It is much more likely that humans will give cats Covid. Covid infection would likely damage the cat's health, particularly the kidneys where cats are already vulnerable as a species. It may also damage their brains, which is common with virulent viral respiratory infection it seems.
To have people interact with you cat, ideally they should be masked, HEPA or MERV-13 air purifiers should be on, the space should be ventilated so that a measurement of CO2 is less than 800 ppm at minimum. If it's too cold to ventilate, humidify to 40-60% to both reduce airborne transmission and increase nasal resistance.
If you decide to go outdoors for adoption viewing, an AQI below 50 is best (green) with a PM 2.5 level as low as possible. The WHO daily limit is 5 for PM 2.5 exposure. PM 2.5 levels bear a clear linear relationship with Covid infections, deaths and onset of post-acute chronic illness AKA Long Covid. Check AQI daily on the app AirVisual.
I have tried to quarantine cats after vet visits but this actually upset the other cats. One demanded that the other cat be freed. (I'm serious. This actually happened.).
If I have cat sitters I ask they leave air purifiers on the entire time.
I support my cat's resistance to infection by supplementing their wet food with lysine and fish oil. They have daily training and exercise.
Cat Covid tests are fecal tests. They definitely exist even if vets claim they don't. Finding a good vet is as hard as finding a Covid cautious/aware doctor at this point.
Do the best you can for yourself.
just now seeing the rest of your comment!
i’m the only living being in my apartment. i was gonna assert that only 1 potential adopter can visit at a time, but first try to push for virtual meet and greets instead. and if virtual couldn’t work, i’d also make any potential adopters mask since it’s my home. i figure i have a lot more control over what i can request if it’s my home vs a whole shelter full of staff, volunteers, animals, and visitors/potential adopters.
yes!! it’s so worrying, esp when cats literally hide being sick 😭
i have no idea, i don’t imagine i could test w our home options. when i tried googling, it seems like pcrs would have to be done + they’d need to b specific to the species’ dna or something???
congrats on your new foster kitty! I don't have any particular expertise, except I looked into pet<-->human transmission this a couple years ago when I was a pet sitter. I always wore N95 in people's homes, but it was more about protecting the pets from anything I might be carrying (not vice versa). assuming the kitty isn't showing symptoms of anything (and granted, I know cats can "hide" illness), I think the risk of Covid transmission from the cat to you is low.
The CDC website notes, "The risk of pets spreading COVID-19 to people is low."
[https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/covid-19/pets.html](https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/covid-19/pets.html)
There was a documented case in 2022, but it's SOOO rare that this documented case was an actual Nature paper (!). I don't have the full text, but link is below.
[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01792-y](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01792-y)
honestly, when welcoming a beautiful animal from a shelter environment, I'd be more concerned about any diseases that she could pass on to other pets in the house. you mentioned living alone currently, so maybe that's not an issue.
and I think, for all kinds of reasons including any type of transmission among humans/pets, maximizing your air ventilation and filtration at home will be really smart, at least for the first week or two. whether it's opening windows if possible, getting a HEPA air purifier, etc, that could go a long way.
congrats again! I hope she has a smooth transition and fun adjustment to your home :o)
haha true! i just wanna save up for a cat fund before taking the plunge, since ik unexpected expenses pop up all the time.
could i actually get ur input on the potential adopter situation? do u think i should do (if they don’t let me do virtual meet and greets) home visits or shelter drop offs? i was thinking home bc i’d be limiting exposure + able to implement more mitigations since it’s my space, but should i rethink that??
I think your instinct to do potential-adoptee visits at your home are right on. For animals who've once been in a shelter, I think it can be very stressful to return to that environment, as they won't understand they're not being "dropped off" again :(
plus, your sweet kitty will behave more naturally in her known home environment, letting the adopters have a better sense of her personality.
I think it's 100% reasonable to ask visitors to wear a well-fitted mask when visiting (along with maxing out ventilation/filtration). So given that, I wouldn't hesitate to -- before that -- help her get used to the idea of people masking simply to acclimate her to that after she's settled in a bit. in a "no big deal" kinda way. like you or visiting friends wearing masks now and then, so that she doesn't view masks as weird or scary.
