A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE REFERENCE CAT LITTER
by Donna Cox of Alsoomse Pixiebobs

I would like to share my recent experience, which you may find useful information. Some people might have experienced this kind of thing already, where others might have had no problems at all, over years of having cats!

I breed Pixie-Bob cats. I have always used the wood base for cat litter. It gives off a pleasant odour, it dissolves very easily and I have never had any problems.

A few weeks ago my husband was on his way home from work when I called him and asked him to pick me up a bag of litter until I got a full order the next day as I was really low. Anyway, on the way home he couldn’t get the wood base litter so picked up a bag of grit litter, (looks like small grey stones) I never thought anything of it.

A few days later I noticed one of the younger cats was not eating her food (She was four and a half months old) I kept a close eye on her. On picking her up one morning I felt she was very hot and lethargic. So off we went down to the vets. He took her temperature, which was high, she had lost weight, was not eating and not going to the toilet. As you can imagine I was really worried. My cats, although I breed them, are my pets and I love them to bits.

He gave her two injections, one anti-biotic, one anti-inflammatory, to take her temperature down, gave me a course of anti-biotic tablets for her for five days and an appointment for a week later. After a couple of days she looked terrible, she had lost so much weight, was so hot, was in pain when I picked her up and just didn't want to move. There was no improvement.

I took her back to the vets again; they couldn't work out what the problem was so she had blood test and an X-ray. They then discovered that she had eaten some of the cat litter and this had cause a blockage. It had clumped together.

Two days later I had the vet out to the house again. By now no matter how many times my husband reassured me that she was going to be ok I could not stop the tears. Her little body was limp, I could feel how hot she was, her weight had dropped, and she wasn't walking properly.

The vet could read my mind and I didn’t have to say a word to him, I felt a little bit sorry for the poor man, I was glaring at him as if to say ‘bloody do something‘. I wanted to strangle him but it was not his fault. (I'm sure some people have felt like this from time to time?)

He changed her anti-biotic and I put her on a diet of AD food. Over the next few days I was nursing her every hour giving her food and water with a syringe to avoid dehydration, as she would not eat or drink herself. Gradually she started to improve. The day she climbed into her litter tray and had her bowls open I was jumping around the room like a woman possessed and relieved because she had passed the litter. (It looked and smelt like clay) Eventually her bowel movements went back to normal.

She is now eating well, running around the house, playing, jumping up on my lap for cuddles and is completely back to her old self in everyway and using her litter tray.

I was surprised to find that the use of some cat litter could be a problem. Having now been through this, (you live and learn), I personally will only ever use wood base cat litter.

This article is copyright © Donna Cox 2004