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[teabagging]

I'm curious about the disease Toxoplasmosis. Is it only transmitted if you come in direct contact with cat feces, NOT just by smelling it? My apartment is tiny and the only place to fit a cat litter box is in the bathroom in my bedroom. My cat was a previous outdoor cat, and I just want to make sure i'm not in any danger of hurting my unborn baby.

Comments

[nectarines]

I think technically you could get infected by inhaling litter box dust that was in contact with infected feces. But you'd have to REALLY inhale it, like stick your face over the box while you were cleaning it and take a big whiff. Smelling it from afar should be okay.

[x_kelsey_kaye]

I read that most of the time, if you've had cats chances are you've already gotten it and your immune to it. It's mostly if you get like a new cat while your pregnant. But...idk. I've had cats for years, outside ones...our litterbox is in the bathroom too and I've been okay up to this point.

[baby_number1]

There is a test you can have done to see if you have had it. I had the test done figuring that I would have had it since I have had cats since I was born, and have been cleaning cat boxes since I was about 7, but I did not, so no cat box cleaning for me! Not a good thing to just assume because you have had cats forever.

[mylittlepumpkin]

The same with me I use to rescue cats so I was SURE I had been exposed years ago but nope.

[darlingmiette]

If your kitty was previously an outdoor cat, you can have him/her routinely tested and then treated for toxo. Obviously keeping him/her indoors is essential afterwards (so important for many other reasons, too!), but you are probably doing that already

[alison_in_oh]

If you look at the toxoplasmosis tag, the last post on this subject was answered very thoroughly by a veterinarian!