Super paranoid about next door's cat

[WorryWurta]

So about a week ago next door's cat started using the gravel next to our front door as a giant litter box. I'm 4 months pregnant and super super paranoid (as in, on a waiting list to get help for pregnancy related OCD) about all things germ/infection/parasite wise anyway and so this is a major problem. My question is, how portable is toxoplasmosis? So for example today I was waiting out front for my husband and I was eating a banana and I suddenly worried that the wind would blow the spores from the cat poop up onto the banana, hence a whole day googling airborne toxoplasmosis and freaking myself out. My husband tries to pick up as much of the poop as he can but I still worry that tiny particles might be getting trapesed into the house by me, him or the dog, which is making me super paranoid that it might be all around me getting on the carpet and in the dog's fur. Can anyone put my mind at rest? I'm embarrassed to ask a real life friend and my husband's patience is at this point getting pretty thin. I've reached a point where I can't tell anymore what's rational infection control and what's me imagining dangers that aren't there :-S

Poor you how stressful to be feeling this way. I used to have pretty bad ocd so understand how you are feeling. Thankfully I have it a lot more under control now thanks to having cbt. I remember crying in a restaurant during my first pregnancy because I ordered a steak well done but it was still pink inside and I ate some and was sure that was it for my baby. He was fine!! As long as you don't touch the cat poo u will not have a problem. I don't think it would be unreasonable for you to speak to your neighbour though to ask if they could keep an eye on the gravel patch and come pick up any poo their cat does there as you are preg and therefore cannot remove yourself. It's unpleasant at anytime to gave cat crap sitting by your front door!!

Thank you, I'm so glad you got some help and everything's ok :-)

The risk is very low but I know anxieties don't work like that and even a small risk is too much.

From a practical level, I would suggest trying to humanely deter the cat. I understand orange peel is supposed to be a safe deterrent. If you don't mind doing so, you could sprinkle some orange peel around the gravel area. Perhaps you could post in the 'litter tray' for more suggestions?

Yup so long as you don't touch it the risk is very low. Our cat had suspected toxo when I was 8weeks and fortunately hubby had been doing the litter trays. There is no risk to me unless I touched the poop itself.
Hope it helps to settle your mind

The chance that you will get it from cat poop is very, very low. Even cat owning pregnant women don't have higher rates of infection than non-cat owners. And cats are only infections up to 2 weeks after getting it, so what are the chances that those 2 weeks are exactly during your pregnancy?
But you can get tested for toxoplasmosis - a lot of people are immune.

I have three cats of my own and regularly take their poo out of the litter tray and I'm just over 7 weeks pregnant, I use nappy bags so my hands aren't coming into contact with their poo, I think the risks are very low to be honest. It is difficult to prevent cats from doing their business in your garden. Hope you manage to get some support for pregnancy ocd.

I have always had at least one cat, since I was a baby myself, and had 3 when pregnant. They are all freeroaming mouse-eating cats, so probably have all had the toxo infection at some point. I'm still negative for toxo, meaning I have not been infected ever in my life (I'm in France, all pregnant women are tested here).

Recent studies have established that contact with cats is not a significant risk factor for transmission during pregnancy. Rather, the most strongly predictive risk factors for acquiring toxoplasmosis during pregnancy are consumption of undercooked lamb, beef, or game, contact with soil, and travel outside the United States, Canada, and Europe.

See Cook AJC, Gilbert RE, Buffolano W et al: Sources of toxoplasma infection in pregnant women: European multicentre case-control study.

Wow thanks that's very reassuring!

There's not much anyone can say to you to tell you it will be fine, especially when it's OCD related.

I have two indoor cats, both of which use a litter tray which is a litter dome in our bathroom. My cats however DO have OCD, and dig their litter for about 10 minutes at a time, unless they have a litter party in the bathroom and on the landing (thank the lord I do not have OCD!) So even though my partner cleans the actually poo, I am sweeping up dirty littler on a daily basis.

I think it's very low risk to start with, i.e you'd need to let the cat poo fester for a day or more, and then literally handle it and not follow good hygeine.

Having OCD you're probably safer than the rest of us!! (Not making light of it.. just a fact) :):)

You can buy bags of lion poo from garden centres, or Amazon do it, think its called silent roar, works a treat!