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Effects of cat ownership on the gut microbiota of owners

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

#101

Post by DocTomoe »

croo wrote: post #96
teekert wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you keep it inside (where it isn't defecating in my garden, hunting my chickens or trying to get inside where I may lock it in by accident causing mayhem, etc, I'd like my pregnant wife to still be able to do gardening and also I like eating things from my garden). I live in a country where it is legal to just keep you cat outside all day. It's madness.

I must be living on the other side of the planet! Is there a place where keeping a cat outside is illegal? Poor cats :( I have a garden and sandbox for kids and the soultion for cat poop was a dog. Is there a similiar research for dogs?

Actually, keeping your cat inside should be the norm. Cats are, essentially, a highly invasive species that has been linked to massive decline and sometimes extinctions of local fauna.

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

#102

Post by teekert »

croo wrote: post #96
teekert wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you keep it inside (where it isn't defecating in my garden, hunting my chickens or trying to get inside where I may lock it in by accident causing mayhem, etc, I'd like my pregnant wife to still be able to do gardening and also I like eating things from my garden). I live in a country where it is legal to just keep you cat outside all day. It's madness.

I must be living on the other side of the planet! Is there a place where keeping a cat outside is illegal? Poor cats :( I have a garden and sandbox for kids and the soultion for cat poop was a dog. Is there a similiar research for dogs?

Where I live most people with dogs either let them poop in nature or clean it up. They certainly don't come into my garden to do their business.

Telling someone to take a huge pet with huge responsibilities just to get rid of neighborhood cats pooping in their garden is a bit of a non-solution.

But I guess, it's all funny when you own and love cats. But, please try to imagine what it can be like for your neighbors who only experience the down sides of your pet. To me there is no difference between (huge) rats or cats coming into my garden, except the government allows me to kill the rats.

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

#103

Post by nix23 »

DocTomoe wrote: post #101
croo wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be living on the other side of the planet! Is there a place where keeping a cat outside is illegal? Poor cats :( I have a garden and sandbox for kids and the soultion for cat poop was a dog. Is there a similiar research for dogs?

Actually, keeping your cat inside should be the norm. Cats are, essentially, a highly invasive species that has been linked to massive decline and sometimes extinctions of local fauna.

>Actually, keeping your cat inside should be the norm.

Not in Europe, maybe new zealand. But in Europe we had/have wildcats until we destroyed the large forests. And nearly ever farmer depends on a cat to keep vermin's in check, if you have to keep your cat inside DONT BUY A CAT.

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

#104

Post by clydethefrog »

nix23 wrote: post #103
DocTomoe wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, keeping your cat inside should be the norm. Cats are, essentially, a highly invasive species that has been linked to massive decline and sometimes extinctions of local fauna.

>Actually, keeping your cat inside should be the norm. Not in Europe, maybe new zealand. But in Europe we had/have wildcats until we destroyed the large forests. And nearly ever farmer depends on a cat to keep vermin's in check, if you have to keep your cat inside DONT BUY A CAT.

The majority of cats in Europe is city cats that demolish the local bird and critter population.

https://academic.oup.com/jel/article/32/3/391/5640440

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

#105

Post by hamilyon2 »

aitchnyu wrote: post #91
whateveracct wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you keep your cat indoors its entire life, that's not an issue to my understanding. There is a comical conspiracy theory that people only love cats because they have a brain parasite. I mostly hear it from people who think cats can't be sweet.

Why didnt scientists try to check toxo infection rates among cat-loving subreddits yet?

Now we are talking real science, finally!

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

#106

Post by spiralx »

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…

Yeah, our cat hated the vacuum cleaner at first but having seen us using it regularly she now sleeps through it even if we hoover around her. They're pretty quick to accept things when they associate it with a trusted person.

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

#107

Post by gadders »

teekert wrote: post #88
marricks wrote: post #20

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 b…

As long as you keep it inside (where it isn't defecating in my garden, hunting my chickens or trying to get inside where I may lock it in by accident causing mayhem, etc, I'd like my pregnant wife to still be able to do gardening and also I like eating things from my garden). I live in a country where it is legal to just keep you cat outside all day. It's madness.

Cats are supposed to be outdoor animals. Ours never attack our chickens.

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

#108

Post by gadders »

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.

I've always thought that sleeping with my cat improved my sleep. It's like as they're always on alert, you don't need to be.

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

#109

Post by gadders »

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…

How did that not wake you up?

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

#110

Post by basq »

rich_sasha wrote: post #99
croo wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be living on the other side of the planet! Is there a place where keeping a cat outside is illegal? Poor cats :( I have a garden and sandbox for kids and the soultion for cat poop was a dog. Is there a similiar research for dogs?

There are widely known effects of growing up with a dog on immune system strength and proneness to allergies [0]. I have never seen these associated with gut fauna, but the implication is that some of the 'dog gross' gets onto you and trains your system. [0] https://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/featu...

How odd. I spent my childhood inna constant state of hayfever. A major revelation for me was going off to university, where I was no longer around the household dogs, and my allergies all but disapated.
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