Cats laying on your pillow?

happyhendrix

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Is there anything wrong with this? Can it cause any diseases in us from their "bacteria" as my BF likes to put it? He is worried my kitten, sleeping onour pillows while we sleep made him sick. He has some kind of ulcer or something wrong with his stomach. I am just curious is it possible, cause I think if it were we would have heard that along ago. Right?

I personally see nothing wrong with my kitten on my pillow, I would love for both my cats to be on my pillow and bed.
 

meow meow

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Not sure what bacteria he is referring to but you definately might get cat hair up your nose.
 

purrpaws

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Polly enjoys sleeping on my pillow, and we haven't had a problem.

If your husband has an ulcer, he most likely caught it from you. The bacteria that causes ulcers is usually transmitted human-to-human.
 

jen

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my cats all sleep on my pillow especially 2 of them in particular and one sleeps right next to my face on the pillow. but seriously, I have 7 cats who all do this and I have never gotten sick.
 

gizmocat

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Gizmo regularly sleeps on a pillow on the bed, and she walks across mine and I'm no sicker than usual. Of course Gizzy is a fastidious cat who wipes her feet carefully on the mattress side, or the carpet, before jumping into bed. But she's never tracked anything unpleasant, and if I'm living with the cat I have to assume she's getting into the stuff I use around the house.
I don't think we can catch anything from cats except rabies and ringworm, and both are unlikely to be found on an indoor cat.
 

catsallover

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I have never heard of anything like that happening, and our cats have been sleeping with us for almost 15 years now. The only thing my husband complains about is having white cat hair in his nose
in the morning
!
 

gizmocat

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I've found cat whiskers inside my pajamas! That took me back a bit, but obviously Gizzy burrows under the blankets during the day and loses the occasional whisker, and the flannel pajamas pick the hairs up!
 

icklemiss21

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Cat hair on the face is about the worst thing I have got and all four of ours have slept on the pillows at some point each day.

The thing my BF does complain about is the flattened pillows
 

bab-ush-niik

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Technically, you can get diseases from your cat. You can even catch salmonella, no kidding. However, it's rather unlikely. Princess slept pretty much on my head the entire time I was growing up. My grandmother would tell me old wives tales about how this would cause me to be allergic to cats, but I had no problems.

Only exception I think would be if you are pregnant or immuno-compromised.
 

yosemite

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Bijou sleeps with his head on my pillow and his face pressed against mine. So far I've not had any serious side-effects.
 

neetanddave

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Mine sleep on the pillow, under the covers, on my hip.... like you can make them stop!
Never heard of anyone getting sick from it though...
 

cathyc

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It's been many years since I've had a pillow to myself. There's always at least one cat and my chihuahua on it. Have never had any problems. I had a boyfriend a long time ago that freaked out when he saw the cats and my chi on the pillows. He thought it was totally disgusting....I knew he wasn't the guy for me!
 

gizmocat

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It's no worse than finding my own hairs on the pillow. I shed worse than the poor cat does. Human dandruff and skin flakes make up most of the house dust, so there is a strong chance that Gizmo is allergic to me.
 

katiemae1277

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I thought ulcers were caused by an overproduction of stomach acid, related to stress or something, I didn't think they were caused by bacteria at all
anyway, I have 7, count 'em 7!! cats who regularly sleep with, uh, on me
plus my lhasa and I'm usually pretty healthy, at least no ulcers. The only I deal with is, like other posters have said, cat hair up the nose
 

soka

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Other than getting a nose full of cat fur, having a tail whip you in the face, or having the cat's whiskers tickle, there is nothing wrong with it. I've never gotten sick from having ANY animal share my pillow. I've had birds sleep on my pillow, dogs, and cats. Your pillow is probably more dangerous on its own (being covered in dead skin cells and dustmites)
 

bluemum

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I don't mind when Byron hops up to say hello and sits on the pillow, but I do mind when he positions his tush an inch away from my face sometimes!


That said though, he's not a big shedder and he's very fastidious about cleaning himself -- I do push him off if I know he is straight from the litter box because I am allergic to dust.
 

lookingglass

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8-Bit wedges himself between the wall and DH and I's heads. I've never gotten sick from it. The only ill effects I've ever had was a swat to the nose when snoring!
 

purrpaws

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Originally Posted by katiemae1277

I thought ulcers were caused by an overproduction of stomach acid, related to stress or something, I didn't think they were caused by bacteria at all
This is what they used to believe.

However, it's now known that ulcers have two causes. One is blood thinner and aspirin therapy, like for heart patients. The other is a little bacterium called Heliobacter pylori. Scientists think it has little pumps to pump out stomach acid and allow it to survive in the stomach. In fact, when the scientist discoverd the bacterium, no one believed him. He had to ingest some of the bacteria himself and then take antibiotics to clear it up. No kidding!

Sorry, I've totally gone off on a tangent here!
 

katiemae1277

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Originally Posted by PurrPaws

This is what they used to believe.

However, it's now known that ulcers have two causes. One is blood thinner and aspirin therapy, like for heart patients. The other is a little bacterium called Heliobacter pylori. Scientists think it has little pumps to pump out stomach acid and allow it to survive in the stomach. In fact, when the scientist discoverd the bacterium, no one believed him. He had to ingest some of the bacteria himself and then take antibiotics to clear it up. No kidding!

Sorry, I've totally gone off on a tangent here!
Huh! Well, I learned something new today!
 
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