Can your PETS make you SICK? Doctor Explains 5 Real Cases

Vet Tech here: Just to clarify: All cats have Bartonella. Always immediately wash any wounds you receive from any cat, ever. Most reptiles have Salmonella. Always wash your hands and disinfect surfaces in your house after cleaning your reptile enclosure. Don't wait to see a doctor when you have a rash. If your pet is diagnosed with hookworms, you can catch them from your pet. If your pet has hookworms, wash your hands every single time you touch your pet, mop your floors daily, use gloves to pick up your pets poop, don't allow them to lick you or anyone else, and only let your pet poop on puppy pads or a small specific area of your yard that you are able to avoid walking in. Clean, clean, clean. And don't allow small children to play with your infected pet. And one last thing, you can catch scabies from your pet. If your pet has any type of mange, do not cuddle with or sleep with your pet until it is cleared by the vet.

I’m a nurse and we once had a women who CKD and was on dialysis. Any way she had a fistula for dialysis and somehow she go a weird fungal infection in it. It’s a fungus that usual lives in soil. She didn’t garden so the only way the infection control docs thought she could have gotten it was from her dog. The dog goes outside, digs in the ground, she then touches dog then transfers the microbes to her fistula via her hands. Anyway it was a rough one. It wasn’t responsive to anything we through at it. The infection became systemic and I remember one of the consultants saying at one stage she was more mushroom than women (not to the patient obviously, just in conversation with other doctors). Eventually she went to the ICU and never came back. Her heart failed. So sad to think something as simple as cuddling your dog can kill you when you don’t have a good immune system. Normally this sort of fungus is not an issue in humans but because of her co morbidities her body couldn’t fight it off, not even with all the antibiotics and antifungals etc. we could give her. Very sad.

0:30 At least it wasn't Yersinia pestis! A friend of mine was camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains and as he was getting ready for bed a he discovered a squirrel in his tent. He let it out and climed into his sleeping bed. Some time later he started having flu like symptoms. He remembered a warning sign that said if you start having flu like symptoms later you should see your doctor. He said his doctor looked a bit concerned as he told the story of finding the squirrel and he drew some blood and left. He was gone a really long time, like nearly an hour and when he came back he was wearing some heavy duty PPE. Paramedics, also in PPE had a stretcher with a plastic tent over it. When he was told to climb in he became really alarmed. Turns out he had The Plague! As in "Bring out your dead" middle ages in Europe Plague. He recovered fully but it was pretty scary. Every person alive today is a descendant of someone who survived the Plague. As a result humans have a better chance of recovering from it than Middle Age Europeans. Also, antibiotics help a bit.

Vet tech mommy here - you should add Toxoplasmosis and Leptospirosis. I feel they are very important things we can also get from our furry friends.

My kids, all three of them, got strep throat three times over a three month span. The third time our doctor asked if we had any pets. Yep, two dogs. The vet thought I was over-reacting but agreed to check my corgis for strep. Bingo!

A friend had surgery on both knees. The first went really well and the second was disastrous, filled with an infection that kept getting worse. Turns out it was a type of staph typically found in dog ear infections. They had a dog and took it to the vet who confirmed it was the same strain.

Story Time! I caught Bartonella when I was 19. Unfortunately, I found out about it after I started losing my eyesight. Ophthalmologists failed me so I went to the ED where a neuroopthalmologist was on call (I was his youngest patient in a while), and helped determine the answer after an MRI and a spinal tap to do CSF cultures. It turns out that fever was, while more common, the more tame signs of a Bartonella infection. I was one of the unlucky few that had the infection reach my brain and cause inflammation around my optic and oculomotor nerves, taking away my vision for a couple months. I'm all better now. The cause of it was fleas (no kittens, just adult cats -- but my childhood home had a major flea infestation). I never let my cats out now that I live on my own.

“He ignored it and hoped it would get better. He visited the doctor 5 months later.” He must be a resident of the good old USA. 😒

I remember when I first started watching your channel you mentioned were a med student and now you're a specialist!!🙌🎉 CONGRATS, Siobhan!!🎉

I got sick from my dog three times. The third time I ended up in the hospital with a fever of 105.7F and in sepsis. That’s when I was diagnosed with Streptococcus canis, found naturally in dogs and cats. I received 30 days of IV antibiotics and have joined the short list of people around the world who have acquired this infection without a dog bite. Oh, and my dog’s nickname is now “my little germ factory”. 😁

Salmonella has been found on dogs too. The Mexican hairless can develop it on their skin if it’s not bathed regularly and I knew a family who got a Sharpie puppy and they All got sick Then they finally took the puppy who is almost a year old to the vet The vet told them Sharpie’s Develop salmonella under these rolls very easily. That you must wash under the rolls Everyday to prevent the bacteria from developing into salmonella. Both breeds develop a gross smell that most owners would know that the dog needs a bath. But there are all kinds of pet owners out there

Rat bite fever survivor here! I was working at a big pet store chain and it was a workman’s comp case. I was hospitalized for a long time. That pain was unreal and I still have complications from having treatment withheld due to multiple misdiagnosis.

I’m a vet student, this is so fun! I can name so so many 😂

I worked in salmon aquaculture this year and got “fish poisoning” (deep skin infection from handling salmon in my case; I got a few tiny cuts from a pink salmons teeth and in six hours it was painful and swollen). It got better with antibiotics thankfully but it was a bad time haha

My best friend got cutaneous larval hookworms on a trip to Mexico we went on. We both work together in a veterinary hospital and she had this weird rash on her calf, kind of raised, circular. She thought maybe she hit some coral, it was that shape and we were in the water constantly. One of the faculty vets looked at it and said she should go to the doctor and she went the next day. They had to get some books out but with a good history taking and some book work they figured it out! They Rx’d a dewormer but I guess we are a dead end host so even if not treated she’d prob have been ok. But….ewwww.

I have hp. 6:33 my cockatiel was determined to be the culprit after 2 hospitalizations with double pneumonia. It has been one of the most heartbreaking experiences. My dad has my bird now which means I can’t visit my dad. I had to throw away anything I couldn’t wash and move from the room I was in to prevent continued inflammation. Had the room not had its own ac system I would have been forced to move. At least Cornelius is safe and happy and I get to FaceTime with him.

I got cat scratch disease when I was 24. Mine was misdiagnosed as likely lymphoma resulting in a lymphadenectomy, which gave the doctor my actual diagnosis. 10/10 do not recommend My question is this: Can I get it again? Or do you develop an immunity after having an active infection?

Knowledge is power ... even if it is gross.

One guy caught the actual plague from prying a dead mouse out of his cat's mouth. His fingers and toes turned black and he had to have the tips cut off. He was in the hospital for a while.

Thank you for getting Cat Scratch Fever stuck in my head. 🤣