The Scary Way Your Cat Could Be Changing Your Personality
It goes way beyond letting her lick your face. (Photo: Shutterstock)
You probably don’t think twice about cleaning your kitty’s litter, but some new info may permanently change the way you scoop Mr. Skittles’ poop. Apparently, cat feces can contain parasites that may hold the potential to change your mood, and even your personality.
Here’s the deal: Toxoplasma gondii parasites (a.k.a cat-poop parasites) are estimated to live in as many as three billion people (almost two-fifths of the world’s population), according to a February 2015 article published in the Scientific American. In fact, if you live in the U.S., there’s a one-in-five chance that you have the parasite in you right now. We spoke to an expert to get the story on why so many cats carry this parasite—and what you can do to prevent yourself from being exposed.
How Toxoplasmosis Affects Your Mood
When the parasites get in your body (leading to an infection called toxoplasmosis), they like to hang out in your brain and actually change your behavior, says Philip Tierno, Jr., Ph.D., director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. Freaky stuff.
Research from parasitologists at Charles University in the Czech Republic suggests that people infected with the single-celled brain parasite become more self-critical, neurotic, and insecure. Infected women tend to be more extroverted, conscientious, persistent, and moralistic, while, on the flip side, infected men tend to disregard rules and be more impulsive, suspicious, and jealous.
A 2012 study in the Archives of General Psychology shows that infected women are more likely to attempt suicide, and there’s also a correlation between infection and committing crimes, says Tierno. The Stanley Medical Research Institute has even linked toxoplasmosis to schizophrenia.
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“Depending on where it lodges itself in the brain and what it’s adjacent to, you could see countless behavioral changes,” says Tierno.
(Photo: Shutterstock)
How Fluffy Infects You
Cats can catch the parasites from any prey they kill and eat, says Tierno. And their odds of catching an infected mouse is pretty high, since Toxoplasma gondii actually causes mice not to run from cats. (Yep, it changes mice’s behavior, too. This may be the parasites’ way of guaranteeing that they keep getting passed to new hosts, explains Tierno.) Even if you have an indoor cat, it’s possible that he got ahold of a parasitic mouse before you took him home from the shelter.
Once in cats’ intestines, the parasites multiply—and immature eggs, called oocysts, come out of their poop shoots. This typically only occurs for a few weeks after infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but once a cat’s infected, it’s infected for good, says Tierno.
Eventually, the cat’s immune system gets the parasites in check. However, if a cat gets sick, it’s possible that the parasites could take advantage of the weakened immune system and start multiplying again.
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Then, when you go to change the cat litter (which is fun enough in and of itself), you breathe in the eggs. Now you’re infected, too. Meanwhile, it’s possible that you could also pick up the parasite from snuggling with your kitties when any poop particles are still stuck to their back ends, says Tierno.
Generally, you won’t experience any symptoms at the time of infection, but some people report flu-like body aches lasting anywhere from a few days to a month or more, according to the CDC. After infection, the human immune system quarantines it, just like cats’ immune systems do. However, by then, the parasites are already nestled in your brain.
(Photo: Shutterstock)
How to Avoid the Cat-Poop Parasite
If you’re totally freaked about getting the parasite, get your cat tested. While there’s no cure for toxoplasmosis in cats, knowing whether or not Fluffy has the parasite can help you determine what you need to do to prevent getting it, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. If she has it, you could opt to wear a surgical mask when you change her litter. At the very least, you won’t have to smell those supposedly odorless kitty-litter crystals.
However, if you’re pregnant or trying to get pregnant, you definitely should take some litter-box precautions. First, make your partner scoop the litter every day, says Tierno, since being infected with toxoplasmosis during pregnancy has been linked to still births as well as central nervous damage in fetuses, he says. It typically takes one to five days for any eggs shed in cat feces to become infectious, so if the litter is thrown out every day, you slim your chances of infection, according to the CDC.
You can also talk to your doctor about getting tested for toxoplasmosis. Typically, doctors use a blood test to check for antibodies that respond to the parasite. While there is no cure for it, if you do have it and are experiencing any symptoms, your doctor may prescribe medications to treat aches or pains. And, if you don’t have it, you can easily prevent it.
Keep in mind that cats actually aren’t the biggest cause of Toxoplasma gondii. Eating raw or undercooked meat is, says Tierno. Other animals, such as cows, chickens, and pigs can all come in contact with and contract toxoplasmosis while down on the farm, largely from sniffing or eating cat poop.
So there’s no reason to put your fur baby up for adoption. You need her. (There are plenty of reasons cats are good for your health, after all.)
