How can I protect my pet if I live in an infected region?

Keep it inside! Though if the cat is used to being indoor/outdoors, or completely outdoors, this is practically impossible.

If your pet goes outside at all, don’t be deluded into believing that an agent that kills ticks, even one that works well such as Frontline Top Spot ™, will provide complete protection. They do not! Though such products may kill ticks, especially if reapplied every 3 weeks (instead of once a month as the manufacturer recommends), Top Spot TM may take from 10 - 50 hours to kill a tick. This is far too long a period to prevent disease transmission.

2 of our cats that died were wearing Frontline Top Spot™. We did not understand at the time that even the Frontline people do not claim any tick REPELLANT qualities for their TopSpot TM product, only that it will slowly kill ticks. Using a tick repellent spray or collar in combination with a tick-killing agent such as Top Spot TM will increase the level of protection.
Combing your cat with a fine-toothed comb & feeling them all over, really well, when they come back inside also helps. We’ve discovered many an unattached tick using this method. Make it a fun thing for the cat; a loving ritual upon re-entering the house.

This year we are having good results using flea & tick collars in conjunction with a tick repellent spray & being exceptionally vigilant about checking the cats. We are finding that the collars are repelling the ticks pretty successfully everywhere, for 2-3 months, except the stomach and hindquarters, particularly the anus. Ticks love this spot; it is furless, and easy to attach themselves. A shot of the spray seems to kill the attached tick & re-protect the area. We reapply periodically, whenever the cats start showing up with ticks in their rectal areas again; it seems to be about every 2-3 weeks.

We also keep a tick log of what's been taken off each cat, where it was attached, and when, & what kind of tick; seed tick, dog tick, deer tick. Dog tick is the one we are watching for the most, but with seed ticks it's often hard to tell. When one of the cats is "in the zone", as we now call it, meaning it is within the 7-10 day time period of cytauxzoonosis infection after a bite, we watch it extra carefully, particularly keeping our eye out for extreme lethargy and the tell-tale fevered ears. The tick log also gives you a baseline count of how often your cats are being exposed & can be an excellent reference as time goes by.

The best way to take a tick off a seemingly healthy cat's anus? Carefully! It all depends on the cat, of course, but a good technique is to wait until it is, in the course of its natural day or night, really drowsy & comfortable. Often we have been able to remove the tick with the cat barely moving an inch, while they fight us like wild tigers if we try to remove it when they're awake.

What treatment is recommended?

This is a tricky question. A lot depends on you, the pet owner. No consistently effective treatment is known. Some vets recommend immediate euthanasia as the disease is generally rapidly fatal & obviously, toward the end, the cat is in great pain.
Others believe in furnishing aggressive supportive care; providing subcutaneous fluids via enriched Lactated Ringer's Solution (LRS) & antibiotics, such asBaytril & Enrofloxacin, & experimenting with the few drugs that are thought to provide hope in such cases. Imidocarb Dipropionate has been used with some success, usually in conjunction with atrophine, and Helprin has recently come onto the scene. The cat should be hospitalized for the treatment unless you are proficient in giving subcutaneous and/or i.v. fluids & emotionally objective enough to undertake the work yourself.
Treatment is expensive, but well worth it if your companion pulls through. Your vet can give you a best case/worse case scenario & advice as to cost.

We have lost 3 cats to cytauxzoonosis over a 1-year period beginning in June of 1999; we took all 3 to our local vet clinic, which has an excellent staff already all too familiar with this disease.

The first already had FIV, feline aids, & his immune system was simply not up to the struggle, so we felt it was merciful to euthenize.

The 2nd, Helios, was young & strong & we felt he had a good chance; he received LRS fluids & antibiotics & lasted 6 days before succumbing.

The third cat was a stray who came out of the woods & quickly developed symptoms of the disease. Our vet had reports of a new drug, Helprin, so we added these to the regimen, but he died within 2 days. I’m not sure what I would do if it happens again & the chances of survival have not increased; it has to be each individual pet owner’s decision, weighing the many factors.

Because there has been a epidemic of cytauxzoonosis in our area of the Ozarks, there is a small history of alternative treatment. Bob Liebert of Teeter Creek Herbs (www.teetercreekherbs.com) has reportedly saved several cats using an inexpensive herbal treatment complex. His work has not been medically documented, but the owners of the cats don’t care; they’re just thrilled their cats are alive. If you are not able to afford clinic costs of extended treatment & are a supporter of herbal healing, you may want to try the herbal route.
With either technique, traditional or herbal, it is important to take your cat to the vet for diagnosis and begin treatment as soon as possible. The reports of cats surviving without any intervention is a fraction of that very small number who survived with treatment.

How many cats survive?

 Unfortunately, not many, (historically less than 9 %), and there does not seem to be a common denominator -- treatment method, age, gender -- among those that do. Some cats seem to be more resistant to the disease or are infected with a milder form -- researchers aren’t sure. Nor are they sure how many cases actually occur yearly, since feral cats are not monitored at all and not all pet owners take their cat to the vet when the illness begins, or the cats simply wander off & hide before the owner can take them in for treatment.
Much, much more tracking of the scope of this disease needs to be done: that's one of the primary purposes of Project Helios. Please see following section: "How Can I Help?"

We are fortunate to live in an area where several cats receiving the extraordinary veterinary assistance of one of our local clinics have pulled through, which continues to give us hope. Our vets encourage visits by the cat's family, & we believe the care and attention of the family can be a strongly contributing factor, since in many cases the cat will eat for its person when it will not for anyone else -- even if it is only licking tuna bits off a fingertip, anything that happens to give the cat strength during the illness is a plus.
The best news is that if the cat does survive, it is widely believed to be immune from further episodes. The cats, amazingly, recover fully from their ordeal and live normal lives.