Brief Information

Most cats life span extends between the ages of 12 and 15, and some cats may exceed this limit to live up to 18 or 19 years, others can lead a fruitful life living up to 30 years.
Cats are found around piles of garbage and their boxes, under cars and near restaurants.

Breeding

Cats mate when their females are between the ages of 5 and 9 months and their males are between 7 and 10 months old; males can mate at any time while females mate during certain periods known as the Estrous cycle, which is the period of recurring physiological changes that are induced by sexual desire, and this period is repeated several times during the year and often lasts from 3 to 15 days, and if the female is prevented from mating during the Estrous period, the next period of the cycle is likely to come quickly, and in most cases these cycles recur until pregnancy occurs, pregnancy in cats lasts about 9 weeks, and when cats prepare to give birth, they tend to choose a quiet and safe location to give birth, and most of the time the cat gives birth from 3 to 5 fetuses at a time, and yet recorded cases show cats giving birth to more than ten embryos, and the mother cat can give birth without human help unless difficulties occur, most newborn kittens weigh about 100 g, the mother licks her babies and dehydrates them, stimulating their breathing and body functions, and similar to all mammals, mother cats breastfeed her newborn natural milk.

Diseases transmitted by cats

First: Fungal Diseases
Ringworm
This disease is the most famous disease that can be transmitted from cats to humans; about 40% of cats carry the disease, the disease appears on the human skin in the form of red rings causing itching to expand gradually, and is treated with antifungal ointments, and if not treated it heals on its own within several months.

Second: Bacterial Diseases
Conjunctivitis
This disease is transmitted from cats to humans and its symptoms are red eyes with pus secretions, and is easy to treat in cats and humans with drops and ointments; preventative precautions are simply to wash hands well after touching cats when they contract the disease, and not to allow the cat to move at home and climb on to human beds and their places of sitting while they contract the disease.
Sore throat and tonsils
Some cats carry streptococcus, which causes these infections; treatment is by antibiotics; preventative precautions lies simply in preventing cats from putting their mouths in human foods or drinks.

Intestinal influenza
Some cats carry salmonella and campylobacter microbes that may be transmitted to humans and cause diarrhea and vomiting. Preventative precautions include wearing gloves when cleaning the cat, washing hands well after playing with it, and keeping the cat away from food preparation places.

Cat bite
More than 75% of cats carry in their mouths a Pasteurella microbe which may cause some types of fever, and some cats also carry staphylococcus bacteria, as well as tetanus that can be transmitted by cat bites, this is in addition of course to rabies, so it is recommended to seek urgent medical help immediately after the bite, especially if the cat comes from outside the house, or if it is a home cat and the bite is deep and severe in order to deal with the wound and prevent possible results, but if it is a simple superficial bite of the vaccinated home cat, it may be enough to wash the bite spot well with water, cleanse it with some disinfectants such as alcohol swabs or savlon, or apply an antibiotic ointment such as bactroban ointment.

Cat Scratching Disease
It is a disease carried by kittens more than big cats, and the bacteria causing it is called Bartonellosis, and this bacteria reaches the cat through cat fleas, and when the cat carries this disease and scratches you, it transmits the microbe to your blood, so you’ll start to have enlarged lymph nodes and sometimes fever, and the aforementioned is treated with antibiotics; it is not dangerous for people with healthy immunity, but it can be very dangerous if the human immunity is weak; it is also recommended to wash the place of scratch well with water, cleansed with disinfectants such as alcohol swabs or savlon, and an antibiotic ointment such as bactroban is applied.
Helicobacter pylori bacteria
It is the bacteria that causes stomach ulcers and duodenal ulcer in humans. It was proven in the early 1990s that they can be transmitted from cats to humans; this discovery has caused great horror and panic among cat owners at the time. The disease is transmitted by contamination of food by cat remains, so preventative methods start by keeping cats away from food preparation places, not to put them on kitchen or dining tables, and wash hands well before preparing or eating food, especially after touching cats.

Tuberculosis
It is a difficult lung disease that affects other parts of the human body and has been shown to be transmitted from cats to humans, so euthanasia is recommended for cats infected with the disease because of the difficulty of treating infected cats and the possibility of transmission to humans, although cats rarely develop this disease.

