A veterinarian warned that pet owners should never flush their animals’ poop down the toilet, despite people thinking it’s acceptable.
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“Do not flush your cat or dog’s poop down the toilet,” wrote veterinarian Ben The Vet on his TikTok profile. In the video, Ben explained that in the frequently asked questions section of the Anglian Water website, they say that “you cannot flush any kind of animal feces down the toilet.”
This is due to the presence of “toxocara,” which is a “parasite in animal feces that is tolerant to high temperatures and adverse conditions found in the final phase of processing used water,” according to the company’s website.
“The reason toxocara is a concern is because it’s zoonotic, so we can catch it, and children, in particular, are susceptible,” Ben explained in the clip.
“Human beings are what we call intermediate hosts, which means we don’t develop adult worms in our intestines, but what happens is we accidentally swallow the eggs that hatch into larvae and these move around in our bodies.”
“One form of this in humans is called visceral larva migrans (or toxocariasis), where the larvae move into internal organs such as the liver. Another form is ocular larva migrans, where the larvae move into the eye and cause damage to the retina, potentially leading to loss of vision. There is also evidence that exposure to toxocara in childhood can reduce cognitive development and IQ.”
“Fortunately, these conditions are rare, but regularly deworming your cat or dog will reduce the chance of them releasing these eggs,” the veterinarian added. In the end, he stated that he was interested to know if anyone does this and if their opinion changed after seeing the dangers of it.
“Yes, my [dog] puppy hasn’t been trained yet, I’m not going to put [the feces] in the trash to make the house smelly after picking it up with a tissue,” one person stated. “I never thought of doing this and was really shocked to hear that people do this regularly!” commented another.
This content was created with the help of AI.