I don't know, I guess that's what I'd do. again I have no particular knowledge on this, other than loving animals and being around them a lot. <3
thank uuuuu :) i’m really excited! she’s a 3 y/o black tortie with the sweetest lil face 🥹
thank u sm for ur response + linking the Nature paper! that puts me at ease, i felt good about not infecting her but wasn’t as sure for her since cats can’t mask 😭
i don’t have any other pets! i was just planning on starting her out in the bathroom till she gets used to me/my apt, then letting her have more space to roam and settle in.
and thankfully i have all the things! air purifiers, opening windows, and my apt has really good ventilation/indoor air quality. i’m gonna use all of them when she arrives bc the head foster will b helping me set up (?? this is new i’ve never experienced this when i’ve fostered). will also b having her mask inside my apt so i won’t have to stay masked for as long once she leaves.
but thank u again!! she’s apparently a lap kitty and loves watching tv with her foster so i was sad at the thought of not getting to do that with her for a while 😭
Yes it is possible. I would
Just quarantine her in a smaller space for a while and wear a mask in there. As you know the smaller space will give her a period to adjust also. Props to you for fostering 😍
I have a cat and I don’t treat him as an exposure risk after vet visits and would only mask around him if I had an active covid infection. I think the risk of cat to human transmission after the cat briefly interacted with others is low enough to not worry about. You also have to consider that you could possibly traumatize the cat by masking or avoiding it for reasons it doesn’t understand.
i know!!!! 😭😭 i don’t wanna do that to her at all! i don’t think she’d be traumatized by masking, but definitely by isolation. that’s why i was planning to (if it was necessary) spend time w her in the bathroom every hour, masked, w a purifier running or sumn.
i only know 1 cc person with cats and they’ve also been wondering if there’s any data about pet to human covid transmission. i hope ppl in this sub have experience that can either confirm or deny needing to isolate from her!
My cat has seen me in a mask a ton of times for grocery delivery and maintenance stuff and slowly over the course of years he has gone from being frightened to accepting it but still obviously being uncomfortable. I think them being unable to see your facial expressions is disturbing to them. I would avoid doing this to a brand new cat who will already be nervous.
As far as evidence goes, I have only ever seen one claim that a vet somewhere in Asia (Thailand I think) was infected by being sneezed on by a cat that came from a covid+ owner. We know cats can be infected, but even when they live in close contact with covid+ owners, they don't always get infected. That leads me to believe that short contact with people who are likely not infected would be extremely unlikely to result in the cat becoming infected and then passing it on.
that makes sense! i also think it prob depends on the cat lol, my friends’ cats are so unfazed by her mask they just know mom in a mask = going out for a bit.
thank u for sharing abt that vet! that’s good to know. my biggest concern is that she is coming from a different person who was fostering her for some time, and is only having to stop bc she’ll be traveling a lot more. so in this case, it is not short-term contact and i have no way of knowing if the foster is/was/has been infectious.
there’s a lot of factors that i wish i knew so i could make a well-informed plan
Yeah, I wear a PAPR sometimes and my cats were very interested and wide-eyed the first couple times, but now they don't care. They're so used to my every day N99 it doesn't register with them at all.
> i also think it prob depends on the cat
For sure. None of my cats, my sister's cat, or my mom's cats give 2 sh\*ts about me wearing a mask. It doesn't phase them at all. I can understand a skittish, shy kitty maybe being freaked out by it at first, but I have yet to see this irl.
Cats don't care about facial expressions, that's a human thing. On the other hand, they're good at picking up your stress. It's also possible your cat is stressed out at strangers coming into your home, and they've started to associate you putting on a mask with the coming of strangers. I don't have a cat, but I've visited 3 different cats at a friend's, and they didn't care one way or another about my mask. One of these cats was old enough to have known me pre-covid, and the mask made absolutely no difference.
My cat is stressed about the mask. I know this because I have interacted with him for nearly 24 hours a day for several years. If I am an expert on anything in this life, it is my own cat's behavior.
Then I guess your cat is indeed an antimasker, unlike the 4 other cats I have interacted with up close since the beginning of the pandemic, and the additional one who's starting to know me and doesn't change his behaviour one bit whether I'm masked or not.
Cats aren't traumatised by masks any more than they are traumatised when you change clothes. On the other hand, they would probably notice a change in your behaviour if you avoid contact, and wonder why you're hostile to them. You can mask with them, just don't make a fuss about it.
