Safe Disinfectant

[Guest]

I am picking up a new kitten this weekend. When our older cat died, he had been very ill for over a year with a thyroid tumor. I felt that between his zillion visits to the vet and how sick he was at the end that he could have "contaminated" things. He has been gone a little over a year, and we got rid of his cat trees and things that would have been difficult to clean, but I kept his carrier.

What I want to know is how to sanitize the carrier and make it safe for the new kitten -- without the chemicals that would hurt him either. If it is aired out for a week after I clean it would the chemicals be "gone"?

Thanks,

Linda

[Traci]

Linda, first let me express my condolences over your recent loss, I'm so very sorry, it sounds like you went to the ends of the earth for your kitty.

As for disinfecting, the most effective is bleach and water. It's highly doubtful your kitty could have brought into the home a virus from the clinic, due to his suppressed immune function, he probably would have been infected himself and your vet would have determined that.

In any event, simply rinse the carrier, use a solution of 1:32 bleach/water to clean inside and out, then rinse thoroughly with clean water and let air dry overnight. Be sure to also pay attention to the grates and corners, etc on the carrier.

Please get your new kitten examined immediately upon acquring him. If you're getting him from a private source, you can't gaurantee his health status or vaccination history or anything else without proper vet records from the previous owner. Even if they did produce them for you, it's always best to have new adoptees fully examined by your own vet before bringing home (especially if you have other pets), this also includes shelters, one shouldn't ever assume their newly adopted has been fully examined, tested or treated. Discuss with your own vet deworming, testing for FELV/FIV, discuss a vaccination schedule, and dietary needs.

Congratulations on your new addition

[Guest]

Wow, just bleach and water. That sounds too easy to be true. Thanks so much for the advice. My new kitten comes with vet reports, and I have already spoken to my vet to arrange a visit.

Linda

[Traci]

Yes, bleach and water can disinfect most viruses (commercial cleaners like pinesol, lysol, etc won't completely eradicate an infectious virus)....because most can live in a moist environment, best to airdry afterward when possible.

[Susan and the girls]

In case you use bleach on all your kitty-stuff cleaning, I have just a word of caution about using bleach to clean litterboxes:

It's not wise to "mix" bleach and ammonia - you may become overcome with the fumes. Since urine has ammonia in it, make sure that you always wash and rinse your litterboxes outside where there's plenty of air. I always use bleach products to clean the litterboxes, but I do it outside with a toilet brush and waterhose! (LOL) (Always make sure to rinse them VERY well so the kitties' noses don't get overwhelmed!) Then I let the boxes air dry for a couple of hours before bringing them in. If letting them air dry for that long isn't possible, I dry them out thoroughly with a towel.

Hope that helps, too!

[Shadowfein]

Not sure if you are in a sunny place or not. When I need to disinfect stuff, I use Savlon (? - I think - I know it is one of the safe ones) and then I leave everything in the sun for a couple of days. The sun is a marvellous disinfectant! Helps anyway...