8 Most Common Diseases You Can Get from Your Pet
Roundworm
It’s hard to imagine that the adorable puppies and huggable kittens carry this intestinal parasite and can pass it on to you in a heartbeat. It usually lives in pet feces and in egg form, also called oocyst, it can live in the soil for years.
As gross as it may sound, you can accidentally eat the oocyst, which then hatches into small larvae in your body. You can also pick it up directly through the skin, by walking barefoot in the garden or doing some gardening with your bare hands.
Plague
Seriously? Very much so, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Granted, it’s not as common as it used to be, but cases have been reported in parts of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, usually in association with rodents and flea bites.
“Risk factors for plague include a recent flea bite and exposure to rodents, especially rabbits, squirrels or prairie dogs, or scratches or bites from infected domestic cats.”(1). The most common type of plague is the bubonic plague which includes symptoms such as fever, malaise, muscle pain and swollen lymph nodes.
