Coronavirus Discussion

[Lagie]

One of my shop volunteers heard a commotion near her boat earlier last week.

Turns out one adult and a bunch of kids and some dogs were at the water for a swimming lesson!

When she reminded them about the lockdown because of the virus, one of the kids (pre-teen) said, "Oh, we can't catch it."

Idiots start young around here...

[Astreya]

I read before that in China researchers found out that cats can be infected with Covid-19 and transmit it from cat to cat, too. (There was no information whether it was possible that cats can infect humans, by the way).

 

Now the Bronx Zoo in New York city reported that one of their tigers got infected with Covis-19. 

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/05/coronavirus-live-news-cases-approach-12m-as-trump-tells-americans-to-expect-a-lot-of-death

[trystan]

46 minutes ago, Lagie said:

one of the kids (pre-teen) said, "Oh, we can't catch it."

why on earth would they even think that? 🤦‍♀️

 

46 minutes ago, Lagie said:

Idiots start young around here...

right, that's why.  *sigh*

[Lagie]

46 minutes ago, trystan said:

why on earth would they even think that? 🤦‍♀️

 

right, that's why.  *sigh*

Our youngest patient here is nine years old.

 

Today's totals. Death number five was a well-known, well-liked and respected physician here.

[Classycal]

3 hours ago, Astreya said:

I read before that in China researchers found out that cats can be infected with Covid-19 and transmit it from cat to cat, too. (There was no information whether it was possible that cats can infect humans, by the way).

 

Now the Bronx Zoo in New York city reported that one of their tigers got infected with Covis-19. 

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/05/coronavirus-live-news-cases-approach-12m-as-trump-tells-americans-to-expect-a-lot-of-death

I couldn't find the article relating to tigers. 

 

My question is: Can humans give the virus to cats?  I mean where did they get it?  

[Raikielia]

56 minutes ago, Classycal said:

I couldn't find the article relating to tigers. 

 

My question is: Can humans give the virus to cats?  I mean where did they get it?  

 

There are diseases in cats that are caused by corona viruses. The question is can they get the strains we are currently dealing with, can they transmit them back to us and do these strains affect them. I'm not sure of there are any confirmed answers yet.

 

As far as where the tigers got it from, one of the zookeepers was confirmed to have it, I believe and that's where they think the big cats got it from.

[Classycal]

Oh, that's just "great"!  Now if I get it, I have to worry about my cats getting it.  Maybe I should make them little mini masks - not that they'd keep them on.  

[PrincessLucy]

I hung out with the next door neighbor for a bit yesterday; we were at least 20 feet away from each other. Found out that she is cutting the lower branches on the trees between our 2 houses and putting down wood chips. It makes me glad that I put off raking leaves from under those trees. Now, she will do it. (They are her trees, but near the property line.) They have been constantly inside, so I didn't even realize that they were home, as they park in the garage.   My son and I are cleaning out half of the garage so my brother can come over and paint. He is only allowed in the garage and in the backyard to trim some bushes. I set everything up so her can come and not need anything. I left him water, toilet paper, paper towels, and I will put out hand sanitizer and wipes for him. He isn't coming here for at least a week, and we will be staying out of the garage for a long time after he comes over. We have been home for 2 weeks, but he works odd jobs while the bar he was supposed to manage is closed. New owners bought it a couple of weeks ago and he was helping with the renovations.

 

Today's big project was counting and bagging bottles and cans for my sister-in-law to take for recycling. The recycling center is open, but there is minimum human contact. She is getting $65.60 for my cans and bottles. She gets the money, and I don't have to have 25 bags of bottles and cans in my garage. Win-win.

 

You know what scares me the most about COVID-19? We don't know what the possible effects will be. Measles is caused by a virus, and sometimes, not often, leaves adult men sterile. Could COVID-19 do something similar?

Edited April 6, 2020 by PrincessLucy

[Lagie]

1 hour ago, PrincessLucy said:

You know what scares me the most about COVID-19? We don't know what the possible effects will be. Measles is caused by a virus, and sometimes, not often, leaves adult men sterile. Could COVID-19 do something similar?

So far, from the articles I've run across, and I haven't a clue where to find them again (but Google?), some people who've recovered have residual lung damage. I guess we won't know for a while what the other effects might be.

 

@Classycal, the tiger article was a BBC one, I think.

[PrincessLucy]

17 minutes ago, Lagie said:

So far, from the articles I've run across, and I haven't a clue where to find them again (but Google?), some people who've recovered have residual lung damage. I guess we won't know for a while what the other effects might be.

