A Texas man went partially blind in one eye after being scratched by his adopted cat.
The 47-year-old, who has not been named, was infected with bacteria that caused inflammation in his optic nerve that caused the loss of vision.
His illness began a few weeks after the cat was adopted with a headache and fever, which he attributed to a covid infection. But when he suddenly lost vision in part of his left eye while driving, he rushed to the ER.
Doctors there diagnosed him with cat scratch disease, caused by the bacteria Bartonella henselae that cats can pick up from fleas. He was given a course of antibiotics and the disease subsided and his eyesight returned to normal.
A man lost the sight in one of his eyes after being scratched by his adopted pet cat (stock image)
Cat scratch disease, also known as scratch fever or felinosis, affects about 12,000 Americans each year, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
About 40 percent of cats carry the bacteria that causes it at least once in their lives, which are normally picked up by fleas but rarely show symptoms.
However, people can contract the bacteria after being scratched and become ill three to 14 days later, with symptoms including swelling, fever, vision loss and exhaustion. In rare cases, a man may even have trouble getting an erection.
Vision loss occurs in about one to two percent of cases, when the infection leads to neuroretinitis, or inflammation of the optic nerve, which disrupts vision. It normally resolves after treatment, but in some cases patients may experience permanent blindness.
Doctors believe the bacteria can travel through the bloodstream to the optic nerve, where it then infects cells that line the blood vessels in the nerve and causes inflammation.
The case came to light this month in the American Journal of Case Reports.
The man initially thought his symptoms – including fever, night sweats and headache – were due to the return of the Covid infection he had been dealing with a month earlier.
He started taking ibuprofen to reduce his symptoms.
But after repeatedly testing negative for Covid, he went to his doctor who suggested he may have ‘post-Covid syndrome’, also known as long Covid.
He was sent back to Galveston, just outside Houston.
But on the way back, he had a “sudden” loss of vision in his left eye, where he could no longer see in the lower quarter of his field of vision that was near his nose.
The patient rushed to the nearest emergency room where he was admitted to the eye department.
Medics initially feared his symptoms were a warning sign of meningitis, which is when there is inflammation of the fluid and membranes of the spinal cord.
But after the man said he adopted a cat two months ago who scratched him “often,” they suspected he was indeed suffering from cat scratch disease.
Tests confirmed that he had become infected with Bartonella henselae.
It also showed that the vision in his left eye had shrunk to 20/100, meaning he had to be within 20 feet of something to see what someone 30 feet away could see.
He was prescribed a six-week course of antibiotics and discharged.
At the follow-up visit, the patient said his headache and fever were gone. Vision in his left eye was also restored to 20/30, or near the normal 20/20 range of vision.
Dr. Rania Saxena, a physician at the University of North Texas Center in Forth Worth, who led the report, said: ‘It is important to keep a Bartonella infection in the differential diagnosis when a patient presents with fever and visual changes.
‘[This is because] Bartonella can cause painless vision loss and is the leading cause of infectious neuroretinitis.
“Early recognition and treatment of this condition are essential to prevent vision loss and shorten recovery time.”
It was unclear what temperament the man’s cat had and whether he gave it away after the illness.