I'm surprised not to see a sticky on this topic in the FAQ's section.

What types of diseases and parasites can be transferred from an animal to their human lover, or vice-versa?
How can they be avoided, cured, or made resistant to for either partner?
Are they Acute (short term) or Chronic (life-long or long lasting).

What types of parasites can migrate between animals and humans (a la Tapeworms, ect), how can they be avoided and what can humans use to treat the unexpected infestation?


I ask this because many years ago I came down with a nasty illness with no known contageon contact among the humans I had been with (no one else had or got what I had) after having jumped a fence and seduced some mares. The doctor identified it as a 'hepatitis variant', epstein-bar virus but was never able to pin it down with difinative diagnosis.
As I was not sexually active with humans prior to that time, and no one I knew showed any similar kind of illness, my only thought is that it came from a mare. (after that last encounter I had not re-visited the farm due to it and the horses being sold).

eww nasty ... that's the fence hoppers punishment !!!

I'd say such a virus could be contracted through a blood sucking insect
like a mosquito is possible

I doubt you need to worry about such drama unless your picking up strays
or still hopping fences

if so you'd better be a little more picky ;) good advice
don't do sick or neglected animals they wont feel up to it and infection is not in your best interest

here I found this

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8728939

Everyone swoons about how safe it is and how there are no dangers. lol, right. There are actually a lot of zoonotic diseases. Rabies, for one. Parasites of all types and flavors. And a few nasty bacterial/viral infections that you really, really don't want. But the good part is they are all rare, if you know the animal's (hopefully YOUR animal's) history.

Pretty much every parasite from every species will enjoy a nice munch of human. There is no safe self treatment, you need specific drugs from a doctor. This is why it never ceases to amaze me when people rave about eating fecal matter or licking anuses. ALL horses have worms, its just a question of how many and are they damaging the horse. So do many dogs.

As far as diseases, those are only the nastiest of the nasty, and usually people who have animals with those diseases are actively treating the infection (if they know. Some of them are specifically repro diseases that you will never know about until you try and fail to get them pregnant). So if you happen to jump in with an animal who isn't yours, you may be in for an interesting surprise, and it serves you right.

Rabies is still the worst of the worst, and there is no true protection from that other than pre-exposure rabies vaccines followed by the post-exposure vaccines once bitten/fluid shared. That's just another risk for an already risky endevor of fence jumping.

You mentioned that you caught a strain of herpes a fair while ago and the doctor did not fully identify it. To me that seems a little strange after asking a few of my sources in the field veterinary care about medical tests. First rule don't go jumping other people's fences, who knows if they were doing like you were to that animal and maybe they were not free of diseases. As others have said beware of parasites as they tend to live in and on both human and animal.

ringworm is the first thing that comes to mind. we had a huge outbreak at my shelter last year, I was very paranoid about catching it and bringing it home to my persian cats. this website has a complete list of zoonotic disease:

Link Removed - You need at least 100 posts before you are allowed to post links to other sites


oh that's just dumb. here's the list from the outline. you can look things up on your own:

# BACTERIAL DISEASES
Brucellosis
Bubonic Plague
Leptospirosis
Psittacosis
Salmonellosis
Tetanus
Tularemia
# MYCOTIC DISEASES
Aspergillosis
Histoplasmosis
# VIRAL DISEASES
Rabies
# PARASITIC DISEASES
Balisascaris procyonis
# PROTOZOAL DISEASES
Giardiasis
Toxoplasmosis
# TICK-BORNE DISEASES
Lyme disease
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
# PHYSICAL TRAUMA



This post has been edited by dangerousanimal on Mar 27 2008, 08:40 PM

Underwolf – You commented on the lack of this topic being covered in the “pinned” section. The pinned section usually contains information that is not available by simply googling the information
I searched for “ animal human diseases” and came up with this link. I am familiar with much of this information many of the topics have been in the news at one time or another.

