Yesterday's News

Artemis is being treated for feline asthma. She loves to roll in the litter box, and I've read that the silica dust in clay litters has been implicated in feline asthma. So I decided to switch to as dust-free a litter as I could find, and I choose Yesterday's News.

My cats think it is a toy. I've got one litter box with mixed clumping clay & Yesterday's News, and one box with just Yesterday's News.

Has anyone else had trouble with cats playing with, instead of using, Yesterday's News? How does one train them out of playing with it? It don't want to say "No" because I want them to be in the litter box; just not picking up the pellets with their paws and mouths!

Would it be better for me to have a mixture of both litters in both boxes, instead of (currently completely unused) box of just Yesterday's News.

Also for Yesterday's News users: how do you find feces amongst the big brownish pellets?

Are you certain you're using Yesterday's News & not Feline Pine? Yesterday's News is greyish..... FP is brown. You'll want to start mixing 1/4 YN & 3/4 the litter you currently use. Slowly over several weeks switch them over....they have no clue that's litter & not a toy!

I use Yesterdays Mews and Sasha and Oreo do play in it. I used it for Coco first because her Asthma. Most litters make her sick. Now I use it for all my Cats. The Pellets are Grayish and we never have a problem. We have been using it for years. Your Cats will use it. I just hate it when Sasha goes in the pan just to play with it.

As I said, I do have one box mixed (mostly clumping clay, some Yesterday's News).

Yes, Yesterday's News is greyish, but I have had some trouble finding the feces in the mixed box (and finding the two pellets of feces I put in the Yesterday's News box to try to communicate with my cats what it was for). Honestly, I'm used to sifting, so I just don't know how to find feces when I can't just sift them out. I'll get used to it, I'm sure, I was just wondering if anyone else had some pointers.

It is good to hear that cats that play with it can learn to use it (even if they may never stop playing a little bit with it).

I'd use a mix till they are more used to the pellets. Gradually keep adding more pellets till they are going in it all the time.

We are using wood stove pellets now. They don't have a problem with playing with them cause they are used to the Feline Pine pellets.

Not to take away from the "wood" based litters (personally I am facinated people get the wood pellets to work)

But dont forget there is a world of "grain" based litters. You got Swheat and World Greatest Cat Litter (made with wheat and corn respectively)

Also I find out here today that if you have access to farm supply stores, you can get Chicken feed and use that to cut the way expensive pet store products (Swheat is 35$ for 40 lbs, chicken feed is 10$ for 40 lbs)

now to prefice, I have only been using Swheat for one week and have never tried the chicken feed (my boss who lives in farm coutnry is going to grag me a bag).

But I cant express how happy I am to get my cat off clay.
Clay discusts me in how it sticks to everything, makes me madder when it gets in my cats water.
I would also feel ignorant throwing it out, it has almost zero potential for recycling.

I haven't tried Swheat and WBCL because, as Sakura asked in another thread, I'm worried about the allergy potential of wheat and corn. I figured, for a cat with respiratory problems, getting rid of dust entirely should be the goal.

Originally Posted by Enuja

I haven't tried Swheat and WBCL because, as Sakura asked in another thread, I'm worried about the allergy potential of wheat and corn. I figured, for a cat with respiratory problems, getting rid of dust entirely should be the goal.

Click to expand...

Who has the alergy? you or the cat?

And what exactly is that alergy called?

BTW I did not find it dusty at ALL, at least when compared to clay. Just recently I changed to a super premium clay litter (something with the word precious) and I was in love with that because it made barely any dust at all (when pouring it in). The granules looked much larger.

The cat, not me, has a (fairly tentative, primarily treatment based) diagnosis of feline asthma. Feline asthma is (usually) an allergy issue; the cat is allergic to something in the lungs, the bronchi swell up, and therefore close during exhalation (when there is negative pressure in the bronchi), causing breathing difficulties.

My cat Artemis had a X-ray somewhat indicative of feline asthma and is responding to prednisone (a corticosteriod, which are usually used medically because they reduce inflammation by inhibiting immune system function). However, she's really hard to dose and even though cats are supposed to be resistant to corticosteroid side effects, I really don't want to be dosing her with a drug that has lots of possible long term side effects. (Human asthma treatment is usually with a corticosteriod inhaler, so the corticosteriods are delivered the tissue that needs them, not to the body as a whole.)

So, if litter dust is the issue, I want to get rid of it, and cure my cat by environmental instead of medical treatments.

