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Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

journals.plos.org

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Re: Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

#11

Post by UncleOxidant »

knicholes wrote: post #4
gcheong wrote: post #3

"Sixty percent of cat owners sleep with their cats, which may enhance their sense of security and improve their quality of sleep" Maybe, but now only between the hours of 10pm - 5:30am, for me anyway.

In my case, it demolishes any chance of restful sleep. She literally walks all over me. She'll meow at the door if I shut the door. So it's either meows or walking. It's a ... nightmare.

Getting an automatic feeder has helped a lot. The cats used to wake us up at 3AM for food. Now it's much better. One of them still comes in at around 5:30AM to play, but that's not so bad.

Re: Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

#14

Post by bombcar »

shinymark wrote: post #10
castlecrasher2 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cruel as it may sound, you could try establishing dominance. We have a male cat who would meow EVERY MORNING sometime between 2 and 4 am. We tried many kinds of discipline, but it didn't stop until one morning I chased him into hiding downstairs and it hasn't happened since. Every morning after for about a week I would go out of my way to thank him and give him attention. I know many out there would say that running…

Not the original poster but I’m going to seriously consider this. I’m at my wits end with a male cat who habitually meows at 2 am and 5 am point blank in front of my face.

Boop him on the snoot. It’s what mama cats do to kittens.

Re: Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

#15

Post by machello13 »

0x456 wrote: post #8

Shockingly, it also has an effect on the brain microbiota of owners: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3963851/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii

From that wikipedia article:

> A common argument in the debate about whether cat ownership is ethical involves the question of toxoplasma gondii transmission to humans.[58] Even though "living in a household with a cat that used a litter box was strongly associated with infection,"[32] and that living with several kittens or any cat under one year of age has some significance,[59] several other studies claim to have shown that living in a household with a cat is not a significant risk factor for T. gondii infection. [49][60]

Re: Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

#16

Post by andyferris »

castlecrasher2 wrote: post #5
knicholes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, it demolishes any chance of restful sleep. She literally walks all over me. She'll meow at the door if I shut the door. So it's either meows or walking. It's a ... nightmare.

Cruel as it may sound, you could try establishing dominance. We have a male cat who would meow EVERY MORNING sometime between 2 and 4 am. We tried many kinds of discipline, but it didn't stop until one morning I chased him into hiding downstairs and it hasn't happened since. Every morning after for about a week I would go out of my way to thank him and give him attention. I know many out there would say that running…

They say healthy expression of anger is an important tool even in human communication, to set boundaries/etc.

Angry cats chase each other. It doesn’t necessarily imply dominance.

I wouldn’t think this is cruel - it’s just a decent way to express your feelings on the matter to your feline, and he understood/learned.

Re: Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

#17

Post by knicholes »

klowrey wrote: post #6
knicholes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, it demolishes any chance of restful sleep. She literally walks all over me. She'll meow at the door if I shut the door. So it's either meows or walking. It's a ... nightmare.

It may be frowned upon, but we communicated to our cats that meowing at the door was not acceptable by discouraging them with a vacuum cleaner. Flip the switch on the vacuum and run the cord under the door to your bed side. Upon meow, quietly plug the vacuum in to activate -- if the cat senses that you activated the device, the process doesn't work. If "the environment" doesn't want them to meow at the door, they lea…

I tried programming my arduino to trigger a servo to pull the handle on a spray air can when a sound over a threshold was detected by the microphone, but the servo wasn't strong enough. Enabling an outlet to an already-plugged in vacuum sounds good, though. Excellent...

I had plans to train a cat meow classifier so I wouldn't activate the can due to other noises, say a fire truck, fireworks, or a neighbor slamming a door shut.

Re: Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

#18

Post by cunthorpe »

gilbetron wrote: post #7
gcheong wrote: post #3

"Sixty percent of cat owners sleep with their cats, which may enhance their sense of security and improve their quality of sleep" Maybe, but now only between the hours of 10pm - 5:30am, for me anyway.

We learned years ago that our cats get put in the lower part of our house with the door closed at night. We felt bad about it, but being able to sleep all night made up for it. Quick story: for several nights, I'd wake up in the middle of the night with horrendous stomach pains. I was thinking I needed to see the doctor it was so painful. Then on the fourth night when the pain hit I woke up fast enough to notice our…

That’s hilarious. Goes to show how impossible some “debugging” is. No sane doctor would say “so your stomach hurts at night, do you own a fat cat?”

Re: Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

#19

Post by knicholes »

castlecrasher2 wrote: post #5
knicholes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, it demolishes any chance of restful sleep. She literally walks all over me. She'll meow at the door if I shut the door. So it's either meows or walking. It's a ... nightmare.

Cruel as it may sound, you could try establishing dominance. We have a male cat who would meow EVERY MORNING sometime between 2 and 4 am. We tried many kinds of discipline, but it didn't stop until one morning I chased him into hiding downstairs and it hasn't happened since. Every morning after for about a week I would go out of my way to thank him and give him attention. I know many out there would say that running…

For about two weeks I'd chase her with a spray bottle of water whenever she meowed. sigh

Re: Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

#20

Post by marricks »

Who knows what the net affect is but taking the final sentences of some of the results paragraphs makes it seem like taking care of a cat is a good idea:

> [...] Therefore, cat ownership may be involved in mediating the abundance of disease-related gut microbes.

> [...] Therefore, from the perspective of gut microbiota, our study not only supports that there might be no correlation between cat ownership and obesity but also clarifies that cat ownership can affect the structure and function of gut microbiota in NW [normal weight] individuals.

Including all of this next paragraph as it all seems good...

> Functional predictions indicated that cat ownership would lead to increased synthesis of B vitamins, amino acids and carbohydrate metabolism. Moreover, SCFA-related pathways (4-hydroxyphenylacetate degradation, TCA cycle VII (acetate producers), and glycerol degradation to butanol) were significantly increased. As the biosynthetic precursor of cofactors, vitamins play a vital role in organisms. The gut microbiota can provide various vitamins for the host [41]. Increasing glucose metabolism in the gut microbiota may be beneficial to host blood glucose control [42]. SCFAs can participate in intestinal epithelial energy supply, affect the intestinal environment (such as pH and electrolyte balance), and regulate host material and energy metabolism. SCFAs are related to the occurrence of various energy metabolism diseases. SCFAs have anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, the influence of cat ownership on gut microbiota function may affect the health of the owner.

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