Animal-Human Disease Transmission

Most of the issues with animal/ human transmission of disease are related to poor hygiene, on the part of the human involved. Good hand washing and avoiding oral fecal transmission (rimming with animals) avoids many shared problems. There are shared parasites that come from undercooked meat, such as trichinosis and e-coli ( remember the Jack-in-the-box scare ?) Rabies is shared by saliva in a bite or possible saliva in an open wound, again innoculate your own animals and fence hoppers beware. Sexual contact would be a very low vector issue.

When you fence hop, you expose yourself to being kicked or stomped on, as well as being shot by an irate owner. You are exposing yourself to many unknown issues, the health of the animal is unknown to you. A little well applied soap and water before contact … as my Nana said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”

As to your Epstein – Barr Virus, it is a human virus, please click on the link and read. It can lay dormant in your system for many years before causing an observed issue.

Epstein-Barr Virus and Infectious Mononucleosis

I took some time to read your posts in the forum, I was surprised that you upbraided someone for touching an animal without the owner’s knowledge and/or permission, when you had done the same.

This post has been edited by ms deelight on Mar 27 2008, 09:59 PM

Attached Image ( Click on thumbnail to view full size image )

while its certainly ok to comment on fencehopping when the subject includes it - such as this one - and make warnings concerning dangers relating to the topic - this isnt the place to read someone for filth for engaging - we have a fencehoppers thread in the zoo section - a quite heated one :lol: all are welcome to express views there - however lets stay focused here on the subject at hand...

some great info and reference provided in here :beer:

Some of these posts reminds me of the "homos, sluts, and other non-monogamous people deserve to get AIDS" discussions.

Bottom line - not every one is in a position to own a dog.

Also, some people couldn't have sex with their own animal because to them - it's their "baby" and [CENSOR] is just - disgusting.

Lets stop with the "you get what you deserve" attitude - and recognize, for some people the (very very small risk) is worth the potential benefit.

And please - don't think that having sex exclusively with your own animal 100% protects you from any of the above.

Unless of course, you keep that animal in a plastic bubble and never allow it contact with other animals.

We are all young and 'invincible' in the past... I haven't gone after animals not my own since that incedent, wether or not it was the source of my unpleasant and rather lengthy illness (like mono, but worse. I am tempted to believe it was Hepatitis-A, but again... no concrete diagnosis was ever made despite a good many tests. A blood sample was even run by the CDC, but of that test I never heard any response).

Yes, I do berate people for fencejumping... I did it, I got stomped, nipped, and near suffocated by one mare that liked it just too much. I learned my lessons, as do we all.

Now I have my own place, and my own partners (only one of the 6 amenable to such approaches.) All are rescues.

If you want to argue this point why don't you go over to the fence jumping thread like the moderator asked you to, and get stomped on there? I'm quite sure 95% of the people there would be HAPPY to help you see the error in your thinking, and how thoughts like this is how most states started their anti-beast laws.

As far as herpes, that paticular disease is not transferable between species, each strain is species specific (to an extent). It is hypothesized that the new neurological version of equine herpes originated through a mutation of another species's version. But the common STD version of EHV-3, and the respitory/abortion versions EHV-1, -1a, and 4, are non-zoonotic.

don't make me repeat myself again folks :mellow:

very interesting and informative thread.

here is the link that dangerousanimal tried to post:
Zoonotic diseases

It gives symptoms and host animals for some diseases.

This is a good reason, one of many, not to play with animals you do not know well. Certainly you could get things like rabbies. You might pick up a case of worms if the tongue goes in the wrong place and there are a number of bacterial infections that you could conceivably get. Fortunately, they are al rare and if you stick to animals that you own and know to be in good health, the risk is minimal, imho.
Ltd

I was doing a online search for something.... Found this wonderful condensed source, it sounds like it was what you wanted.


Diseases People Catch From Their Pets, Zoonotic Illnesses Of Dogs Cats And Other Pets

This post has been edited by ms deelight on Apr 8 2008, 04:51 PM

good link, ms deelight. ^_^