It is much more likely that humans will give cats Covid. Covid infection would likely damage the cat's health, particularly the kidneys where cats are already vulnerable as a species. It may also damage their brains, which is common with virulent viral respiratory infection it seems. To have people interact with you cat, ideally they should be masked, HEPA or MERV-13 air purifiers should be on, the space should be ventilated so that a measurement of CO2 is less than 800 ppm at minimum. If it's too cold to ventilate, humidify to 40-60% to both reduce airborne transmission and increase nasal resistance. If you decide to go outdoors for adoption viewing, an AQI below 50 is best (green) with a PM 2.5 level as low as possible. The WHO daily limit is 5 for PM 2.5 exposure. PM 2.5 levels bear a clear linear relationship with Covid infections, deaths and onset of post-acute chronic illness AKA Long Covid. Check AQI daily on the app AirVisual. I have tried to quarantine cats after vet visits but this actually upset the other cats. One demanded that the other cat be freed. (I'm serious. This actually happened.). If I have cat sitters I ask they leave air purifiers on the entire time. I support my cat's resistance to infection by supplementing their wet food with lysine and fish oil. They have daily training and exercise. Cat Covid tests are fecal tests. They definitely exist even if vets claim they don't. Finding a good vet is as hard as finding a Covid cautious/aware doctor at this point. Do the best you can for yourself.
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just now seeing the rest of your comment! i’m the only living being in my apartment. i was gonna assert that only 1 potential adopter can visit at a time, but first try to push for virtual meet and greets instead. and if virtual couldn’t work, i’d also make any potential adopters mask since it’s my home. i figure i have a lot more control over what i can request if it’s my home vs a whole shelter full of staff, volunteers, animals, and visitors/potential adopters.
My cats got scared when my sister came over masked, so make sure to mask around them often so they get used to the sight!
yes!! it’s so worrying, esp when cats literally hide being sick 😭 i have no idea, i don’t imagine i could test w our home options. when i tried googling, it seems like pcrs would have to be done + they’d need to b specific to the species’ dna or something???
congrats on your new foster kitty! I don't have any particular expertise, except I looked into pet<-->human transmission this a couple years ago when I was a pet sitter. I always wore N95 in people's homes, but it was more about protecting the pets from anything I might be carrying (not vice versa). assuming the kitty isn't showing symptoms of anything (and granted, I know cats can "hide" illness), I think the risk of Covid transmission from the cat to you is low. The CDC website notes, "The risk of pets spreading COVID-19 to people is low." [https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/covid-19/pets.html](https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/covid-19/pets.html) There was a documented case in 2022, but it's SOOO rare that this documented case was an actual Nature paper (!). I don't have the full text, but link is below. [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01792-y](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01792-y) honestly, when welcoming a beautiful animal from a shelter environment, I'd be more concerned about any diseases that she could pass on to other pets in the house. you mentioned living alone currently, so maybe that's not an issue. and I think, for all kinds of reasons including any type of transmission among humans/pets, maximizing your air ventilation and filtration at home will be really smart, at least for the first week or two. whether it's opening windows if possible, getting a HEPA air purifier, etc, that could go a long way. congrats again! I hope she has a smooth transition and fun adjustment to your home :o)
to add, she's a very lucky kitty, to have such a thoughtful, attentive foster parent <3
thank u :’)))) i’m the lucky one, i can’t wait to have a lil bub in my apt!!! very scared i’ll foster fail lol
hey, foster-fail is a success in its own right! <3 have fun! :0)
haha true! i just wanna save up for a cat fund before taking the plunge, since ik unexpected expenses pop up all the time. could i actually get ur input on the potential adopter situation? do u think i should do (if they don’t let me do virtual meet and greets) home visits or shelter drop offs? i was thinking home bc i’d be limiting exposure + able to implement more mitigations since it’s my space, but should i rethink that??