Third: Toxoplasmosis
It is a single-celled organism that affects cats by eating undercooked meat, infected prey, or being exposed to feces places where other cats carry the disease, such as gardens or sand. It emerges from infected cats feces (in small eggs) for two or three weeks after infection and then becomes non-contagious; and once cats are infected, they can gain immunity that may remain with them for life or at least for a very long time. So it does not get infected or transmit the disease to anyone throughout this period; the eggs produced by the cat are the ones that may infect their humans or other cats; infected eggs are able to stay alive on the ground for a long time that may reach one year or more, especially if they are present in wet shaded places, and it has been proven that the infected cat produces about ten million eggs with feces daily.
The disease is considered a simple disease in most cases if the average person is immune, where he shows symptoms similar to cold only, temporary swelling of the lymph nodes that disappear after a while or other temporary symptoms that disappear after a while, but the symptoms may be severe in rare conditions, and after these symptoms, man becomes immune to the disease whether his infection is light or severe, as he is often not infected again even if he is repeatedly exposed to infectious eggs.
However, the real risk of the disease lies in the exposure of pregnant women to infectious eggs during pregnancy, provided that it is the first time in her life that she has been exposed to the disease, but if pregnant woman has contracted the disease in her childhood or in her youth before pregnancy, in this case she will not be affected often by the new infection because she is immune to the disease as a result of the old infection, but if pregnant woman has not been exposed to the disease before and has had it during pregnancy, then it can lead to fetal abnormalities and other problems that occur to babies.
The prevention of the disease in general is to keep humans or domestic cats away from eating undercooked meat, in addition, to staying away from places where cats need to be outside home, and to wash hands well before eating.
Pregnant women have to take other strict preventive measures to prevent the disease, in addition to avoiding cats outside home, they should also avoid eating canned meat as nearly 10% of these products have been shown to contain toxoplasmosis sacks; they should wash vegetables very well, peeling them better before eating them, because they may be contaminated with eggs through the soil in which they were planted, and wash the board on which meat is cut with hot water before putting any fresh food on it, not drink unpasteurized milk and especially sheep’s milk as well as unpasteurized dairy products. Keeping domestic cats inside the house and not taking them out throughout the pregnancy period, and changing the contents of their potty daily to get rid of infectious eggs before it becomes contagious, while wearing gloves of course, as well as many other precautionary procedures, a blood test can be made for both the pregnant woman and the house cat to ensure that antibodies are there to fight; the presence of antibodies makes us reassured because it means immunity against the disease and in this case there will be no need for strict procedures, but in case antibodies do not exist, it will be an alarming situation forcing you to act immediately in the status quo, thus implementing procedures and utmost caution to prevent infection during pregnancy. As for the cause of transmission as a result of eating raw meat well, the animal, if infected, some phases of toxoplasmosis may be transmitted from the digestive system to muscles throughout the body, or to the brain, and remain there for a life cycle, and be a cause of infection for anyone who eats these muscles or brain.
It should be noted that humans who contracted the disease may also have the same thing, i.e. some toxoplasmosis organisms leak from their digestive system and remain latent and attached to sacks in their muscles, brain or other places for life, and may activate under certain conditions and cause damage.

Fourth: Viruses
Rabies
It is often a fatal disease for humans or animals, and survival is very, very rare.
The animal becomes ill as a result of being bitten or scratched by another infected animal.
When you are also bitten or scratched by an infected animal or when human injuries are contaminated by infected animal’s saliva, after the virus reaches the nervous system and severely affects it, severe convulsions and personality changes occur and many other symptoms ending often in death; cats are much less than dogs in their transmission of infection because they are often still if infected, and they do not develop irritability and biting status that affects dogs, and generally vaccination is available to both humans and cats.
The implementation of stray cats’ disposable needs to be reviewed so that they may be executed far from urban areas, in a healthy and orderly manner that does not harm the environment and does not affect human beings, such as preparing a place in a remote area where there are no inhabitants, for example, carrying out executions in pits so that they can be disposed of quietly, and swiftly with backdropping loads of sand, taking into account devising plans to get rid of worsening numbers of insects and mice that pose a threat to the city.