Unidentified disease in rural cats in Scotland, Sweden and Austria

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...felines-causes-stagger.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The disease which is turning British cats into living robots....and experts say there's no cure

* The cats had outdoor access and lived in the same rural area of Scotland
* Now cats with a similiar condition have been found in Sweden and Austria

By Emily Allen

PUBLISHED: 14:30 GMT, 16 April 2012 | UPDATED: 14:54 GMT, 16 April 2012

A new disease which turns cats ?robotic? has been discovered in Scotland.

Vets at two surgeries in the Highlands have recorded 21 cases of ?staggering disease? where afflicted cats walk with a rigid legs and with a stiff, extended tail.

The disease is progressive and incurable.

Victims become over affectionate, their movement becomes stiffer and they are increasingly disorientated with difficulty grooming

Eventually the cats are put down.

The first case was reported in 2001 and vets at the Strathbogie Veterinary Centre, Huntly, and Morven Veterinary practice, Alford, recorded 21 cases between 2001 and 2010.

All appearing to have a slowly progressing neurological disease, the cats had outdoor access and lived in the same rural area of Scotland.
Dr Luisa De Risio, writing for the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, said that all the cats with the disease lived rurally

Dr Luisa De Risio, writing for the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, said that all the cats with the disease lived rurally

Now cats with a slightly different but possibly related condition have been identified in Sweden and Austria, where the oddity was referred to as ?staggering disease?...

 

[Emily]

Re: Unidentified disease in rural cats in Scotland, Sweden and Austria

I just saw another article about this that covered the Scotland cases.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/120412_robotcat.htm

Microscopic examinations initially suggested the presence of a central nervous system infection called lymphohistiocytic meningoencephalomyelitis, the researchers said. But no pathogen could be identified.

Don't know if a pesticide could be a possibility in these cases, but cats are extremely vulnerable to a rodent poison available OTC here in the U.S., (unfortunately), that causes a paralytic syndrome. It's put into gummy worms and then into mole tunnels. Also it is used in pretty green little chews and pellets for poisoning rodents and sold OTC in buckets and packets to consumers. I'm not sure how it slipped through regulations meant to protect kids and pets, but some rules are written with a lot of loopholes built into them.


www.aspcapro.org/mydocuments/0903toxbrief.pdf

Bromethalin: The other rodenticide
Eric Dunayer, MS, VMD
While most veterinarians are familiar with anticoagulant
and cholecalciferol rodent baits,
many are unfamiliar with bromethalincontaining
baits. Because its name resembles that of
the anticoagulant baits bromadiolone and brodifacoum,
bromethalin is often mistaken for another anticoagulant
bait. Actually, it differs from anticoagulant
rodenticides in both its mode of action and treatment.
Available since 1985 to kill rodents resistant to
anticoagulants,1,2 bromethalin (N-methyl-2,4-dinitro-N-
[2,4,6-tribromophenyl]-6-[trifluoromethyl] benzenamine)...
[snip]
Cats appear to develop the
paralytic syndrome regardless
of the dose ingested. In addition
to the signs seen in dogs,
cats may show abdominal distention
due to ileus and an inability
to urinate as well as increased
urethral tone indicative
of upper motor neuron bladder
paralysis. In the final phases of
the toxicosis, cats may show a
decerebrate posture.4
Diagnosis
Without a history of bait ingestion,
it may be difficult to
diagnose bromethalin toxicosis
because there are no
pathognomonic clinical laboratory
abnormalities in dogs or
cats.1,4 A postmortem diagnosis
can be made by finding
characteristic CNS lesions and
bromethalin in body tissues.
Microscopically, CNS changes
include mild to moderate cerebral
edema and white-matter
spongiosis from widespread
myelin vacuolization. There is
no evidence of inflammation.5-7
Changes occur in the optic
nerves but not in the peripheral
nervous system.3,6,7 The highest
concentrations of bromethalin
are found in fat, the liver, the
kidneys, and the brain.6
Differential diagnoses for the
convulsant presentation of a bromethalin toxicosis may
include infectious CNS diseases such as rabies as well
as metaldehyde, strychnine, zinc phosphide, and ethylene
glycol intoxication. Differential diagnoses for the
paralytic presentation are spinal cord or CNS trauma,
neoplasia, intervertebral disk disease, rabies, ionophore
(e.g. monensin) toxicosis, and coonhound paralysis
(idiopathic polyradiculoneuritis)....

Even if this product were secured underground in a bait station, moles or other animals eating it would seem to be a hazard to other wildlife and pets. Supposedly the target animal gets so sick so quickly after eating a lethal amount of this bromethalin poison that manufacturers surmise that residual amounts in the corpse are lower than the amounts from older poisons to which target animals were becoming resistant. So they claim secondary poisonings would be less likely with bromethalin than with the older poisons.

But I wonder if even the lower levels could cause subtle damage that would only become evident in aging non-target animals that ate poisoned corpses. There are a couple of low level pesticide exposures that the NIH has associated with the risk of Parkinson's in humans.

Or possibly older cats are much more sensitive to secondary poisoning due to aging livers and kidneys. They might settle for less active and healthy prey, too, since their hunting skills are diminished.

Poisons are a hazard to be aware of whether or not they were involved in these feline illnesses.