Safe Luxury

cat using horses stalls as litter box? safe?

we recently moves into a new home and a cat, that we named Charlie adopted US. (bad idea) we got him neutered and got his shots, nails trimmed and all his flea/heartworm stuff. poor guy! anyway, he is our barn cat. we put a litter box in the barn for him at first...just to make sure he wouldnt go on my tack or in the tack room floor or something. he wuickly moved up a potty ladder and started going in the horses stalls (1 and 2) if that safe? like are my horses okay to inhale that and be around the urin and feces of a male cat? he was neutered but still sprays as they are still noticable....shrinking. are they at risk of toxoplasmosis (sp?) liek us humans are? the stalls are cleaned 1-2X a day depending on how long they are in/if they are in for poor weather. thanks! a potty ladder-THE potty ladder. my failed attempt at humor :) kicking bear: he does not (that i have seen) pee or poop in the hay. he does lay on the bales sometimes but i have never seen or smelt anything when feeding. i'm actually pretty worried now! thanks you for the information though!

Public Comments

1. Welcome to the world of barn cats :-) I've never seen a prob with it
2. No problem- at every barn I've been to the barn cats either use the riding arena or the stalls as litterboxes, never seen a problem caused by it. I've never seen a barn with a litterbox. Some people might, but honestly most cats just use stalls. The horses don't care and it doesn't hurt them. Toxoplasmosis isn't actually a threat to humans either, just to pregnant women... so just guessing, since it's a threat to pregnant women (it causes a miscarriage) if you have a pregnant mare I'd keep him out of there just to be on the safe side, but other than that no problem.
3. No real threat, it just stinks and not fun to step in. A lady at my barn keeps adopting strays and now they are showing up from the neighborhood too. I swear there are more cats at my barn that horses. They are pretty worthless too. Pick up the poop and some of the wet dirt he peed on and put it somehwhere else in a pile so he can see that's where he needs to go. And if you catch him in the act, throw something at him, yell, knock him over; Not hurt him, but something to get his attention and let him know it's not ok. Oh an put the poop somewhere else with dirt, or tall flaky grass. They like to have something to burry it in (weird creatures I know).
4. The only thing they could pass to horses through their stool according to the AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners) is EPM. There has been evidence that suggests that besides opossums, cats are the biggest risk for spreading EPM. However, if you clean your stalls regularly and keep the cat from pooping on the hay too much, that should cut down the risk greatly.
5. ya its safe, it shouldnt matter,