Feeding equipment and Toxoplasmosis

in #cats6 years ago

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Feeding equipment is often one of the most overlooked utensils for your new cat, especially when you want your cat to be "one of the family" and eat from the same plates as you do. Still, it is important to think about hygiene because as mentioned in my poost before, Toxoplasmosis is a disease that can affect the fertility of a woman and is generally undetected in cats.

The most practical choices are made of hard plastic, ceramic or stainless steel. All the equipment should be easy to clean and dis-infect. Make sure you discard any chipped or cracked ceramic bowls as germs can thrive in the cracks. Any container, new or old, once allotted to the cat should be kept for use for the cat.

Most people like to feed their cats in the kitchen, but in any case, make sure to maintain strict standards of hygiene to reduce the potential risk of toxoplasmosis. Even if the area seems clean, make sure you disinfact it regularly. This might seem like an extra unnecessary step but it is important to the cat because it has a highly developed sense of smell and will reject food that has become tainted and hardened.

Likewise, it is important to keep a fresh supply of water. If you lead a busy lifestyle, then you can look into purchasing some automatic feeders, the water bowl equivalent is also available which usually tops up the water supply from a filtered reservoir.

some extra notes on Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis is present in many animals but cats are the only animals which shed the parasite in their droppings. This happens a short time after the cat becomes infected and the parasite only becomes active after 24 hours or more. Unfortunately, there are no visible signs of this disease and the illness is not detectable in the cat. Contact by humans usually has no effect if the immune system is working correctly but for a pregnant woman, there is a 40 percent chance that her baby will also be infected. Of these 40 percent, some 15 percent will either spontaneously abort or acquire some abnormality.

To curb this disease make sure you do the following :

  • Wear gloves when gardening in areas frequently visited by cats

  • Cover the children play areas when not in use

  • Empty the litter trays everyday and clean regularly with plenty of water and soap/detergent

  • Under no circumstances should you ever use the same equipment to feed the cats as you do for eating

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Such a beautiful and photogenic kitty! I just accidentally chipped one of my ceramic cat bowls which caused a small crevice in the chip. I was debating as to whether to trash it. Guess I know the answer now! Such good information in your posts! Thank you!

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