At least 60% of the cats that get H5N1 die, and it happens very fast. It usually starts with lethargy and fever. They start breathing more rapidly. They lose their appetite, and will sometimes develop ataxia, and walk like they're drunk. They have a much better chance of surviving if you get them to a hospital before they stop eating. So far, most of the feline cases of bird flu have come from eating raw food. But that doesn't mean you don't need to be concerned if you don't feed raw. Cats have a lot of the receptors that the virus targets, in both their GI tract and their airway, so they can catch it very easily. The best thing you can do to protect them is keep them inside as much as possible. They don't have to actually eat a sick bird to catch it. Just sniffing a dead bird, or walking near where an infected bird has pooped recently is enough. So don't let them roam, and don't even let them use a catio if there are waterfowl nearby. The wind can carry the virus a long ways. I am still letting Groucho and Gummitch have a few minutes of closely supervised time in our postage stamp yard when the alternative is chaos. But I don't walk Groucho around the neighborhood on his leash anymore, and I leave the shoes in which I leave the property on the porch. If you can't do that, carry them inside, put them in a box or closet where the cats can't get at them, and immediately wash your hands. Every case of H5N1 in a human companion animal makes it that much more likely that it will mutate enough to achieve human to human transmission. If that happens, it will be much worse than Covid has been. So by protecting your kitties, you're helping to protect everyone.
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