MetaChat - Do cats get food poisoning?

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11 May 2007

Do cats get food poisoning? This question is borne out of a) genuine curiosity and b) concern about what kind of mess I'm going to have to clean up later.→[More:]

Last night I removed a bowl of moldy, dessicated leftovers from the fridge, put the bowl in the sink, and promptly forgot about it.

This morning, there are scraps of said leftovers strewn across the kitchen floor. There was meat in the leftovers. Dried up, very old meat.

I know who did it (I'm looking at you, Cosa) and she seems fine. I'm not really worried about her, just curious. Are cats like vultures? Big cats eat carrion, right, so they're probably okay with putrid things?

post by: mudpuppie at: 16:30 | 7 comments

I think you're right. They pretty much have cast iron stomachs, and if they deem it ok to eat, it *usually* is. The meat was probably like jerky. Mmmm jerky!

posted by iconomy 11 May | 16:38

They can fall pray to salmonella and e coli but that 's not an issue here. The high acidity of a cat's gut handle bad meat fairly well.

posted by arse_hat 11 May | 16:42

My dad always said he was like a cat, in that he could eat anything and never get sick.

He's dead now.

(But not because of food poisoning!)

In answer to your question, a firm probably not.

posted by Atom Eyes 11 May | 16:42

There are two conflicting issues here...

The first is that cats seem to be able to either eat anything, or completely ignore anything that isn't expensive (except Bread... Stop attacking my bread Edison!)

The second is that some cats are prone to throwing up at random intervals for no reason what so ever.

posted by drezdn 11 May | 16:46

What they ^^^ said. She probably would have puked it up fairly soon if it was bad.

posted by deborah 11 May | 17:35

Cats are old hands at puking.

posted by matildaben 11 May | 17:49

That's sort of what I figured. Thanks.

Thanks also for not pointing out that "borne" should have been "born."

posted by mudpuppie 11 May | 18:39

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