Cats (and dogs) and birds: No touchie

nambroth:

This post is intended to inform, not attack or criticize.

I’ve seen many “cute” videos of cats interacting with birds, and have heard of many people saying “my cat caught a bird but it was okay and I released it/it got away”. These situations are way more dangerous to the bird than they might appear!
I have a very sweet kitty, and she really wants to mother my birds. I also have a parrot that really would love to groom my cat. I never allow them these interactions, even though I believe they would not harm each other. Why not?

It is very important to remember that 90% or more of domestic cats (which as a species includes feral cats too) carry the Pasteurella bacteria
in their saliva. Dogs can carry and transfer this bacteria too, but
with much less frequency than cats. Small predators such as raccoons can
also carry this bacteria. Cats are known to carry this bacteria under their claws as well.

Why is this important?

The Pasteurella bacteria, once
transferred to the body of a small animal (especially birds) usually multiplies
rapidly. It can become systemic quite quickly (cause a serious infection),
and for some birds is known to be commonly fatal (approximately 50-60% of the time according to the sources I located)
unless a course of antibiotics is administered quickly (within 24
hours).
A LARGE bird might be able to fight
off this infection if they are otherwise healthy, but it can quckly cause
serious problems for smaller birds, babies/fledglings, and birds with weakened
immune systems. That said, even healthy, adult birds can succumb!!
In this way, a small puncture from cat’s teeth or a scratch can be
quite harmful indeed. For some birds it can be fatal, even if the
scratch or bite is superficial and is not in itself a bad injury. If the bird and cat are friendly with each other and demonstrate play or even simple grooming (running of fur through the beak, or licking or nosing by the cat), the bird may also ingest this bacteria and be susceptible to infection.

Cats are especially deadly predators to small animals (especially wild
birds), which often perish within two or three days of escaping a cat’s
attack, even if the cat did not injure it fatally or “only” had it in its mouth and didn’t even bite at all.

Given this knowledge, it is important to monitor any birds that have
been attacked, groomed by, or played with by a cat, or dog.

*WARNING* Some links contain images of animal injury (intended to educate).

From an article below

(emphasis mine):

[…] “Even birds with trivial wounds caused by cats must be classified as emergency patients. The risk of an infection after a cat bite is about 56%.”

Dosage of antibiotics depends on the weight of your bird; always consult with a local vet (or, with wild birds, your local wildlife rehabilitator). Please do not administer antibiotics on a whim or without vet consult, but at the same time, if you fear for your bird, please take it seriously.

As always, I am not a veterinarian and you should always consider the advice of a trained avian veterinarian over mine!!

Some sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2219107

http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2003/november/Cousquer/Avian-Wound-Management-Part-2.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7376178

http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Pasteurella+multocida

http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/field_manual/chapter_7.pdf

“BUT I HAVE LET THIS HAPPEN AND MY BIRD IS FINE GEEZ DON’T SCAREMONGER, ETC”
That’s great news, friend! I’m glad your bird is okay. I just wanted to share this info because a lot of people don’t seem to know it and are taking unnecessary risks with their birds. You’re lucky, but it’s up to you if you want to continue to press your luck. It’s not worth it, to me. I can tell you that at every show I do, I have countless interactions with people (once they realize I love birds) that feel the need tell me how their pet birds have needlessly perished in totally preventable ways (why do people do this, it’s distressing!) and the #2 reason after “it flew away” was a pet cat or dog. Just sayin’, my dudes.

“But does this mean I can’t have multiple species in my house?”
Nah, it’s totally possible to have a house full of animals and not have problems, but only if you inform yourself on stuff like this and just be smart and thoughtful about keeping interactions safe. In this case, simply don’t let your predatory mammalian pets physically interact with birds. Pretty straightforward! If you are experiencing trouble keeping them from touching, please do some research on training, desensitization, and evaluate your pet’s spaces carefully to mitigate it.

“By the way”
Our dirty saliva isn’t good for birds either (not as bad as a cat’s, but not great either) so please refrain from giving them actual kisses with your human lips, or letting birds do things like pick your teeth or climb into your mouth (I’m looking at you, caiques). Instead, blow them a sweet little kiss and give them lovely head scratches, aw yeah.

“TL;DR”
Even if you have the most friendly cat/dog in the universe that would never harm your bird, their saliva can seriously sicken or kill your bird (or a wild bird) accidentally.