[quote=davidcpa]"I end up walking back and forth between the living room and kitchen tossing that silly thing around for at least 15 minutes before he finally has had enough and crashes. "

Ummmm, whose playing fetch with whom?????[/quote]

Yeah well... what can I say? He owns me and he's spoiled rotten! ~lol~ By far he's the coolest cat I've ever had.

"T"

You all do know the BIG difference between cats and dogs, don't you?

Dogs have owners, cats have staff.

But seriously, cats pose a serious risk to folks getting chemo, because chemo often causes immune system crashes. And cat's claws are labs for malicious microbes one of the worst of which is known as "Cat Scratch Fever" and is definitely nothing to mess with if you have a compromised immune system.

So when my buddy, Waldo would come and cuddle on my chest, I had a small blanket I'd lay over my chest just so that he could "make bread" with his front claws without putting me at risk since the claws do not go through the blanket.

Also changing their litter boxes... Not good

I had a dog for 7 years, who I had to give give up after cancer hospitalization in 2009, and always wanted to get another pet, but the risks of infection is one reason I haven't, besides it being restricted on my lease now lol.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/epi.html

Patients and their pets is a serious topic. One can make the argument that potential for spreading disease is increased by proximity to pets while others make the case the emotional uplift from the pets offers significant therapeutic benefits. That said, I can not recollect a single post where someone during or post tx stated any infection, disease, or any negative medical consequence from a pet.

I completely agree, donfoo. I take that risk without many qualms, but I do pay attention to the risk during our interactions.

I always want to warn people of the risk, and let them make the decision what to do with that information.

Bart

During nadir, I was instructed to stay away from our pets for that short block of time.

I was doing the same as Bart, just sharing what I knew about Taxoplasmosis, very little lol, and adding to the conversation, and cat scratch fever. Even still, if I could, I would have a pet.

Just to mention, before being diagnosed with cancer in 2009, I had a scratch from dog on my leg, and subsequently developed an abcess in the area, which had to be surgically removed, and from the hospitalization and or from surgery, contracted MRSA, which led to sepsis. During that time (21 days), I showed them the enlarged cevical lymph node, which was thought to be from the infection, which of course turned out to be cancerous.

You know, even discussing pets, each person is unique, like we say all the time about everything else cancer. Paul, your comment reminds me that one's current state of immune system and Uptown mentioning where in process of treatment, all weigh in to what the right balance of benefits and risks is for each of us.

Gotta pipe in here because before, during and currently my wife and I had/have 2 85 pound pit mix rescues, 10 stray alley cats that found us and a small whole house roaming rabbit. We all live inside and except for the occassional "disagreement" we all get along. My wife is the "collector" and I am the default "keeper". I have never had a medical issue and quite frankly they were and are a constant comfort to us. One of my cats, Sandy a large yellow male whose since passed, stayed on my chest the entire time I was in the bed during Tx.