Does anyone have actual, first hand knowledge of any medical problems caused by clumping litter?

Question

Please read this in its entirety before you respond!

I am not looking for references to information on the internet about supposed dangers of using clumping litter with cats or kittens.

I want only personal experience where you had a cat or kitten get sick or die because of clumping litter and there was quantitative evidence that clumping litter was the cause.

Again - I'm not looking for references on the internet or in the literature about the supposed dangers of clumping litter.

Only reply if you have first hand, personal experience of problems with a cat or kitten caused by clumping litter.

I am not looking for anecdotal evidence, I am looking for solid objective evidence of a problem.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Yes yes yes!l made the mistake years and years ago of using clumping litter with a kitten with the result it unfortunately digested some and subsequently did not die as was quick to diagnose the problem and although work for a vet it took a lot of clearing the stomach and bowel to cure this kitten.
It is your choice loads of people use it for adult cats with no issues l never touch it for any of my cats and use Breeders Choice which may be another name for it in the States but made up of small balls of use printed newspaper but needs changing everyday whereas with clumping litter you do not have to change everyday  merely the job left by cats and to me a lazy smelly way of having kitty litter

Ruby · Answer

I am not sure what exactly you're looking for, as you say you want personal experiences, but not anecdotes. I'll bite anyway.

Yes, I have had personal experience in clumping litter harming a kitten. My trainer had an unspayed barn cat wandering around and it produced a litter of kittens. My trainer kept one of the males as a housepet. 

The kitten, for reasons unknown to us, ingested a large amount of clumping litter from the box. My trainer took the kitten to the open ER vet as recommended by the horse vet who was out at the barn at the time. The reasoning was a blockage could form in the kitten's gut.

Our veterinarian recommends non-clumping litter until kittens are twelve weeks old. I have not seen any scientific evidence or studies that say that clumping litter should not be used with kittens under twelve weeks, but I always err on the side of caution anyway.

Here is an article by the ASPCA regarding different types of litter.
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/cat-litter.html

naps_with_cats · Answer

I have only had a problem with my first litter of baby foster kittens -they didn't tell me what kind of litter to use and since I use clumping for my cats, I used it for the kitties.  Because the clumping litter gets totally stuck on their paws and they lick it off, there was some diarrhea. 

Have never had a problem with clumping litter with adult cats.

God Lives in Me · Answer

I used clump litter and I noticed that it got stuck on my cats paw and they would eat it off. The litter has a lot of chemicals and I didn't want my cats eating threm, so I switched to a sandy kind of litter.

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Does anyone have actual, first hand knowledge of any medical problems caused by clumping litter?

4 Answers