Cat Litter & Health Studies?

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chriscleo

chriscleo

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Normally I'd put this kind of question on Think Tank but it's not diabetes related.

Does anyone around here know of any studies done on the effect of certain types of cat litter on feline health? I'm asking because I've heard and read that mainly urban kitties get hyperthyroid and asthma, so there's a suspicion that environment plays a role.

For a while now I've been buying unscented Pestell EasyClean clumping cat litter (100% Sodium Bentonite) because it is extremely cheap: around $7 for a 40-lb bag at Pet Club where I live (San Francisco). Out of 4 senior kitties in our house (age 13+), three ended up with hyperthyroid and one of those 3 got asthma/lung cancer as well. A third cat, around age 8, is now having a periodic asthmatic wheeze. I wonder whether our cat litter is the culprit.

I've heard of hyperthyroid possibly being linked to certain sprays like lysol and other cleaning products, but the only cleaning products we use are plain vinegar, hot water with bleach and dish soap, and Nature's Miracle (enzymatic cleaner for cat pee/poo).

The Pestell litter has gotten dustier over the past few years. Now that Harry is sleeping on my pillow I'm noticing a pretty strong dust smell on his tail.

I've looked online but haven't seen anything on health issues associated with litter, but I can't believe they're not out there...
 
Is that a clay litter? Clay litters from what I know often have silica and other dusty things that can cause breathing and other health issues.

We currently use Sweet Scoop which is a wheat product. We have used pine in the past but found it got smelly quicker than the wheat. It is still dusty though. The reg. litter is less dusty than the multi cat one, and we have 4 boxes for 4 cats... so they can battle that one out lol! Another great thing about the wheat litter is that it is a lot lighter. It clumps like madness... so it's important to scoop at least once a day... if not 2x's.

It is more expensive, but the clay litters just scare me because of the silica which has been linked with cancer. I use a 1 1/2 40lb bags a month, dumping and cleaning the boxes every month and adding litter when needed. This actually might change now that Lulu is peeing less! You will prob go thru less if you have fewer boxes too.
 
"The Pestell litter has gotten dustier over the past few years."

I used Fresh Step for a long time and liked it because it clumps very well. Skip's box is in my workshop and I noticed that there was dust, not just on the floor but on windowsills, equipment, everywhere. I switched to Tidy Cats which looks like miniature bbs rather than sand; it tracks,is only fair at odor control, but is not dusty.

Breathing dust, no matter what the composition is, can't be good for our cats or for us.
 
I was starting to think that hypert was genetic. I adopted Spunky in April 1995, she was pregnant, had three kittens. I kept them all, I still have one of my sweet boys, the rest passed from hypert and complications from kidney disease.

Gett got I131 this year and now his kidneys are failing. I really think for my four it was genetic.
 
funny, i couldn't find anything when googling cat litter health problems, but in WCF suggested my searching sodium bentonite and i found a ton. didn't really see any alternatives that turned me on -- still am concerned about pesticides and bioengineered crops as well as other stuff. maybe we'll try SWeat Scoop or tidy cat. no way i can sift litter to remove dust with this bad neck of mine.

have to find something for when harry comes home from his lung operation, and i just don't want to risk dusty litter any more with his and shadow's asthma to consider.
 
As I mention on my Litter Box page, wheat and corn litters (SweetScoop and World's Best Cat Litter) are associated with asthma - at least according to one speaker at a veterinary convention that I attended a few years ago. Corn and wheat are hyperallergenic.

I am sticking with clumping clay litter. World's Best and SweetScoop are incredibly dusty and while I would love to find a completely dust-free clumping litter, I will opt for clay dust in lungs rather than corn and wheat. Personally, I think the worries about clumping clay litters are grossly overblown.
 
dr lisa, harry is scheduled to have the left cranial lobe of his lung removed on thursday morning because of what looks like an isolated mass confined to that lobe. between that and his asthma, i was concerned about having him back near such a dusty litter. even if we stick to clumping litter it sure would be nice to find one that wasn't so dusty.

i had read that you liked petco Gold clumping litter and was going to check it out but still wondering whether they aren't all getting dustier these days. the dust seems to go everywhere, which i hadn't noticed before in 17 years of having cats (ergo, clumping litter boxes) in the house.

someone mentioned sifting the litter outside beforehand, to get rid of some of the dust that way, but it isn't practical for someone with a bad neck. even if i did it a little bit at a time the cumulative job is exhausting and painful.
 
I think that I would give my right arm if someone would just come up with the perfect litter system....dust free...a normal substrate that is comfortable to walk on and dig in and bury the waste products in.....one that will allow COMPLETE removal of all urine and feces (that leaves out all non-clumping litters)...etc...etc...

All clumping litters vary in dustiness - even within the same brand. Some bags of the Dr. Elsey's are pretty darn good...others are not so good. This is to be expected since it is a natural product from the earth - complete with its variability.

The litter in the bin at PetCo is pretty decent but it does not clump quite as well as Dr. E's but is close and is acceptable especially if you scoop often and don't have allow too many 'items' to gather in the box to be broken up when more digging is done. It, too, varies in its dust level.

