Do Not Flush Cat Poop Down Your Toilet

Getting rid of your cat’s waste every day can become a chore, and while flushing it down the toilet may appear to be a convenient way to get rid of cat litter, it is not. This can clog your pipes, damage your septic system, and even cause disease in humans and aquatic life.

However, why is this a bad idea when several cat litters are advertised as being safe to flush down the toilet? This is due to a number of factors.

1. Cat Litter Can Clog Your Plumbing

When wet, most cat litters expand up to 15 times their original size and absorb moisture. Even if the litter has already absorbed some liquid from your cat’s litter tray, it is likely that it will expand even more once it enters the waste system.

If you use clay litter, it hardens when wet and becomes as hard as cement.

Consider how difficult it is to remove used litter from a tray when it hardens and sticks – now imagine this in the depths of your plumbing! Especially emergency plumber exeter…

This is likely to cause pipe blockages, potentially resulting in flooding and an expensive plumber callout.

Depending on how clogged the pipes are, you may need water jetting to clean them or, in the worst-case scenario, you may need to replace sections of pipe.

2. Cat Poo Poses a Health Risk to Humans

Cats can carry the microscopic parasite Toxoplasma Gondii, which can cause serious health problems in some people.

Most of the time, the majority of healthy people’s immune systems will prevent the parasite from causing illness. However, for those with a weakened immune system, this can lead to serious health problems. Pregnant women are especially vulnerable, as exposure to the disease can result in birth defects such as brain damage or even miscarriage. This disease has also been linked to a number of mental illnesses.

If a cat becomes infected (usually by eating meat containing Toxoplasma cysts, such as an infected bird or mammal), it will most likely not show any symptoms but will excrete the parasite’s eggs (called “oocysts”) in their feces for 1-3 weeks. The cat’s immune system will quickly stop the parasite from reproducing, so they will not excrete the particles after this point.

These oocysts take about 5 days to become infectious, but they can survive for up to 18 months or longer in the right conditions, at which point they can be transmitted to other animals or humans.

Because the UK’s water and sewage systems aren’t designed to kill off this parasite, flushing your cat’s poop down the toilet allows the parasite to enter the environment via waterways and infect anyone who comes into contact with it.

Although this is more of an issue with outdoor cats because indoor cats are less likely to become infected with Toxoplasma, it is not impossible for indoor cats to become infected. Because it is impossible to tell whether or not your cat is infected with the parasite. It’s best to err on the side of caution and always dispose of your cat’s poop in a different way. The best way to dispose of your cat’s waste is to place it in a biodegradable bag and throw it away.

3. Cat Poo Can Be Harmful to Aquatic Life

Flushing cat poop down the toilet not only exposes humans to the parasite, but it also increases the risk to aquatic life.

Toxoplasma parasite has been linked to the deaths of sea otters, dolphins, seals, and whales, according to research. This is thought to be caused by waste water entering the sea and carrying oocysts, which are then consumed directly by mammals or indirectly by smaller creatures such as snails and crabs, which are then consumed by larger mammals.

It has been discovered that not only does it kill them outright, but infected sea otters are at a much higher risk of being attacked by a shark. Do you really want to be the one who causes a cute sea otter to be eaten by a shark? If not, do not flush your cat’s feces down the toilet.