What is being allergic to cat litter?

[Juniebee]

So the other day in class my class mates and I were talking, and somebody said he's allergic to cat litter. What does that mean ? Does that mean cat's urine, along with being allergic to cats? Or is it just the salty, grainy stuff in and of itself? Is it like sneezing, itching?

Please indulge my allergy fetish :3

[FadedRose]

I'm going to have to take a guess here but he might've been talking about the scent. Some cat litters have a really weird, strong smell, depending on what you buy. Or for some odd reason he might have been trying to snort it but in that case there would probably be something really wrong with him...

[Winged]

He's probably referring to the dust that it produces. My friend is fairly allergic to cats, but she has a Siberian and has found that she doesn't react to him at all. However she said she still sneezes when she has to clean out his litter box. 

[gingerdean]

Hard to say. Like others have said, could be the dust or the fragrance of the litter, or could be dust mites, certain chemicals, the buildup of the cat hair/dander itself inside the box...who knows. I don't think you have enough information to know for sure.

[Bondi]

When I worked at Dollar Tree stocking the shelves, I've sneezed from cat litter before when the bag had been ruptured. That stuff can be REALLY dusty.

[Juniebee]

5 minutes ago, Bondi said:

When I worked at Dollar Tree stocking the shelves, I've sneezed from cat litter before when the bag had been ruptured. That stuff can be REALLY dusty.

So it's just like...dust? Like, the same concept? It's not something *specific* to the cat litter?

Well that's a little anti climatic

[Chanel_no5]

I think there might be chemicals in some brands, that some people are allergic to. And I think cats can be too. My cats got very dry and irritated paw pads from one brand we used. It took me forever before I figured out what the culprit was, but once we changed to another, their little paws were all soft and healthy again. 

Someone I knew thought she was allergic to her cat because she got rashes on hands and arms when she cleaned out the litter box. It was so bad she considered getting rid of the cat, and since I remembered my cats' reaction, I suggested she'd try and switch to another brand of litter instead. When she did, her problems vanished. So yeah, you can definitely be allergic to cat litter, but it's probably chemicals in it rather than the litter itself. It can be made from so many different materials, and it's probably processed with very varying chemicals, and varying amounts of it as well.

And it's dusty.  

 

 

[Bondi]

@Mwsapphire Yeah, dust, and as mentioned chemicals, sounds like a likely explanation; seems like it might be more likely with the cheap shitty brands you might find at a dollar store. It's still an allergic reaction.

[Shay]

I've had issues with the fragrance in the litter that my sister uses for her cats. It was bad enough that I'd end up coughing a lot when she took the trash out of her room. It also means I can't really stay in her room for very long.

[gingerdean]

I've had to stop using a certain kind of cat litter before because of the fragrance as well. I bought a cheap, strongly-scented kind at one point, and the fragrance gave me headaches.  (I'm all but certain that's what it was, because I tend to get headaches/migraines easily from certain strong fragrances.) Now I use a different brand. I still use the scented kind actually, but the stuff I use now doesn't bother me.

So, to last part of your original question, about what types of reactions it may cause- as you've seen from the responses, it can vary quite a bit

[March Hare]

Something that us allergy fetishists tend to forget now and then is that some types of allergy don't involve the symptoms that we prefer. I suspect strongly that such may be the case with many of those allergic to cat litter - that it simply causes a rash. No fun for anyone, alas.

[Anonymouse]

1 hour ago, March Hare said:

Something that us allergy fetishists tend to forget now and then is that some types of allergy don't involve the symptoms that we prefer. I suspect strongly that such may be the case with many of those allergic to cat litter - that it simply causes a rash. No fun for anyone, alas.

Speak for yourself! I have a bit of a weird thing for rashes... not necessarily those induced by a sand meant for cat waste, but whatevs.

[gingerdean]

43 minutes ago, AnonyMouse said:

Speak for yourself! I have a bit of a weird thing for rashes... not necessarily those induced by a sand meant for cat waste, but whatevs.

Hell, yeah.   Not something that I go for in real life, but I love a good rash to spice up an allergy fic from time to time.