Warning about the danger of cat litter.

So sorry that your daughter has been through so much, Lovetopaint.
Sending best wishes for her further recovery, and thanks to you for alerting us to the danger of dusty cat litter.

Am very sorry to read about what your daughter’s been through. Just awful. I hope she will eventually make a complete recovery. I also use clumping cat litter for my cat’s litter tray and have noticed with some brands (including Pets at Home’s own brand, how much the dust rises on filling up the tray). I was in LIDL the other day and bought a bag of their own brand clumping cat litter but I have yet to see how it is - for an absolute bargain price of £2 I am not expecting much, but will see…..
Re the comments made about toxoplasmosis, it is just not when one is pregnant that you catch toxoplasmosis! However, the window of opportunity is the important point and it also has to involve a cat who is habitually outside and is a hunter. If they catch a rodent (who, incidentally, will not be afraid of the cat if it is infected with toxo, therefore “allowing itself” to be more easily caught), the cat will become infected and within a few days, start to eliminate the cysts. These will not become dangerous as such in the first days and so regular emptying the litter tray means you would probably never be exposed. After a few days, the cysts undergo rapid changes in the faeces and this is when they become dangerous.
In a few cats, normally those with a serious chronic disease such as Felv or FIV, but also cats who are not in this category but perfectly well, can develop clinical toxoplasmosis if they have been messing with an infected rodent; it’s rarely seen and usually therefore missed initially off of differential diagnoses by vets. The signs are a very high temperature of unknown origin, hiding, malaise, off food, etc. If not treated immediately with the only effective antibiotic (clindamycin), the cat will be dead within a week.
Sorry to go a bit off-piste ….. but people don’t usually know if they have got toxoplasmosis unless they become immunocompromised. For pregnant women, it just makes sense to get someone else to change litter for all sorts of reasons, but it is generally thought that toxoplasmosis is usually caught by eating undercooked meat, steak tartare, things like that and that is just as important for pregnant women to be mindful of and to avoid.

Good news. Thanks for the update.

Thank you.

Oh, that's good news. I hope your DD progresses well and has no long-term effects.

Thank you all again for your good wishes for her recovery and also for warning others about the possible dangers that some cat litter can present. We spoke on FaceTime this morning and what a difference as she is now on normal hospital oxygen (the one up your nose)It was changed last night. She is so hopeful that she may be going home soon. A couple of days ago it was said another week at least was the forecast. I hope this improvement continues and she is so grateful to the wonderful nurses and doctors who have worked so hard on her behalf. She said because of them she “dogged a bullet”as she was close to death. Thank you NHS it is because of you that I still have my lovely daughter.

I’m so very sorry to hear that and hope she gets better soon. I always bought the more expensive one after I noticed the amount of dust from the cheap rubbish. Hugs. 🤗

I am so dreadfully sorry that this has happened to your daughter. You must be beside yourself with worry. I've never heard of it affecting anyone before and can't really think of anything useful to say other than to send all my best wishes to her and your family for a full recovery.

What a scary thing to happen!

I have two cats so have to deal with much cat litter; I always use a mask when emptying and refilling their trays; perhaps I should invest in the more industrial type masks. I will investigate.

Mt61

I will my husband to be careful, as he changes daughters cat lit. Awful stuff gets everywhere.
I changed a friend’s hamsters bedding, my eyes & skin were so itchy afterwards.
I hope your daughter recovers very soon love to paint x

Tell him

I will my husband to be careful, as he changes daughters cat lit. Awful stuff gets everywhere.
I changed a friend’s hamsters bedding, my eyes & skin were so itchy afterwards.
I hope your daughter recovers very soon love to paint x

When I waspregnant 40+ years ago and breeding pedigree cars I was warned by many cat people that changing litter whilst pregnant could lead to toxoplasmosis. Never heard of the issue your daughter has experienced, hope she gets well soon

Tbh I had cats for years until my daughter became allergic but I've never ever used a litter tray. Our cats always just went outside through the cat flap day and night so were never a problem, and completely clean in the house.
This is very sad and I really hope your DD makes a complete full recovery very soon. The manufacturer needs to do something about this as it's an unsafe product

This is an interesting post ….. I have always used the non clumping cheapest cat litter which indeed sometimes is very dusty. It doesn’t seem to have affected me, but it might be an idea to wear a face mask when changing it. However I took on a retired Queen about 20 months ago and she has very mucky eyes and other symptoms so I’m wondering if it’s affecting her. In future I’m going to buy the pellet type to see if that helps her.

