Los Angeles County health officials have identified three more cats with presumptive H5N1; the source of the virus has not yet determined, but experts suspect raw meat.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23318290

  • Los Angeles County health officials are investigating a case of three cats presumed to have H5N1 bird flu
  • County officials confirmed the disease in two other cats who drank recalled raw milk and died

December 18, 2024

UPDATED: Confirmed H5 Bird Flu Detected in Los Angeles County Cats That Consumed Recalled Raw Milk - Public Health Investigating Additional Possible Cases in Cats http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/media/mediapubhpdetail.cfm?prid=4908#:

  • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
    6·
    9 hours ago

    Wtf? First, isn’t milk bad for cats? Also, I don’t get the raw milk shit (unless you’re a farmer and it’s literally coming from your cows and you haven’t gotten around to boiling it yet). Hell, I don’t get why people are so obsessed with drinking animal milk at all. What’s wrong with people?

  • kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish
    20·
    2 days ago

    H5N1 is absolutely horrible in cats. If you have raw milk in the house, even if you plan to boil it yourself, please treat it like concentrated poison and make sure there’s no way for a pet to get to it.

    Symptoms of H5N1 infection in cats include labored breathing, bloody diarrhea and neurological abnormalities — loss of motor control, seizures, depressed mental state, stiff body movements, blindness, circling, copious eye and nose discharge and coma — with rapid deterioration and death in some cases.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      15·
      19 hours ago

      …in some cases.

      In some cases? Way to sugar coat things, L.A. Times.

      Coleman reports that the fatality rate for the current strain of H5N1 in cats has been around 67%

      Which tracks with this case. 3 cats infected in the house, and 2/3rds are dead. Keep your cats inside where they belong. They can catch H5N1 from birds they kill too.

    • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      22 hours ago

      even if you plan to boil it yourself

      There’s people who buy raw milk and pasteurize it at home? What’s the point?

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    25·
    2 days ago

    L.A. has a terrible feral cat problem and people fucking feed them all the time. In the first apartment complex where I lived in the Hollywood Hills, not only did several people just leave cat food out in multiple bowls for the feral cats, other animals would come out of the hills and eat them too. I had to wait to go to my apartment more than once because a skunk was eating out of a cat food bowl on the walkway before I got to it.