DOMESTIC PETS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4841, 15 June 1925, Page 3

DOMESTIC PETS.

DAMBBIN FWiDUAR THEM.

SOME OF TEE RISKS RUN. The lady you sec fondling her pet poodle or'Persian cat —perhaps even to the extent of misusing a kiss on the animal—is doubtless in ignorance of the danger she runs of contracting a more or less dire disease, or acquiting an infection which she may pass on .to some luckless child, The pet may be well washed and disinfected, but it may be little less dangerous for all that. Dogs and cats are only really nice at a distance. Mice have lately compelled serious attention, and from mice the thoughts naturally wander to cats and dogs—and other animals yvhich come under the classification of "domestic.’’ Even a rat is entitled to this prefix, together with the horse whose stable it haunts, the cow, and the pig. Mice have incurred the bane of publicity within the last day or two for becoming responsible for an outbreak of contagious disease among childien of the mouse-infested wheat areas of New South Wales. This is a skin complaint which has become very prevalent among the children. Locally it is known afi mouse disease, medically it is known as "f.avus.” Favus is declared by leading dei* matologists to be due to a growth of fungus which may affect any; part of the skin. It is akin to the well-known ringworm. All domestic animals get it, and mice attacked by the disease are usually responsible for spreading it. In the mouse the disease produces erosion of the bones, which kills the animal. The eat acquires the complaint from the mouse—and "pussy ’ in all innocence passes, it on to tne children of the household. In a very large number of cases of both favus and ringworm among children the cat is the source of contagion. Left to itself the disease runs a persistent course, and it may last for yeaie-X-rays furnish the best means of cure. So that this (or any other) complaint . may not be spread from one child to another, each child should be taught to use its own tooth brush, cbmb, and towel. Cats are carriers of more than favus and ringworm. They are noted disseminators of diphtheria, for instance, and of many catarrhal fevers, as well as common colds. Keep well away from the sneezing cat, “Pretty pussy” has, according to medical experience, been responsible for much damage to humanity. Before the discovery of the scrum now used in the treatment of the disease diphtheria had the fearful mortality rate of 90 per cent. How many poor children have gone to premature graves owing to diphtheria caused by playing with the harmless-looking domestic puss could hardly .be conjectured. Cats have a friendly habit of purring imo the faces of youngsters, and they should not be tolerated in the houses, where there are children who. ate too young to keep them at a distance. In the mind's of some physicians they ought hut to be allowed indoors at all, or anywhere about a house. “How can we keep the mice down without a cat ?” asked one lady who was adAised to get rid of the pet. “Poison 'em,” said the doctor—and first poison the cat ! the rat is well-known as the original recipient of the favours of bubonic plague. The flea from the rat attaches itself to the cat—and the cat makes a present of it to the handiest human. There we have the circle —and the cat again shoulders a terrible responsibility.

Again we have the disease known as “rat-bite fever,” traced to an organism which infests the rodent, and which is sometimes transmitted to the domestic cat. Children are often bitten lightly by cats, in play or i’ll retaliation for having their tails pulled, and a cat bite can produce similar symptoms to that of a rat, if the cat is infected. This rat-bite fever is a very serious disease, of which there have been several cases in Auckland. It is manifested by the sudden development of high fever which persists for several ; days. If untreated, the disease will recur after a short interval, and in some cases may. prove fatal.

= Domestic animals of all kinds are .afflicted with groups of diseases which have certain analogies with the diseases of human beings. Anthrax, the most dreaded of all' diseases acquired from animals, may be convey.ed to humane from cattle or sheep direct, or to industrial workers through handling wool, hides and hair, and it Jias been proved to have been imported in shaving brushes. From the nice clean horse we may get glanderslocal inflammation, with ulceration of tlie nose, or, as a skin infection, affecting the lymphatics and causing swollen glands, which later break down and discharge.

Dogs are notorious carriers of hydatids, a disease which frequently progresses to a very grave degree, and there is no doubt that it is commonly conveyed by the dog to children and even adults. Cats and dogs are both subject to organisms in the mouth which might, if transmitted to humans, cause pyorrhoea or something even more serious. Women who fondle and kiss pet dogs (the little dog is jujst as dangerous as the big one) or who allow these' animals to lick them, are ever in danger of becoming infected by some transmittable disease, and even if they escape infection themselves —as, for instance, adults often do in the case of diphtheria—they'may easily become cairiers and infect some unfortunate infant. The question of a child to a visitor might well be : "Do you keep a pet poodle 1 If so, mother sayts you must not kiss me.” Some women would kiss a child after kissing a poodle or a cat and think nothing of it. “The kissing of dogs and cats, or allowing them to lick the hand or face,” says one medical authbrity, “is a practice as filthy as it is dangerous.”