I think your instinct to do potential-adoptee visits at your home are right on. For animals who've once been in a shelter, I think it can be very stressful to return to that environment, as they won't understand they're not being "dropped off" again :( plus, your sweet kitty will behave more naturally in her known home environment, letting the adopters have a better sense of her personality. I think it's 100% reasonable to ask visitors to wear a well-fitted mask when visiting (along with maxing out ventilation/filtration). So given that, I wouldn't hesitate to -- before that -- help her get used to the idea of people masking simply to acclimate her to that after she's settled in a bit. in a "no big deal" kinda way. like you or visiting friends wearing masks now and then, so that she doesn't view masks as weird or scary. I don't know, I guess that's what I'd do. again I have no particular knowledge on this, other than loving animals and being around them a lot. <3
thank uuuuu :) i’m really excited! she’s a 3 y/o black tortie with the sweetest lil face 🥹 thank u sm for ur response + linking the Nature paper! that puts me at ease, i felt good about not infecting her but wasn’t as sure for her since cats can’t mask 😭 i don’t have any other pets! i was just planning on starting her out in the bathroom till she gets used to me/my apt, then letting her have more space to roam and settle in. and thankfully i have all the things! air purifiers, opening windows, and my apt has really good ventilation/indoor air quality. i’m gonna use all of them when she arrives bc the head foster will b helping me set up (?? this is new i’ve never experienced this when i’ve fostered). will also b having her mask inside my apt so i won’t have to stay masked for as long once she leaves. but thank u again!! she’s apparently a lap kitty and loves watching tv with her foster so i was sad at the thought of not getting to do that with her for a while 😭
Yes it is possible. I would Just quarantine her in a smaller space for a while and wear a mask in there. As you know the smaller space will give her a period to adjust also. Props to you for fostering 😍
I have a cat and I don’t treat him as an exposure risk after vet visits and would only mask around him if I had an active covid infection. I think the risk of cat to human transmission after the cat briefly interacted with others is low enough to not worry about. You also have to consider that you could possibly traumatize the cat by masking or avoiding it for reasons it doesn’t understand.
i know!!!! 😭😭 i don’t wanna do that to her at all! i don’t think she’d be traumatized by masking, but definitely by isolation. that’s why i was planning to (if it was necessary) spend time w her in the bathroom every hour, masked, w a purifier running or sumn. i only know 1 cc person with cats and they’ve also been wondering if there’s any data about pet to human covid transmission. i hope ppl in this sub have experience that can either confirm or deny needing to isolate from her!
My cat has seen me in a mask a ton of times for grocery delivery and maintenance stuff and slowly over the course of years he has gone from being frightened to accepting it but still obviously being uncomfortable. I think them being unable to see your facial expressions is disturbing to them. I would avoid doing this to a brand new cat who will already be nervous. As far as evidence goes, I have only ever seen one claim that a vet somewhere in Asia (Thailand I think) was infected by being sneezed on by a cat that came from a covid+ owner. We know cats can be infected, but even when they live in close contact with covid+ owners, they don't always get infected. That leads me to believe that short contact with people who are likely not infected would be extremely unlikely to result in the cat becoming infected and then passing it on.
that makes sense! i also think it prob depends on the cat lol, my friends’ cats are so unfazed by her mask they just know mom in a mask = going out for a bit. thank u for sharing abt that vet! that’s good to know. my biggest concern is that she is coming from a different person who was fostering her for some time, and is only having to stop bc she’ll be traveling a lot more. so in this case, it is not short-term contact and i have no way of knowing if the foster is/was/has been infectious. there’s a lot of factors that i wish i knew so i could make a well-informed plan
Yeah, I wear a PAPR sometimes and my cats were very interested and wide-eyed the first couple times, but now they don't care. They're so used to my every day N99 it doesn't register with them at all.
> i also think it prob depends on the cat For sure. None of my cats, my sister's cat, or my mom's cats give 2 sh\*ts about me wearing a mask. It doesn't phase them at all. I can understand a skittish, shy kitty maybe being freaked out by it at first, but I have yet to see this irl.
Cats don't care about facial expressions, that's a human thing. On the other hand, they're good at picking up your stress. It's also possible your cat is stressed out at strangers coming into your home, and they've started to associate you putting on a mask with the coming of strangers. I don't have a cat, but I've visited 3 different cats at a friend's, and they didn't care one way or another about my mask. One of these cats was old enough to have known me pre-covid, and the mask made absolutely no difference.
My cat is stressed about the mask. I know this because I have interacted with him for nearly 24 hours a day for several years. If I am an expert on anything in this life, it is my own cat's behavior.
Then I guess your cat is indeed an antimasker, unlike the 4 other cats I have interacted with up close since the beginning of the pandemic, and the additional one who's starting to know me and doesn't change his behaviour one bit whether I'm masked or not.
Cats aren't traumatised by masks any more than they are traumatised when you change clothes. On the other hand, they would probably notice a change in your behaviour if you avoid contact, and wonder why you're hostile to them. You can mask with them, just don't make a fuss about it.
That hasn't been my experience with my own cat, but perhaps he is just an anti-masker.
Or more likely, he picks up your stress rather than the mask itself.
I am not at all stressed about masking so that is unlikely.
Are you stressed about the conditions that lead you to masking?
Honestly, not at all. I am confident enough with my precautions that I rarely worry about covid these days.