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My cat has Mycoplasma haemofelis. What's the prognosis & spread?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | American Shorthair | Female | spayed | 6 years and 8 months old

Hello there my 7 yr old cat was diagnosed with Mycoplasma haemofelis. I have a few questions. 1. How fatal is this disease? I started treatment yesterday (doxy and prednisone) and she is still lethargic. Is this normal? How long does improvement take? 2. Can she spread it to my dogs or other cat? 3. Is treatment pretty promising? 4. I have read that it can return and she will always be a carrier. Is this true? Any other information you can think of would be appreciated. Thank you very much.

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By David Darvishian

Veterinarian

Published on December 15th, 2017

Yes, treatment is very promising in my experience. It's important to treat any concurrent problems or immunocompromising conditions if identified. This is what could cause a relapse. I would consult with your veterinarian on this and make sure all preventive health concerns or other medical problems are addressed to keep Emmy as healthy as possible to prevent a relapse. Dogs suffer from their own species of Mycoplasma and I have never heard of a feline Mycoplasma infecting a dog. Good luck with Emmy. I hope she gets better very soon.

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    Answered By David Darvishian

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear about Emmy. Any disease like this can be fatal but in my experience, once treatment is initiated, even very ill cats will start to respond within 1-2 days. Untreated, this disease could definitely be fatal but you are treating it so I would have high hopes unless something else is wrong and recovery is compromised. Lethargy is normal due to the anemia or low red blood cell count. Until that regenerates, she will be lethargic. The bone marrow response takes about 3-5 days so new red blood cells will become available then and you will notice more improvement then. Fleas could transmit this organism from your cat to other cats. Strict and effective flea control is highly advised to keep this from happening. I don't believe dogs can get infected but I will check that. Yes, the organism can still reside in a cat but I have never seen a cat get recurrent disease but I would say it's always possible. Good luck I will make another post.

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