Paranoid moment about cats

[Neverme]

I dont have cats but currently staying with someone who does. Yesterday found a little cat poo on stairs so picked it up with lots of loo paper and flushed it down the loo. I'm sure I washed my hands too. But I remembered there is some sort of disease that pregnant women can pick up from cat poo? Tell me this brief exposure won't have done any harm? These cats don't have litter trays btw, they are outdoors a lot of the time

I hope not as I did my cats litter tray the morning of my BFP. Hubby is now chief poo-get-ridder-of. You washed your hands and didn't touch the actual poo. Just don't do it again! :-) if you are worried mention it to your midwife ssh I think they can test you to make sure.

Don't worry. Toxoplasmosis is only a problem during a certain time in your pregnancy, and you would only pick it up from a cat who happened to just have caught it. You are more likely to get it from unwashed salad. It sounds like you were very careful anyway. People are way too worried about this.

It's true, I have 2 lil kittens (one who poops everywhere)...I'm only about 6 weeks. As long as the cat doesnt have toxoplasmosis its ok. I do the majority of the litter cleaning as dh hates our cats, I wear gloves, thoroughly wash my hands after with anti-bac soap and disinfect their litter tray every day. A friend of mine got rid of their cat when she was pg for the same reason but there shouldnt be any reason to worry.

I live in France where rate of toxo in the population is much higher but rate women catch toxo during pregnancy is about the same as the UK. Rates have dropped dramatically in France since the 1960's because the principal source of contamination is poorly cooked meat, not cats. Pregnant women now largely avoid under-cooked meat and rates have dropped from 60 to about 13 in 1000 pregnancies.

You can catch toxo at any point during pregnancy. Catching it early means baby will probably not get it (but if it does, health consequences are greatest), the later you catch it the more chance baby also gets it but the severity of health consequences is less.

As you didn't even touch the poo, I really can't believe there was any risk involved. If you are very worried, I believe you can pay for a test.

I wish there was less hysteria over cats and more people worried about under-cooked meat as this is the main source of transmission. I'm currently pregnant and seronegative so I don't touch the cat's litter tray or pick up poo if I can help it. When I do, I clean thoroughly like you did OP. I never, however, eat under-cooked meat or charcuterie that has not been cooked.

We have sheep too by the way (for any pregnant sheep owners) and there also exists a risk of transmission at lambing time.

Thanks all. Am 20 weeks. I figured there would be some feline lovers out there who wouldn't be giving up their cats just because of pregnancy. Well these cats looked pretty healthy so hopefully they haven't got toxo whatdoyoucallit