I have heard about the lung damage, which is quite scary too. There could be so much happening to those who weren't tested, and "got over it". Hidden issues that may show up later.

Edited April 6, 2020 by PrincessLucy

[JaneMcAsh]

Bronx Zoo Tigers - https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/tiger-nycs-bronx-zoo-tests-positive-coronavirus-69989185?cid=clicksource_4380645_6_three_posts_card_image

There are 7 sick big cats - only one has been tested. For some odd reason  , they have to sedate the big cats to get a blood sample (one had already been sedated for an exam).

Edited April 6, 2020 by JaneMcAsh

[PrincessLucy]

14 minutes ago, JaneMcAsh said:

Bronx Zoo Tigers - https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/tiger-nycs-bronx-zoo-tests-positive-coronavirus-69989185?cid=clicksource_4380645_6_three_posts_card_image

There are 7 sick big cats - only one has been tested. For some odd reason  , they have to sedate the big cats to get a blood sample (one had already been sedated for an exam).

I hope they will be okay. At least they can do a full exam with the sedation.

 

My can needed to be sedated just to have his mouth looked at. He is a bit uncooperative.

[JaneMcAsh]

"all are doing well and expected to recover, said the zoo"

[Astreya]

4 hours ago, Classycal said:

I couldn't find the article relating to tigers.

My question is: Can humans give the virus to cats?  I mean where did they get it?  

Here's the proper one by the Guardian (I first saw it in the Guardian live updates, but that was a bit difficult to find one it wasn't recent anymore).

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/bronx-zoo-tiger-tests-positive-for-coronavirus

 

So it seems that cats can be infected by humans, and it would probably be advisable not to cuddle around with them when you are infected with Covid-19. It is not known whether cats can infect humans with Covid-19, too, but there are some diseases that can jump from cats to humans like toxoplasmosis, so one should probably not rule that out.

[PrincessLucy]

5 minutes ago, Astreya said:

Here's the proper one by the Guardian (I first saw it in the Guardian live updates, but that was a bit difficult to find one it wasn't recent anymore).

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/bronx-zoo-tiger-tests-positive-for-coronavirus

 

So it seems that cats can be infected by humans, and it would probably be advisable not to cuddle around with them when you are infected with Covid-19. It is not known whether cats can infect humans with Covid-19, too, but there are some diseases that can jump from cats to humans like toxoplasmosis, so one should probably not rule that out.

I had 2 toxo cats. They were the best cats ever. Shandy and Jezebel. I miss them. 

[olympe]

8 hours ago, Classycal said:

I couldn't find the article relating to tigers. 

 

My question is: Can humans give the virus to cats?  I mean where did they get it?  

I read something about it almost a week ago. Yes, cats can apparently get Covid-19, and they must have gotten it from humans - obviously. (I mean, the virus came from another animal, probably by way of a different kind of animal. It's quite likely that the virus isn't completely able to target humans and only humans.)

The cat I read about had mostly gastro-intestinal problems that got better in very short order.

 

I also read about two dogs who contracted Covid. What I don't remember is if it was the cat or the two dogs that had "trouble breathing".

[Fortune86]

I know there was a dog that tested positive for Corona, but showed no symptoms. Probably old news though. 

 

One of the chaps at work's wife has apparently started showing symptoms. Now everyone on his shift may need to enter self-isolation. We're short on hands as is. 

[Fuzzbucket]

There has been one cat in the UK infected by its owner and it was fine.

[Ruby Eyes]

Regarding dogs, what I've read was that they carried the virus in their mouth (probably after licking someone infected) but not inside their bloodstream.

Vague memory/hearsay.

 

[Tiira]

I've read news about this coronavirus in other animals, too. I won't link anything because they're not in English. Apparently in Wuhan, China they tested around 140 (street?) cats and some 15 percent had antibodies (hope this is the correct word) but not one had traces of the virus itself in their blood anymore. Also in China, exposure experiments were done to various species (poor guys, they have all my sympathy ) under laboratory conditions and it seems that, besides cats, dogs and ferrets can catch the virus; those two latter ones, however, don't transmit it forwards within their species whereas cats do. Pigs, chickens and ducks couldn't be infected. Neither of these studies have been peer reviewed yet, if I'm right.

 

Like some of you wrote, a few cases of the virus in pets have been reported already. As far as I know, all of them got the infection from sick humans and no corona-related symptoms have been confirmed (though there have been some suspicions). Currently, anyway, this is considered rare and it shouldn't have much effect on the human epidemic. The experts recommend that anyone with symptoms should still avoid interacting with pets or other animals, as with any infectious disease. And some suggest that we should especially take action to protect other great ape species, cutting out all unnecessary encounters, because many ape species are endangered and the virus could possibly be destructive among them.

