Saturday 25 June 2022

Holding your cat to kill a mosquito is not a good idea

There is a video called: "Cats go bug-hunting after spotting mosquito in the house". The description is misleading. The owner is holding up his cat above his head in the hope and expectation that the cat catches a mosquito. It seems horribly contrived and it looks like they decided to make a funny video but actually it's very boring.

cat held up to catch a mosquito. Silly idea and it might cause a health problem for the cat.
cat held up to catch a mosquito. Silly idea and it might cause a health problem for the cat. Screenshot from video,

It happened in the UK. One of the cats is a Siamese called Pixie and the other cat is a tabby called Wrex.

Not only is the video badly contrived, I do not think that it is a good idea either. It seems possible to me that a mosquito could bite the inside of a cat's mouth if they are held up to a mosquito like this. Or they might bite the ear flaps where the fur and skin is thin.

Although the possibility of disease transmission from mosquito the cat is slight, it must exist. In the UK I would have thought there is little risk of transmission of disease but nonetheless a mosquito bite on the ear flat would be very irritating. Or a bite just inside the mouth, on the lip for example, might be possible and I just don't see this as being practical. I am told that mosquitoes can transmit heartworm disease to cats.

This is different to allowing your cat to catch a fly and kill it or perhaps even eat it. I don't see a great problem in that. To my knowledge, cats occasionally catch flies but they don't eat them. They might occasionally but I don't think they are bothered about eating them.

The Independent newspaper reported on this silly video but the journalist made no mention of the possible health implications to the cat. They regard the video as funny and entertaining. I don't see it as entertaining at all but silly.

Of course, domestic cats treat insects as prey animals because they are part of their diet. I just see a slight risk element which is unnecessary considering this method of catching mosquito it is idiotic in the first place.

All I can do on this page is present a screenshot from the video because I can't embed it.

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