Emptying a cat's litter tray is something of a personal routine.

Where one person might completely change the litter every day another might scoop out the worst and top up. Whatever method you use, and whatever the litter, you can be sure your Cat Sitter has seen it all. But changing and scooping out cat litter trays many times a day may be putting their health at risk.

Cattery personnel work in a controlled environment with set hygeine and safety cleaning procedures that can by and large be repeated from one cat pen to another. Compared to the health and safety risks a Cat Sitter takes, providing they follow procedures the cattery worker is relatively safe.

The Cat Sitter's working environment however, and the materials they handle, change from house to house. With little or no control over these factors, it is up to the Cat Sitter to assess the risks they are taking and to mitigate them as far as possible.

Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that causes toxoplasmosis in humans. Most people who are infected with this parasite, (and this includes almost all cat owners) are not aware that they have it. For most of the time the parasite lies dormant in the body, kept at bay by the immune system.

If the immune system becomes compromised, symptoms of totxplasmosis can develope - usually as mild with flu-like symptoms, tender glands and muscle aches that may last for several weeks and then go away.

Cats become infected by eating infected small animals. The parasite is then passed into the litter in the cat's faeces. Cats faeces can remain highly infectious for up to 3 weeks followinbg infection.

People handling cat litter become infected by ingesting faeces particles via unwashed hands or by swallowing contaminated litter dust particles.

Toxocariasis

Toxocara cati is a Nematode roundworm which can be passed to humans, again via ingestion, (of the eggs of the worm). Larvae hatch in the small intestine from where they are capable of migrating to almost every other organ in the body resulting in Toxocariasis, (also known as Larval Migrans).

Mild infections may produce no symptoms. The larvae are unable to complete their life-cycle in humans and in all cases will eventually die in the body. However, before this happens, in the case of a serious infection there is the possibility of more serious symptoms. Common symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath, and wheezing and even, if the eyes are infected, loss of vision.

Most kittens are infected with Toxocara cati from their mother's milk. Cats can also become infected, again by eating infected small animals.

People handling cat litter become infected by ingesting faeces particles via unwashed hands and by handling the animals themselves.

Tapeworms

If a cat has had fleas it is likely to have swallowed some of them and is therefore highly likely to have had the tapeworm Dipylidium caninum. If you find rice grains in the litter tray or under a cat's tail, the cat may have this tapeworm parasite. This type of tapeworm cannot be passed to humans unless the person actually ingests an infected flea. Of future concern, though currently only not thought to be prevalent in the UK, is Echinococcus multilocularis which can again come from an infected cat. Evidence of infection is not so easily seen in the litter tray but symptoms of infection in humans are much more serious.