 

I don't like it at all that we humas put ourselves above all other beings. Just thinking... if the virus would spread to other species, which cases would we treat first? The human ones or the non-human ones? Even if it was us that transmitted it to, say, some orangutans that could go extinct or just a domestic species if that could cause deaths and suffering. At least here, some veterinary hospitals have already been asked if they could contribute with any ventilators. We're not out of them and hopefully won't be any time soon if people keep following the orders and recommendations. Actually I would say we have more spare respirators in human hospitals than in those for animals, though that is just my guess...

 

Edit: another thing, I just read about a study saying that the virus can stay in the air longer than we've thought, some minutes after the coughing person walked away. The experiment was done by computer simulation, modeling the conditions of a typical supermarket aisle.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Varislapsi

[Ruby Eyes]

Supposedly, the disease started its way through mankind on a market which also offered animals that were caught in the wilderness, with the assumption that humans originally *got it* from an animal of some sort. So the virus probably didn't even need to change all that much to go back to animals ...

Hearsay, again. I'm too lazy to do research to confirm or reject that assumption.

 

[Confused Cat]

Swiss Post made a stamp titled "COVID-19 Solidarity". My first reaction was "uh... too soon?", but it's actually for a good cause, collecting money for people who need help due to the Corona crisis.

10 stamps cost 50 CHF (which is completely given to charities) and are worth 10 CHF.

I might send a letter with one of these to myself so I can put it in my diary...

https://www.postshop.ch/shop/de/philatelie/kleinbogen/covid-19-solidaritat-kleinbogen/p/550785

[Classycal]

Varislapsi, did you mean ventilators?  Ventilators are the things that help people breathe.  Respirators keep out things like COVID-19.  Some of those kind of look like gas masks.  I'd post pics, but that doesn't work very well for me with my tablet.  

Edited April 6, 2020 by Classycal

[Lagie]

So in order for the health officials to do some serious contact tracking, for Easter Weekend, we have a five day lockdown.

From Wednesday at 9 p.m. to Tuesday at 5 a.m. no one can go anywhere unless they are police, healthcare workers, or a few designated essential services. My place of work is one but my specific job isn't, not really. I will need to find a secondary back up person to feed my shop animals on Friday.

The 'food store by last name' experiment did not go well today. So many people showed up for the 6 a.m. to 12 noon shift at some stored that there were still scores of them waiting to go in when the 1 p.m. shift started.

[PrincessLucy]

38 minutes ago, Lagie said:

The 'food store by last name' experiment did not go well today. So many people showed up for the 6 a.m. to 12 noon shift at some stored that there were still scores of them waiting to go in when the 1 p.m. shift started.

 

I just got back from food shopping. It took 4 1/2 hours between shopping (2 stores- 1 grocery store and 1 pet supply store), bringing everything in, disinfecting everything, and taking a shower. $562.90 at the grocery store (with my discount), and $74 something for pet food.  It is nice to have fresh veggies again, as we have been out for days. Got a roast, chicken, shrimp, hot dogs, and a couple of packs of hamburger meat.  I tried to stick to my list, but I did pick up a couple of other things. The only think that I cannot find is Scott flushable wipes (or any other brand) for my mother. I had to get baby wipes, which she doesn't like. I got 5 Ensure plus, which are $10.99 each. It all adds up fast.

 

I am hoping to not go back out for closer to 3 weeks this time. We will see.

 

The grocery store here has a senior citizen/immuno compromised hour in the morning, which is a zoo. They are now only letting 50% capacity in the store, but the whole huge grocery store only had about 50 people including workers when I was there around 11 AM. Plexiglass shield at every register, and they had cashiers at every other register, so a customer wouldn't be directly behind a cashier. The cashiers had masks with shields. Some employees had N-95s, some had medical masks, some had nothing. Before I stopped working a few weeks back, employees were not allowed to wear masks, but the union now says that we can, at the store's expense if we want to wear a mask. The ones with the N-95 masks brought their own in.

 

I had a medical mask on, under a material one. 

 

At the pet supply store, the owner, Debbie, had the door closed, and asked me if I was sick before I was allowed in. (She is doing curbside pickup for people who are sick.) She was concerned, as she shops at the grocery store that I work at, and hadn't seen me for weeks. She had wanted me to know that my special order came in. I am not working as I cannot bring any illness home to my 91 year old mother.

Edited April 6, 2020 by PrincessLucy