Disclaimer: I am not a vet, this is not medical advice, seek professional guidance before taking advice from the internet.
Technically, kind of. It's extremely rare, but cats can develop Fel D1 sensitivity, resulting respiratory issues. Usually not to their own antigens, but another cat's. I think technically that would be considered an autoimmune condition if they were allergic to themselves. Probably would present as something similar to pemphigus foliaceus.
Yes. We got our dumb autoimmune problems, they got their own.
The problem is mostly environmental, all kinds of toxic shit which screw us up inside and out.
Then you're merely in a chicken and egg situation, which can still get very complicated for genetics. For example, most prion diseases are also "environmental", yet they've surely started somewhere spontaneously. Similarly, viruses make for many mutations, some of which stick around in species' genomes.
The people who end up being incompatible with the biology their genes produce almost always end up dead at young ages, even if they make it past birth. The people who find themselves in the middle ground of barely surviving their own bodies are truly often unique, interesting medical cases. Like the bone disease that rapidly calcifies injuries or other stressed tissue. If you read about the disease in some flowery old language, you'd think it was just a high tale.
Given the myriad of diseases like that, I'd be shocked if there were no saliva related ones (kinda like Sjogren disease...) for cats. Biology is insane.
It's usually a better question of how rare something is more than if it's possible. Especially if it's something as basic as allergies. People can be allergic to their own sweat for crying out loud. I'd be shocked if it never happened for cats.
I don't know, but I'll note that, if you are asking after seeing a cat fussing over an irritating area, you might be confusing cause and effect. That is, irritation due to some other cause could be driving the cat to lick/groom that area.
6 Comments
GreenBeard@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 4d
Disclaimer: I am not a vet, this is not medical advice, seek professional guidance before taking advice from the internet.
Technically, kind of. It's extremely rare, but cats can develop Fel D1 sensitivity, resulting respiratory issues. Usually not to their own antigens, but another cat's. I think technically that would be considered an autoimmune condition if they were allergic to themselves. Probably would present as something similar to pemphigus foliaceus.
lath@piefed.social · 6 pts · 4d
Yes. We got our dumb autoimmune problems, they got their own.
The problem is mostly environmental, all kinds of toxic shit which screw us up inside and out.
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social · 1 pts · 4d
Eh. If they're allergic to anything their own body produces, that's rare and practically by definition not environmental...
lath@piefed.social · 1 pts · 4d
What if the environment causes the mutation?
LurkingLuddite@piefed.social · 2 pts · 2d
Then you're merely in a chicken and egg situation, which can still get very complicated for genetics. For example, most prion diseases are also "environmental", yet they've surely started somewhere spontaneously. Similarly, viruses make for many mutations, some of which stick around in species' genomes.
The people who end up being incompatible with the biology their genes produce almost always end up dead at young ages, even if they make it past birth. The people who find themselves in the middle ground of barely surviving their own bodies are truly often unique, interesting medical cases. Like the bone disease that rapidly calcifies injuries or other stressed tissue. If you read about the disease in some flowery old language, you'd think it was just a high tale.
Given the myriad of diseases like that, I'd be shocked if there were no saliva related ones (kinda like Sjogren disease...) for cats. Biology is insane.
It's usually a better question of how rare something is more than if it's possible. Especially if it's something as basic as allergies. People can be allergic to their own sweat for crying out loud. I'd be shocked if it never happened for cats.
ornery_chemist@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 4d
I don't know, but I'll note that, if you are asking after seeing a cat fussing over an irritating area, you might be confusing cause and effect. That is, irritation due to some other cause could be driving the cat to lick/groom that area.