Can you get sick from outdoor cats

Actually I was told by my old doc that you can get sick from indoor cats.  Since indoor cats cannot go out side and have the grasses rub against them and remove dander and such people have more problems with indoor cats and allergies.  I never heard that you can get worms from a cat.  I would call and ask a vet.

Yes, you can, but you'd have to eat their feces or intestinal track (somehow) first [:'(]. Sounds like a paranoid doctor to me, whom probably doesn't know a ton about parasites. There may, on the other hand, be other diseases that come from cats that can be transmited to humans.
 
My mom once asked the vet if people could catch tapeworm, roundworm, etc from infected cats. He said "No," so I've never worried about it. I just wash my hands if I come in contact with a cat I don't know.

I believe we can get roundworms from cats (I'll have to double check). Ringworm we can also get and I know of many Siamese Rescue fosters who have gotten nasty cases of ringworm after handling ringworm positive cats.
I also find that allergies from outdoor cats are much worse than from indoor cats. Outside cats bring the allergens in from outside on their coats rathen than brushing dander off on the grass - they might brush off the dander but they are bringing in outside allergens on their coats.
When I was younger I had issues with poison ivy and we never knew how I was getting it as I stayed out of the bushes. Then it occurred to my doctor - our cat was inside/outside and she slept with me. She was getting the oils from poison ivy on her coat and then rubbing it onto me at night.
The fatal cat diseases aren't contagious to us.
Poor cats in your neighborhood. That poor female that is 10 and not spayed.
I'd be catching them and getting them to a shelter.

some good info here
[linkhttp://ryoko.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/pets.html]http://ryoko.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~parasite/pets.html[/link]

With the exception of ringworm i'd say it's mostly old wives tales. iv'e touched lots of strays, patted both indoor and outdoor cats and never caught anything or got sick in my life.

i think a lot of people get this information handed down to them from parents who were born in times when people had no idea what you could and couldn't catch from a cat.

what i'm mostly worried about is the poor skinny cat who keeps having kittens, is there any way you could help her?, maybe try and get her to a shelter.


felicity

Ringworm is the only one that comes to mind for me.  The name leads some people to assume it is an actual worm, but as it is a fungus, it is pretty easily transmitted by touch. We adopted a kitten from a shoddy, but well intentioned rescue some 30 years ago and that kitten had a host of maladies and nearly did not make it.  Among them was ringworm, but she started losing a lot of her fur because of it -she got very patchy very quickly so the issue became rather evident - and of the three of us who were handling her, only one of us got it somehow. 

ORIGINAL: pofi_pasquale

Ringworm is the only one that comes to mind for me.  The name leads some people to assume it is an actual worm, but as it is a fungus, it is pretty easily transmitted by touch. We adopted a kitten from a shoddy, but well intentioned rescue some 30 years ago and that kitten had a host of maladies and nearly did not make it.  Among them was ringworm, but she started losing a lot of her fur because of it -she got very patchy very quickly so the issue became rather evident - and of the three of us who were handling her, only one of us got it somehow. 

 
you learn something everyday,
 
i always thought it was a worm...it seems less gross as a fingus actually but still not good lol
 
i have two cats, pandora and bonnie and luckily neither of them have ever had it but they are both indoors only so they don't have a lot of chance to catch it thank goodness.