Toxoplasmosis - Cat litter Vs Gardening
Right when I got pregnant everyone who knew I had cats contacted me to let me know that I cannot change the litter box! Even my friends who don’t have kids stressed to me the dangers of it. My very first Dr visit I was asked if I had a cat. I told my Dr, yes I have two cats and she immediately told me that I can no longer change the litter box and that Levi had to take over that responsibility because of Toxoplasmosis ( A parasite disease thats in cat feces). My cats are my responsibility and having two of them I cannot expect Levi to take care of them 24/7. My Dr didn’t even know much on the matter besides saying “Just don’t do it!”. I had to do my research on this.
Toxoplasmosis is only a cause for concern for pregnant woman who have never been exposed to it before. Once you’ve been exposed your body builds an immunity to it. But if you and the baby become exposed for the first time it could lower your babies IQ, vision problems or even death. Pretty scary to think about especially because it is mainly found in uncooked meat which if your cat has been eating uncooked meat and exposed to it for the first time as well and then uses the litter box you can then be exposed to it. That was a relief to hear because my cats don’t ever catch mice or birds but having cats my whole life that have had caught mice and birds i’m pretty sure I have already been exposed to Toxoplasmosis but I can’t self diagnose myself because there is no real way of knowing unless you get tested for it. Come to find out cat litter is not the only main source of Toxoplasmosis infection. In fact in many studies it’s not a significant source of infection. Most common behaviors of Toxoplasmosis is in gardening and working with soil. When I found that out I was disappointed because I love to garden and look forward to all my fresh organic produce every year. If you do decide to garden it is very important to wear gloves and a mask to avoid inhaling any particles. I should be having Levi do the gardening instead of changing the litter box lol. To be safe and cautious when I do change the litter box I wear gloves and also wash my hands after and even sometimes wear a face mask. One significant change that seemed to help was I changed from litter to Purina Tidy Cats Breeze Pellets that produce no dust. The information I got above I compared from “Expecting Better “ by Emily Roster and sources below:
https://aces.illinois.edu/news/truth-about-toxoplasmosis
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/toxoplasmosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20356249
