Boulder County family warns others after their cat tests positive for tularemia

BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) – Alice Shi Kembel is relieved that her cat named Sushi is back home and feeling better after testing positive for tularemia earlier this month.

Tularemia is a bacterial infection that can be spread by insects or wild animals and is sometimes called "rabbit fever."

Sushi is an indoor and outdoor cat that lives in rural Boulder County. In early July he killed a rabbit, then three days later became very ill.

"He wasn't eating or drinking anything. He was really lethargic," Alice said. "There were definitely times I thought he wasn't going to make it." 

Sushi spent two nights at the Veterinary Emergency Group in Boulder. At first, he was hard to diagnose, but Alice had just seen an alert from the county and a news article on KDVR.com, and asked about a tularemia test.

Lindsey Geiger at the Veterinary Emergency Group says the clinic doesn't usually test for tularemia but d...