I hope your daughter recovers quickly.
It doesn’t help your daughter sadly, but for anyone else Worlds Best Cat Litter (from Jollyes and on Amazon) is clumping, but virtually dust free. It’s expensive because of that feature but worth it for people regularly dealing with litter trays.

Thank you Catterygirl yes the whole thing is quite mad. My dd also has had and looked after cats with no trouble whatsoever.However, when she changed the litter this time she was surprised at the sheer volume of dust. She obviously absorbed this and was allergic to something in it. Like me she is also allergic to gnat bites which present themselves as large bubbles and swollen legs that had to be attended to at a hospital but nothing else as far as I am aware. The doctors asked her if she had been asthmatic as a child. Asthma was never mentioned but I was regularly at the doctors with her as she had a wheezing chest which really worried me. She then had her adenoids out.My daughter is 62 so a long time ago when puffers etc were not so common as they became over the years. Another doctor at the hospital doesn’t think she is asthmatic so that hasn’t led anywhere. So perhaps the amount of dust was the problem and her sensitivity to it. Wasn’t until my SIL told me about it being a subject discussed by a tv doctor not long ago and told me to look on line that I had ever thought about it.Allira yes better to be aware so good idea to warn your daughter if she suffers with allergies.

I’m so sorry to read this and wish her well very soon. As you will see by my Gransnet name I used to look after 30 cats in my boarding cattery. I think I must’ve become immune to anything due to the sheer volume of cats in my care. I no longer have a pet as it’s my time to travel whilst I am able.
I hope your daughter doesn’t suffer any long term effects and that I offer you a small ray of hope. I changed thousands of cat litter trays and so did my husband and son. 15 years on, no medical effects. Maybe we were lucky.

Lovetopaint who would think something so simple as changing cat litter could cause such problems, in the long-term too.
I hope she will be able to come home soon.

I have warned all the DC as two have cats and the other looks after friends' cats sometimes. She suffers from allergies so needs to be careful.

Thank you all so much for your very kind words. She was telling me tonight that she has been told she has had a brush with death. She will have to very careful if she has a cold etc.Probably have to call an ambulance at the first sign of trouble. She is still in ITU as she is on a more powerful type of oxygen. She spent most of her own nursing career in cardiac thoracic intensive career so for that reason the doctors talk to her in a very direct way as she understands what is going on. I am so glad you are spreading the word as I would hate anyone else to go through this. The dammed thing will have left her with messed up lungs.

I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter and hope she is able to get home soon. I am looking after next door’s cat next week and will be extremely careful. Our0 cat wouldn’t tolerate cheap litter (sat in front of the tray looking affronted!) so got the most expensive and thank goodness. Just off to warn DS.

I have house cats and use litter made from recycled paper. It’s clean little pellets and no dust.

Thank you for the warning . You must be beside yourself with worry , I sincerely hope she improves very quickly. What a shocking thing to happen.
We gave a cat and I use the wood pellets.
Hope today brings you better news 🙏

It’s just so awful that such an act of kindness by your daughter has resulted in this. And I totally understand why she is so upset about her dog. Thank goodness there is someone to look after it. Please keep us up to speed with how she is. I’m a total worrying ‘what if’ sort of person but what has happened here is something that no one could possibly foresee. x

So sorry to hear this Lovetopaint.

You must be so worried, Lovetopaint, especially as you can't be with her. It sounds as though she is being well looked after, but of course that doesn't stop you from worrying every minute of the day. Hopefully today she will turn the corner and her breathing will return to normal.