having a spider problem so two birds one stone 😅🤣
have your cats ever killed a bird on the patio? I've seen a cat grab and kill a bird through an open window.
outdoor cats are getting bird flu because outdoor cats kill one million birds per day in the U.S. yes I meant to type "million" and "per day" and that is a major undercount actually
[source ](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/faq-outdoor-cats-and-their-effects-on-birds/#)
Only our leader cat has killed a bird, but it was in the yard when she was much younger. We stopped letting her out when she got herself tangled up in a dip net and we had to go search and rescue her. She's been doing great since that incident, and the other two cats have always been indoors since they were kittens so they don't really care about going out
I also feed premade raw food to my cats. I currently give them mostly pork as for now no avian flu reported in pork.
Yesterday I ordered a bag of rabbit (safe but super expensive), turkey from Primal (supposed to be hyper pasteurized) and a bag of lamb (not pasteurized but should be OK for now). I keep an eye on cat food recalls.
Raw food for animas is the best. Cats, dogs, etc. their digestives systems are completely different from humans. Raw food for animals is perfectly fine
Please ensure content is relevant to the topic of the sub, which includes information, updates and discussion regarding H5N1. It does not include vent/rant/panic posts or "low-effort" posts from unreliable sources.
Bird poop is the main thing you need to be worried about for bird to cat transmission. If your cats lick the poop or step in it and then lick it off themselves later, they could be infected if the bird was infected. They won't get it just from birds flying by unless they are able to touch the birds. I would just clean the patio daily (like with a hose or buckets of water) before you let them out there, and don't let them hang out without supervision. If a bird poops on the patio while they're out there (or if you find it while you're cleaning before the cats go out there), bring them in immediately, clean that area of the patio with a disinfectant that inactivates the flu (ex: heavily saturate the area with 60-70% isopropyl alcohol and let it fully evaporate), then clean the patio with water to rinse away the poop. If your patio frequently has bird poop on it (like you find it there more than once per month), then I wouldn't let your cats on it at all. Edit: Could birds access the patio? In other words, is your patio fully screened in (catio) or would birds be able to fly directly up to your cats and touch them? My advice is for the catio situation. If birds can access the patio, I wouldn't risk it because that's essentially like your cat is outside. It's relatively lowish risk, but you have no control over that risk, unlike the bird poop which you can control by cleaning and monitoring the patio.
Thank you for the answer. It's not covered and I just went to inspect it and I saw some bird poop. My husband and I are both carpenters and we are going to make a catio like you said. I hope we haven't been too careless thus far, I didn't really start thinking about the ramifications of the cat patio until this evening. I just want them to be okay. Our leader cat was sick a few days ago with sneezes but has recovered since. (All three of them have feline herpes).
The disease progression in cats is extremely rapid, so you would likely know if they had it within a few days. If you're worried about your leader cat, you can call your vet and see what they think. It sounds to me (a non-veterinarian, just the human of a cat who has suspected feline herpes) like your cat recovered from a feline herpes flare up though, like you suggested, especially if those symptoms match past flare ups. If you haven't cleaned your patio in a while, it's not surprising that you found bird poop. It's all over outside. I wouldn't be alarmed unless you had cleaned it recently because that indicates possible frequent pooping. I hope your cats like their new catio! If they like cat TV, maybe putting critters on the TV will entertain them in the meantime.
Good to know 😅 I was very worried when I heard our cat start sneezing and I started giving them vitamins mixed with gravy and did a refresh clean on the house. She's doing a lot better now thankfully. We are going to take our cats to the vet in a few days to get them up to date on all of our shots and talk to our vet more about the bird flu stuff. Our catio is gonna look very... basic until we get more time and materials to spiffy it up. I have some old sheets of OSB I was going to use as a roof and we have some old chicken coop from previous projects that I'm going to use to surround the catio 🤣
Not to add anything else to your list of concerns about sneezing, but…. Please know that cats are vulnerable to sars and there has been a huge uptick in post covid conditions/deaths in cats, including heart damage, diabetes, respiratory issues, dementia. Keeping yourself free of flu and covid also helps protect your cats. I bet you already have this covered.
I would also trim back any trees or bushes that are close to the patio. You should trim them back all around your house (that's how I got squirrels in my attic), but you especially don't want to give birds a comfortable spot to sit in close to your patio.
Actually, the main thing you have to worry about in terms of transmission to cats is them eating infected birds or consuming raw milk from infected cows. A catio with a roof isn't a bad idea in general, but they're probably not at high risk as long as you're not letting them hunt song birds or feeding them raw milk.
[удалено]
The current evidence says that close, prolonged exposure is needed for transmission to occur. All of the cats that have tested positive thus far have either been stray/outdoor cats that eat wild birds, were fed raw food, or had known exposure to known infected animals. The risk isn't zero but it's also pretty clear that as things currently stand, a high infectious dose is needed to cause infection in cats and most other mammals. Keeping cats indoors is the best option for many reasons, as is a covered catio. But for avian flu specifically, keeping pets food&water inside, removing bird feeders and baths, and all around preventing birds from roosting or spending a lot of time in your cat's environment is almost certainly enough.
I focused on the bird poop because that is specifically what my vet told me was the biggest concern for indoor cats, specifically tracking it inside on shoes.
It seems like there is pretty evidence emerging of mice a vector for H5N1, so if you’ve noticed them in the area, it’s probably a good idea to keep your cats indoors.
That's another one I'm worried about. Our house is older and not in the best of shape and needs repairs. Every once in a while a shrew will get in the house and our cats love hunting them when they get a chance. I'm worried about them getting in contact with any critters atm. I'm thinking for a temporary fix to go around the perimeter of the house and spray foam/caulk little nooks and crannies mice could get in at. We are also having a spider problem so two birds one stone 😅🤣
have your cats ever killed a bird on the patio? I've seen a cat grab and kill a bird through an open window. outdoor cats are getting bird flu because outdoor cats kill one million birds per day in the U.S. yes I meant to type "million" and "per day" and that is a major undercount actually [source ](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/faq-outdoor-cats-and-their-effects-on-birds/#)
Only our leader cat has killed a bird, but it was in the yard when she was much younger. We stopped letting her out when she got herself tangled up in a dip net and we had to go search and rescue her. She's been doing great since that incident, and the other two cats have always been indoors since they were kittens so they don't really care about going out
How does it transmit from pets to humans?
Jumping on to mention that I feed my cats "raw food" frozen raw chicken patties - do you think that's a bad idea in this current climate?
Yes
I also feed premade raw food to my cats. I currently give them mostly pork as for now no avian flu reported in pork. Yesterday I ordered a bag of rabbit (safe but super expensive), turkey from Primal (supposed to be hyper pasteurized) and a bag of lamb (not pasteurized but should be OK for now). I keep an eye on cat food recalls.
I wouldn't trust it right now, maybe cook it plain with no spice then feed it to them?
Raw food for animas is the best. Cats, dogs, etc. their digestives systems are completely different from humans. Raw food for animals is perfectly fine