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Your Health and Your Pets

Your Health and Your Pets
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.24

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    antifungal, campylobacter, choriomeningitis, distemper, feces, heartworm, henselae, jejuni, lymph, rabies, respectable, ringworm, salmonella, toxoplasmosis, veterinarian, therefore
     content words:    South Atlantic, United States, Rocky Mountain

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Your Health and Your Pets
By Jennifer Kenny 		  
1     A veterinarian, or a doctor to animals, came in and spoke with William's class. Dr. Jones talked all about the care of animals. Then the class had a question and answer session.
 
2     The last question of the visit was an interesting one. Max asked, "Can animals make a person sick?" The class chuckled because they thought that was a very silly question.
 
3     "Of course not," Maria replied. "Only other people can make you sick. How silly of you!"
 
4     "What makes you ask that?" Dr. Jones asked Max.
 
5     "My mom said her brother once got sick from a friend's dog," Max said.
 
6     Dr. Jones said, "Your mother is right. Both people and animals carry germs. Some of the germs animals carry can't be spread to humans, however others can."
 
7     "For example," Dr. Jones continued, "animals can have distemper or heartworm. In fact, they are very common but they can't be spread to humans."
 
8     "So what can hurt us, Dr. Jones?" Cathy asked.
 
9     "Good question," Dr. Jones said. "Sometimes pets carry ticks and fleas that might have diseases. Sometimes people can get infections from scratches or bites from animals. Sometimes touching an animal's waste can hurt a person."
 
10     "Yuck!" the class yelled.
 
11     "What kind of infections could people get?" James asked.
 
12     "Well," Dr. Jones said. "Let's group that by type of pet. Some dogs and cats carry the campylobacter jejuni bacteria in their intestines. If a person touches water that's been contaminated with the bacteria, it can make the person have diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever. It can be very contagious and a person usually needs antibiotics to get better.

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