'Star' defies the odds in battle with deadly Bobcat tick fever

Ronna Torgerson cuddles her cat, Star, who survived the nearly 100-percent fatal bobcat tick fever after Ronna used herbal remedies and a coconut derivative called monolauren to bring her back from the brink of death. Kathryn Lucariello / Carroll County News [Click to enlarge]

EUREKA SPRINGS -- "Bobcat tick fever" -- this diagnosis can sound like a dreaded death knell to a cat owner whose cat has been bitten by a tick carrying the disease. Up until recently, it was 100 percent fatal and promised an agonizing death to a cat not euthanized before its final stages.

Recently, more cats are starting to survive, but that figure remains at less than 9 percent, and no one knows why some cats survive it. There is no known absolute cure in conventional veterinary medicine. What has been tried works sometimes and not others.

Ronna Torgerson, co-owner of Granny's Place in Eureka Springs, is one of the few local cat owners whose cat, Star, pulled through the disease in October by receiving alternative medicine treatments, diligent nursing and through sheer determination.

And she's not the only one: about a dozen other cats have survived using non-conventional treatments.

Bobcat tick fever -- Cytauxzoonosis ?-- is caused by the parasite Cytauxzoon felis, which is spread from bobcats to domestic cats via ticks, particularly, but not limited to, dog ticks.

It was first reported in Southwest Missouri in 1976. While bobcats rarely die from the disease, domestic cats usually succumb within three days of symptoms appearing. The most recognizable symptoms are extreme lethargy and high fever. Dehydration and loss of appetite are also common.

When Torgerson brought her cat in to the Berryville Vet Clinic, Star's blood test showed she had no red blood cells left.

"They suggested we put her down because it's a very painful death. They had never seen a case this far advanced survive," she said.

During the end stages of the disease, Torgerson was told, the cat would begin to moan constantly from the pain, but Star had not reached that point yet. Torgerson decided to wait.

She and her family have used herbal medicines for a variety of ailments. She took Star back to the shop and began to feed her an herb called "Cat's Claw" and a concoction called Recovazon for nutritional support.

She also called a naturopath in southwest Missouri, who suggested she try colostrum and DMSO.

A call to Robin Lumly, who works in local naturopath Jim Fain's office, also resulted in helpful advice: to try monolauren, a derivative of coconut that is claimed to be anti-viral, anti-parasitic and anti-bacterial.

"I gave it to her every two hours in an eye-dropper," Torgerson said. "I mixed it with the Cat's Claw and gave it to her through the whole night, plus a liquid nutrient."

Star made it through the night, and Torgerson took her back to the vet the next morning for an IV to help rehydrate her. They left the stent in so that Torgerson could continue to give Star fluids.

"I continued her treatment with the monolauren for three days," she said. "She completely 100 percent pulled through it."

Lumly said another local woman had saved her cat with monolauren.

"Within a day or two the cat started recovering," she said.

Bob Liebert is an herbalist of 25 years and a member of the American Herbalists Guild. He owns Teeter Creek Herbs in Missouri.

He makes a tincture combination of wormwood, cloves and black walnut, all herbs reported to be anti-parasitic.

"There are probably about a dozen cats locally that have had a pretty miraculous recovery," Liebert said. "They were cats the vets had pretty much given up on."

He said the most recent case was a couple months ago.

Veterinarians using conventional methods are cautious, however, as there seems to be no consistent factors among the cats they've seen who contract the disease, succumb to it or survive it.

"For years we've seen a certain percentage that survive," said Tina Cone of the Berryville Veterinary Clinic. "There might be a strain that is not as virulent. The majority don't survive. It seems like this year I don't recall as many of them surviving. There is nothing reliably, predictably helpful."

She said although she is not familiar with the herbal treatments people have tried, she is not against their using them.

"I wouldn't be opposed to trying anything on them," she said.

Conventional treatment consists of IV fluids and antibiotics for secondary infections, as well as a blood thinner for DIC ("Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation"), a complication of the disease.

This author's 19-year-old cat survived bobcat fever in 1998 when Cone treated her with these methods, making veterinary history.

Local cat-lover Selena Parrish started tracking the disease in 1999 and has devoted a Web site to it. She welcomes both reports of survival through alternative medicine but also repeats conventional cautions. Parrish herself lost four cats to cytauxzoonosis.

"I tried the Teeter Creek remedy on two cats, and they both died," she said. "But (another local woman) used monolauren, and her cat survived."

She said there is not a very good baseline established, for either conventional or alternative treatments. In one clinical study, one vet had six out of seven cats survive, but when other vets tried the same treatment, they could not duplicate the results.

Oklahoma State University and Kansas State University both have renowned veterinary schools that have been researching the disease, and Parrish has been keeping track of their efforts.

"The thought is the infection by the protozoan may start 20 days before symptoms, so what we're seeing is the last five days -- the final stage," she said.

"They also think it can take as little as from two to 10 hours to transfer the parasite from the tick. Some cats that survive could have the tick that is several generations removed, and they're carrying a less virulent form."

Parrish lives in the Rockhouse Road area of Eureka Springs, and said that no one's cats in that area have survived bobcat tick fever.

She also said she has heard for the first time this year reports of indoor cats who have died from cytauxzoonosis.

"Imagine the frustration and despair of people who thought their cats were safe indoors," Parrish said.

Although companies like Frontline® make claims for their tick-repellent preparations, they can make no guarantees it will prevent the transmission of C. felis.

"I've had conversations with more than a hundred people and told them that Frontline does not repel ticks. It does kill the tick in two to 10 days, but by then the protozoan may have already been transferred."

Parrish said cytauxzoonosis is in 14 states now, and due to the warmer winters, ticks are being seen as far north as Chicago, although as far as she knows, there have been no reports of cytauxzoonosis in Illinois.

Although most infections occur in the spring, summer and early fall months, she said she has seen live ticks in the snow. And with the warmer winters, the cold season is no guarantee of safety.

She counsels people who call her or contact her through her Web site, projecthelios.org.

"One of the ways I can help people is tell them it's not their fault," she said. "It's not because you didn't take care of your cat -- you've done everything you could."

But for some desperate cat owners, "everything" may include alternative treatments such as herbs or other natural derivatives. And if Torgerson, another local woman and the dozen or so cat-owners in Southwest Missouri are any indication, there just may be a fighting chance in these remedies.