Weird question about cat cleanliness

[iheartmakeup]

Something I've been wondering lately - If my cat is cleaning herself and she licks her butt and then continues cleaning herself, how sanitary is it for me to pet her after? It seems gross to me and I'm just wondering if there are any germs or something.

Also, what about after she's been in her litter? We keep her box relatively clean but I'm just wondering if the litter or the dust would be bad for my health.

[CML2014]

Well Annie you sure covered that subject extensively. Excellent post!

You know if you smell the fur on your cat it has absolutely NO odor from their saliva. That saliva is pretty precious it even helps in healing their wounds. It is amazing. I am always brushing Meezy and she never has an odor. Hard to explain , but I really allow her to walk all over me--and she loves walking and sleeping on my head, so we have VERY close contact and SMELL? Nada>

The litter I use is called Litter Pearls--no odor, no dust, and you only have to remove the feces, the urine just gets mixed into the litter. I change the entire box only once a week.
Thanks for the info.
CML

[AnnieBrooke]

I wouldn't waste the money.

[AppleBr]

Not exactly the same matter, but since we have an expert here I wanna know something.Just met some "towels for pets" at the shop and they say it absorbs 10x more water or so .One of those "made in China" items but not so cheap for me to try and discard it.
Product must be keep slightly wet or will be rigid.Named Acrylic chamois or so
I also dont bath my babies but I would like to know if someone here already tested and if its good ...

[opus88]

Great post anniebrook:))

[AnnieBrooke]

Unless the animal cannot get it clean, a cat's (or dog's) anal area is in fact safer for touch or exposure than a human's.  This is the same reason a cat or dog can lick its anus and not get sick.  It is not that the animal has some kind of special resistance to fecal bacteria, it is that their intestinal channel is very short compared to humans' -- it can take a couple of days for food to get through the digestive system of a person, yet it takes less than a day for food to get through from one end to the other of a cat.  Thus the bacteria in the waste material does not develop to very dangerous levels, and kitty or doggy can clean itself in the rear and not get ill.  (This is sort of the same reason why, when someone is worried about getting toxoplasmosis from the litter box, they are always told by their doctor that if the feces are less than three days old they are not dangerous.)  Cats also have cleaner mouths than humans do, so if kitty keeps licking and swallowing and licking and swallowing, fecal remains would not be the problem.  (What you need to worry about there is you being allergic to the cat's saliva.)  Cats also have excellent noses, and would not leave anything on their coat that had a smell like feces.

Regarding when the cat has walked in the litter, yes, I would go yuck if my cat had a catbox in the bedroom and went in to poop and came out and jumped up on my bed.  But that is not where I keep the catbox, and again, kitties aren't going to walk in the feces in the box, nor do they touch the fresh feces when burying them. They are pretty fastidious!  That is why they need you to clean the litter box every day.  Gives them something clean to dig around in and to push over the deposit.

The other issue with litter is the dust.  I spoke to a doctor once about whether there was a silicosis issue in those expensive silica-based cat litters, and was surprised to find that there is more of a risk with the clay-based litters that shed a lot of dust when you pour them into the box, and little or no silicosis risk with the silica litters!  Go figure.  Anyway, don't inhale when you pour the new litter in the box, and try to use a low-dust product, and you should be OK.

If you have any kind of allergy issue, grooming kitty by stroking him or her with a damp washcloth is a great idea.  The cats like it, and it shines their coats, and removes some of the dry saliva too.