I went to PetCo and looked at all of the litters they had. I was going to buy a small bag of WBCL and a small bag of Yesterday's News, but my spouse convinced me to buy a large bag of Yesterday's News. I think I'm glad of this, because if I'd had small bags of both, I wouldn't be trying very hard to transition my cats to Yesterday's News.

I did see some small pieces of Yesterday's News in the bottom of the YN-only box this morning, and the bag only says 99.7% dust free, so I'm worried that even this litter isn't dust free only. (The YN-only box was still urine and feces free.)

But I'm going to give my cats quite some time to transition, and see how well this works.

Coco has bad Asthma sometimes. I use the unscented Yesterdays Mews for her. I have not tried the Wbcl but am thinking of trying it with my other Cats.
When Cocos Asthma gets real bad she gets a Depo Midrol Shot or Pred Pills. The Vet dosent like to give the Shot more then every 6 Months because the side effects. do you need to know anything about Feline Asthma? Coco has had it for years. she is also Allergic to alot of thinks.

The Yesterday's News only box was used for urine the other day, and the mixed box is getting closer to 1/2 and 1/2 (there is still more clumping litter in it, but not much), so I'm now quite optimistic that both cats will happily be using YN in a month or so.

mews2much, so you only get Coco dosed at the vet, and a shot every six months provides good control on Coco's asthma? That's an interesting direction to go, because dosing Artemis is actually getting more difficult, not easier. I've been missing doses, and she's started coughing again, albeit not nearly as much as before I started giving her corticosteroids at all.

My vet wants me to try to go down to dosing her every other day, but he wants me to do that AFTER I've been successfully dosing her every day and she's had no symptoms at all for around two weeks. Those events do not currently seem likely.

My Shellbie was diagnosed wtih asthma when she was three and a half months old. I hated having to give her the pred, so I know how you feel. Fortunetely, she outgrew her allergy, that's my only guess.

I went from having to dose her daily, to everyother day, to 2-3 times a week, to as needed, over the course of about a year to a year and a half. Last year, she needed just 1/2 a pill once in the summer when she had a coughing fit.

Like you, I was very concerned about the litter due to the dust. I tried several, including Dr. Eisleys, sweat scoop, and Feline Pine. Now with her not having problems anymore, I was able to switch back. I seem to remember liking the Dr. Eisleys the most out of all of them.

I don't have anything constructive to add, I just wanted to wish you my best, I know how difficult it was, and how much I wanted the best and worried for my girl.

No Coco dosent get the Shots all the time. Her Asthma gets real bad sometimes. Coco had to take Pred before and then we had to taper down. Cocos last Depo Shot was in Aug when her Asthma was very bad and out of control. You may be able to go down on doses. I never thought Coco would get off Pred but she did. She has been coughing again but she dosent need Pred right now. She only gets the Shot when its real bad. Its not good to give it all the time.

The cats are using the box that contains only Yesterday's News occasionally, so this morning I increased the amount of YN in the mixed box to over 3/4 of the litter.

The litter-tracking problem has certainly been reduced in my house, but I'm seeing a small number of YN pellets absolutely everywhere. I don't know if the cats are carrying them around the house, or just batting them around the house, or if the pellets are actually being tracked somehow. I think I'll prefer living with the occasional pellet on the floor to small dusty grains everywhere. I curious; those of you who use YN; do you find it around your house like I'm starting to?

Just to put more information in the thread in case people search for "Yesterday's News" and this thread comes up...

My cats are fully and happily transitioned to Yesterday's News. Of course I don't yet know if it has helped with Artemis's asthma or not. They are still playing with it a little bit, but not much, and they are very easily and willingly treating it as litter.

I'm still new to the non-scooping non-clumping universe. So far, I haven't noticed a smell. I'm getting pretty good at finding the poop. It's not as easy as with scoopable litter, but I just shove the litter from one side of the box to the other, and I find the poop pretty easily, paying the greatest attention where the litter topology indicates poop or urine is likely to be (under mounds, of course). I've also been able to scoop out some areas of wet, swollen YN pellets, but I think I simply don't notice urine areas I scoop after the urine has dried. I think the urine dries more quickly in the box with less YN (shallower), but I don't yet know if drying quickly or drying slowly and removing wet areas is the better strategy. Right now I'm thinking I overfilled the one box, and shallow is better, but I'll decide later.

My backpacking toilet-hole digging trowel seems to work pretty well to go through the litter with, but the old scoopable litter sifting scoop also works well, albeit not to its original specification.