clump kitty litter is bad

My mother had taken a cat in from someone who couldn't keep it anymore. She noticed that the cat wasnt going to the bathroom and was straining. We brought her to the vet and found out she had mega colon and her intestines were impacted. My mom said that when she did go it was very hard and clumpy.
The vet kept her over night and gave her enemas and cleared her out. She was good to go the next day. She was put on medication to keep her stool soft. Well she was fine the first two days and then she got worse again. She finally passed away in the middle of the night. She was only 5 years old. The vet had no clue to why this would happen all the blood work came back fine.

My mom was using the clumping kitty litter. ( the lady who had given the cat away, used the clumping one too) I found this site http://www.thelighthouseonline.com/catmomtoc.html

It makes lots of sense.
I have three precious cats of my own. I noticed the youngest one always sneezing and her stomach was a little hard. She would also tear a lot. I decided to change the litter to a more organic type. Yesterdays news seems to be good. I will update after a few weeks to see how the cats improved.
I am so nervous now because I love my cats so much, I don't want what happened to my mom's cat happen to them.

That's exactly why I changed from clumping clay litter to World's Best - when Bijou was a baby he would sneeze every time he used his litter and at the time I don't remember where I read about clay litter getting into their system and clumping but I changed litters immediately.

MOST clumping litters are FULL of dust. I am right now trying to get mine to use the NEW Tidy Cats with Crystals. It is a larger granuals and does not seem to be dusty.

ONCE they are happy with IT I intend to put some chicken layer crumbles mixed with it. I need to make sure though that the crumbles do not have any antiobiotic in them and are just pure. They are just like WBC but less expensive and no dust. You buy them in a feed store.

Many people on holisticat are using this and it seems good as my one cat has a tendency to cough.

It WONT impact them though UNLESS they eat it!

Yeah...my friend had a tiny rescued kitten and was using donated clumping kitty litter. The little kitten had several intestinal infections and had chronic diarrhea at first. Then, it suddenly had firm stool and THEN, it became impacted!! She found it late that night and it was almost dead, and it's little tummy was hard as a rock. The Vet asked what type of litter she was using? Yep, it was the clumping litter! The kitten was cleaning it's paws off and swallowing the litter too, and it was then, clumping inside it's intestines!
It very nearly died that night, and the next day too. But, the Vet walked her through it all, and she got the little kitten all better. We named that little kitty, Trooper, and it is now a VERY healthy BIG kitty boy!!!
But, neither of us will forget that terrible time, when that little kitten was yowling in pain, from the clumping litter inside it's poor little tummy!!!

Originally Posted by MyBabies

MOST clumping litters are FULL of dust. I am right now trying to get mine to use the NEW Tidy Cats with Crystals. It is a larger granuals and does not seem to be dusty.

ONCE they are happy with IT I intend to put some chicken layer crumbles mixed with it. I need to make sure though that the crumbles do not have any antiobiotic in them and are just pure. They are just like WBC but less expensive and no dust. You buy them in a feed store.

Many people on holisticat are using this and it seems good as my one cat has a tendency to cough.

It WONT impact them though UNLESS they eat it!

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the chn feed is usually antibiotic free ... just read the bag... I try to get the ones without any oils added

I'm a little confused...I thought everyone uses clumping litter..If you don't use the clumping kind, then how do you scoop the pee out of the litterbox?

I have never heard of any problems with it before this thread.

Is it just the clay kind? Or ALL clumping litters?

clay can cause issues... I have tried non clumoing litters ( most recent yesterday news , it works but I dont like it and the cats dont

I have heard this about clumping litter. That is why I changed to wheat.

I've heard that you shouldn't use clumping litter with very young kittens b/c of this problem. When my babies were younger I kept a very close eye on them to make sure they weren't eating the litter- they never did, but I never had a cat younger than 12 weeks. I've never had any problems with clumping litter myself.

Originally Posted by zak&rocky

I've heard that you shouldn't use clumping litter with very young kittens b/c of this problem. When my babies were younger I kept a very close eye on them to make sure they weren't eating the litter- they never did, but I never had a cat younger than 12 weeks. I've never had any problems with clumping litter myself.

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Exactly. What breeder wouldn't know that, and would continue to use the litter after losing the first one? Sheesh - that's in just about every cat care book or magazine I've ever seen.

I did some research on this several years ago and found this to be true. We switched to Swheat Scoop, and it was okay, but now we use World's Best. I've also heard that horticultural cornmeal works well and is naturally clumping, not to mention cheap in a 50 lb bag!

Stephanie

Never had any issues or concerns with clumping litter. Been using it for 8 years. Zero problems.

How do you scoop the pee in non-clumping litter? I really hated the smell and messiness when I used non-clumping.
I've never hada problem with the clumping, but use a mix of types, not just clay.
Is it the clay that's so bad, or can this happen with corn or wheat based clumping litters too?

Originally Posted by pushylady

How do you scoop the pee in non-clumping litter? I really hated the smell and messiness when I used non-clumping.

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It's impossible to scoop pee in non clumping litter which is why I buy Catsan Hygiene Litter - it absorbs odours before it has a chance to develop. I scoop their poo and just change their litter every 2-3 days. The litter tray is lined with a liner so when it's time to change, I just simply lift the liner - easy!

I've been "testing" Swheat Scoop for the past month, because I like the whole concept of litter made of "renewable resources", but will be switching back to clay litter this week. Jamie will only use clumping litter, and SS has far more dust than the betonite litter I was using before, and makes him cough. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't clump very well. World's Best isn't sold here, and he refused to use the paper/wood chip litters that are.
Young kittens shouldn't be exposed to clumping litter, period, so I have some problems with the article in the link provided by the OP. Common sense should have told her not to use the stuff, and any cat care book would have. Kumbulu has a great deal of experience with very young kittens, and she uses chicken feed.

I use the generic Petsmart brand of pine pellet litter. I put a pick up bag over my hand and pick the poops out every day, and tie up the bag and toss it in the trash, and I stir the wet litter in witht he dry litter with a paint mixer stick. Once every 10 days or so (when I start to notice a pee smell) I dump all the litter out and wash the box and put fresh litter in it. I've been using it for about 4 months now and we love it.

Amber

I think whats confusing to people here is the clumping litters are fine (World Best, Swheat Scoop, others), its clay based litters that are a major problem.

I've used the clumping litter for years with no problem. I suppose if you have a kitten/cat that tends to "eat" it, there would be problems, but so far (knock on wood) I've never had a cat get sick or die since using clumping litter.

Originally Posted by SolarityBengals

I think whats confusing to people here is the clumping litters are fine (World Best, Swheat Scoop, others), its clay based litters that are a major problem.

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That's what I was thinking as well. I love clumping litter but I would never use clay based litter again for our precious blue eyes.

I have a question....I used clumping clay litter at first, but very quickly switched to swheat scoop after finding this site. When I would take Marlee home with me to my parents house for visits I would just use the non-clumping clay litter that was there for my parents cat. After the first visit there, she really dislikes the swheatscoop and seems to like the non-clumping clay litter. The way I know this is I brought the rest of a bag of the clay litter home, and had that in one box and swheat scoop in the other. She didn't use the swheat scoop box at all until I dumped it and put in the clay litter. Is this non-clumping clay litter bad for her?