Rabbit litter box safety. . .

[dwayne]

Hi everyone! Tony is doing wonderfully with us, we are SO glad we adopted him! He is so mellow and easy going, and loves red grapes and plain oats as a treat!! We solved the pee problem - I got a litter pan that attaches to the corner and now he's only peeing in there, yay! There are a few stray pelletts here and there in his cage, but that's cool.

My question is, I know that it's not safe for pregnant women to clean kitty litter boxes. . . what about rabbit boxes? I googled toxaplasmosis (sp??) and could only find one site that answered "how do you get toxaplasmosis" in relation to kitty litter (the rest of the sites didn't say, and figured maybe someone here would be able to tell me for sure??

Thanks!!! :hi:

I took a test and it was faintly positive, I'm going to retest tomorrow a.m. . . . kind of throws a wrench in my "life plan" to not have kid #2 until kid #1 is in kindergarten, but the idea of baby #2 arriving in October is kinda growing on me

 

[Dangerdoll]

WOOHOO!!!! what great news!!!

With the toxi..... stuff, I like to err on the side of caution with those sorts of things. It might be safe enough but myself, I would rather have no risk rather than .005%.... know what I mean?

Glad to hear Tony's doing good too!

 

[mykidsmylife]

I would think rabbit litter would not contain the toxaplasmosis, but I agree with Doll to err on the side of caution until you can speak with your OB about it. I believe that it is picked up by cats eating vermin/birds or moms passing it to kittens. Since Tony is a vegetarian and I assume his momma was too I doubt that it could happen.
We never planned to wait to have #2 until our son was in kindergarten but that was sure how it worked out. I checked out of the hospital with our daughter, rushed home to change son's clothes and took him for his first day of kindergarten all within a few hours...with his brand new baby sister to show his teacher. It was nice to have a few hours a day to gush all over the new baby with out a jealous older sibling.
Best wishes to you. Keep us posted on your morning test.

 

[Red K]

Toxoplasma is passed in the feces of cats, that's why the concern with litterboxes. It would be unusual but not impossible for a rabbit to be infected with Toxoplasma, but if you adopted this rabbit you might not know much about his history? So if you have someone else willing to clean the litterbox for you, why not take advantage of that?

P.S. You can also get Toxoplasmosis from undercooked meat. All of life's great sanitation lessons seem to boil down to 1. Wash your hands and 2. Cook your meat thoroughly.

 

[dwayne]

Thanks everyone for your advice! My husband tried to clean the 3 day old litterbox and wretched and nearly hurled (for real, I witnessed it) . . . so no, it's me or I could maybe get my brother to do it LOL! I will wear vinyl gloves, but from further investigation today I think that it would be very rare for a rabbit to carry/transmit toxoplasmos (sp??)

I took another test very early this morning, and got a positive. I bought another brand on my way to work, and took it upon arrival - again, positive. There's one more left that maybe I'll take, maybe not (who the heck am I kidding? I'll take that test tomorrow morning, lol!). . . Estimate due date 10/19/06! :dance:

 

[Dangerdoll]

you rock, girl!! congrats!!!