DANGEROUS DOMESTICS.

Shannon News, 12 June 1925, Page 4

DANGEROUS DOMESTICS.

PECULIARITIES OF PETS. PERILS RUN BY CHILDREN. The lady you see fondling her pet puddle or Persian ca,t —perhaps even to the extent of misusing a kiss on the animal —is doubtless in ignorance of tiro danger she runs of contracting a more or less dire disease, or acquiring ah 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 which come under the classification of “domestic.” Even a rat is < ntitled 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 children of the mousehifested wheat areas of New South Vales, h his is a skin complaint which nas become,very prevalent among the children. Locally it is known as mouse disease, medically it is known as. “favr.s.”

Favus is declared by leading dermatologists to _be due by 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 p oduces erosion of the bones, which l.ills the animal. The cat acquires the complaint from the mouse —and “pussy” in all innocence, pitosos it c:r to the children of the household. In a very large number 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 years. X-rays furnish' the best means of 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, comb and towel. Cats ' Spread Diphtheria.

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 serum 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 harmlesslooking domestic “puss” could hardly be conjectured. Cats have a friendly habit of purring into the faces of youngsters, and they should not be tolerated in the houses where there are children who are too young to keep them at a distance. In the minds of some physicians, they ought not 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 advised to get rid of the pet. “Poison’ em,” said the doctor—and first poison the cat! The Deadly Rat.

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 infects the . rodent, and which is sometimes transmitted to the domestic cat. Children are often bitten lightly by cats, in play or in retaliation for haying 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 case® 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 conveyed to humans from cattle or sheep direct, or to industrial workers through handling wool, hides and hair, and it has been proved to have been imported in shaving brushes. From the nice clean horse we may get glanders—- , local inflammation, with ulceration of the nose, or, as a skin infection, affecting the lymphatics and causing swollen glands, which late; break down and discharge. • “Beware of the Dog.” Dogs are notorious carriers of hydatids, a ■ disease which frequently progresses tp a very grave degree, and there is no doubt that it is commonly conveyed by the dog to children and oven 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 just as dangerous as the big one), or who allow these animals to lick them, are ever in danger or bocoming 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 “carriers” and infect some unfortunate infant. The question of a child to a visitor might well be: “Do you keep a pet poodle? If so, mother says 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,” sayg one medical authority, “is a practice as filthy as it is dangerous/'