Can prolonged exposure to cat feces effect your health?
Posted by admin | Under Cat Health Tuesday Jul 13, 2010I have two room mates that are completes slobs. We live in a large house and they keep the cats in their room mostly, but when they open the door it smells up the whole house with cat feces. They are always caughing, I can’t imagine breathing cat poop all night is very good for you. What health problems can this cause them and maybe me?
Just smelling cat poo? Nothing harmful except it stinks. If you were to get it on you over and over you could potentially be at risk for toxoplasmosis (cat scratch fever), but it has to be direct physical contact, not smelling it. Technically breathing ammonia from the pee could cause some respiratory issues, but it would be unlikely except in an extreme circumstance where the matter was allowed to build up to a very unsanitary level.
Just smelling cat poo? Nothing harmful except it stinks. If you were to get it on you over and over you could potentially be at risk for toxoplasmosis (cat scratch fever), but it has to be direct physical contact, not smelling it. Technically breathing ammonia from the pee could cause some respiratory issues, but it would be unlikely except in an extreme circumstance where the matter was allowed to build up to a very unsanitary level.
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Cat poo could contain the protozoan Toxoplasma gondi which causes toxoplasmosis. If you are fit and well your chance of catching this disease is minimal, but for a child or pregnant woman, this disease could be fatal. It looks like there are no children or pregnant women in that place so there should be any problem. The smell of the poo alone wont cause any problem disease wise. Like the name says, you get cat scratch fever/disease from being scratched by a cat, and the causative organism is a bacterium and not T gondi.
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I am a doctor