Pueblog USa
Friday, June 30, 2006
Tularemia
It’s not an old fashioned Irish sing-along song.
It’s actually a dangerous disease.
It resides, i.e., lives in rodents. Things like mice and rats and rabbits. Indeed, it’s possible that a cat in Pueblo West caught it from a rabbit that was carrying it.
According to the Pueblo City-County Health Department, the symptoms of this disease are as follows:
People with tularemia may have symptoms that include a skin ulcer, sudden fever, chills, headache, body aches, dry cough, and progressive weakness. Symptoms of tularemia in animals, specifically cats and dogs, are nearly identical to the symptoms of plague. Cats generally become lethargic; have a high fever and little appetite. They may also experience pneumonia and swollen lymph nodes. Like with plague, dogs generally do not show any symptoms of the disease.
So be aware that this dangerous disease is in the area’s rodents. Keep a close eye on your pet cats to see if they start acting poorly.
Additionally, maybe this will be another incentive for the City Fathers to finally act on establishing mandatory trash service for residences and businesses. Rodents, as in mice and rats, thrive in piles of trash.
For more information on what to do to protect yourself and your pets, contact the Pueblo City-County Health Departement at (719) 583-4531 or visit the Pueblo City-County Health Department’s website at http://www.pueblohealthdept.org or visit the Centers for Disease Control’s website at http://www.cdc.gov.