Pregnant women: Stay away from your cat’s poo poo!
If you are newly pregnant, you should stop scooping your cat’s poo poo litter box. Cats, particularly outdoor cats that touch dead animals, are known to carry a parasite called toxoplasma gondii. This parasite can pass from cats to humans. Most humans have immunity over these parasites; if not, it will just bring mild flu that will last for a few days. But they are very dangerous to fetuses that are in the first three months of pregnancy. This disease is called toxoplasmosis. Symptoms will not show in most mothers and babies born under this disease may be sick at birth or disease symptoms may occur weeks to years later. Signs of toxoplasmosis include mental retardation, eye and nervous system disease, deafness, lung disease, fever, jaundice and rash.
Cats shed toxoplasma gondii cysts (eggs) in their feces 3 - 10 days after eating infected meat that are infected with toxoplasma gondii. So if your cat always stays indoor and you know what he/she eats all the time (I suppose there is not any meat lying on the floor of anyone’s house!), then you don’t need to worry. But if your cat wanders outside all the time and your are pregnant, don’t stay near to your cat, at least for the first three months of your pregnancy!
April 29th, 2009 at 10:25 am
very informative article. having toxoplasma gondii is like a curse, it is better you stay away from cat’s poo poo little box