Obviously, hooded boxes are a no-no since they will trap the dust in the box with more going into the cat's lungs.
 
chriscleo said:
Out of 4 senior kitties in our house (age 13+), three ended up with hyperthyroid and one of those 3 got asthma/lung cancer as well. A third cat, around age 8, is now having a periodic asthmatic wheeze. I wonder whether our cat litter is the culprit.

I've heard of hyperthyroid possibly being linked to certain sprays like lysol and other cleaning products, but the only cleaning products we use are plain vinegar, hot water with bleach and dish soap, and Nature's Miracle (enzymatic cleaner for cat pee/poo).
Click to expand...

Probably there are a lot of reasons for cats becoming hyperthyroid with cat litter maybe only being one of them. Dr. Lisa has talked about soy and iodine (from salt) in canned cat foods as possible contributors on the old board (scroll down):

http://www.felinediabetes.com/phorum5/r ... msg-947642

Also in this link:

http://www.2ndchance.info/hyperthyroid.htm

Why Did My Cat Develop Hyperthyroidism ?

We are not certain yet. But here are some things we do know:

House cats did not start developing hyperthyroidism in numbers until after 1979. Curiously, that was about the time that whales and herring gulls in the St. Laurence Seaway, and cormorants in Tokyo Bay began developing similar thyroid problems. Both these areas are highly polluted with industrial chemicals. There are two chemicals that have been suspected as being the root of this problem. The most recent ones are called Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Since the 1970s they have widely contaminated our environment. PBDEs are flame retardants used in building materials, electronics, furnishing, motor vehicles, airplanes, plastics, polyurethane foams and textiles. PBDEs are found in particularly high concentrations in fish that are high up the food chain and, therefore, in sea food flavor cat foods.

The second possible culprit is a chemical called bisphenol-A (BPA) which is used to coat the inside of cat food cans. We know from a 2000 EPA study that cats that eat canned foods – particularly those that have fish flavor, are more susceptible to hyperthyroidism. The authors theorized that it might be the BPA can lining that accounted for this - but at the time the article was written, we did not appreciate the link between fish, high PBDE levels and hyperthyroidism.

It may be that, with time, pet foods will be screened for PBDEs and similar toxic substances. But for now, do not feed your cats canned or dry, fish-flavored cat foods. If you feed your cats fish, avoid fish like salmon and whitefish that are known to concentrate this chemical. Not all cats that develop hyperthyroidism eat fish products. The EPA veterinarians who conducted the study pointed out that PBDE's have become so common in our homes that it is impossible to avoid some exposure to them.

It may also turn out ,at it often does, that a combination of environmental exposure and unique sensitivity, rather than a single factor are involved. Some veterinary scientists have explored the role that iodine levels in cat food might have in contributing to hyperthyroidism and thyroid function and even soy protein in cat food has been examined.

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/132/6/1751S.full.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15141877
 
Marci and Buddy said:
I am happy with Feline Pine...no dust,no odor...has anyone heard anything bad about it?
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When mentioning FP, you need to clarify pellets or clumping.

I bought a bag of the pine clumping and immediately returned it when opening the bag. The smell of the pine oil about knocked my socks off and given that cats' noses are a gazzilion times better than ours, that litter was not a good choice for me.

That said, if you are using the clumping version it at least addresses my personal rule of only using a clumping litter so that ALL waste can be removed. Well...at least I hope that all urine can be removed but I have never actually seen how firmly that stuff clumps.
 
There are two chemicals that have been suspected as being the root of this problem. The most recent ones are called Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Since the 1970s they have widely contaminated our environment. PBDEs are flame retardants
Click to expand...

For the past several years, I have been preaching "no fish" (or very little fish) for the reason stated above.
 
Ele & Blackie said:
Chris, we use the Breeze system and there is zero dust. It is expensive though. I know several people on LL are using it too. http://www.breezeforcats.com/ There was also a post on Community about it: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=14310&hilit=breeze+litter
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This - or the SmartBox - would be a good choice for an asthmatic cat but I just can't get past the fact that they are still walking around in urine-coated pellets and a urine-coated grate on the bottom of the box....and then walking thorough my house..... and I sure can't see changing the pad only once/week (per the website) given that even a non-diabetic cat on canned food pees ~3x/day. So...that would be 21 urinations before the pad was changed. Yuck. Of course, nobody is holding a gun to the users head saying that they can't change the pad more often but that does run up the cost of using the product.

One poster on the thread noted that she did not use the pads and dumped the urine and rinsed the pan twice daily.

I hate the dust...and I hate the tracking of clumping litter. Drives me nuts....but I do so many inappropriate elimination consultations and am deathly afraid of ever having a problem with that in my own home because I refuse to ever live in a house that smells like cat pee. That is why I will stick with a substrate that my cats love and are very willing to use....and to keep grumbling about the dust and tracking.

Darn...pros and cons to every litter system!
 
There are health hazards to clay and bentonite dust for humans, as well as artificial fragrances, so I assume the risks are the same for cats. We don't use any clay here. I really like swheat scoop! It is fragrance free, clumps well, is decent at controlling odor...I just wish it was less expensive! It gets to be a lot buying it as often as we currently do with an unregulated cat.
 
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