Problems with cats: ammonia?

[russ-iv]

JBDreefs;1038630 wrote: You may be on to something because this problem seemed to appear with the recent warm temps. 72 during morning and evening. 75 during the day.

temps increasing only allow it to evap quicker. remember as crew stated. it is an easily evaporative gas.

i asked because u have an aquarium which will naturally absorb that ammonia from the humidity producing ammonium hydroxide and condensating in the water

 

[jbdreefs]

Going to Change hvac filters and add a carbon filter to my skimmer air line. Will also make sure to clean my litter box well. Once it cools off a bit I will open the windows.

I have also discontinue the scented oils. I will repeat the test tomorrow.

 

[russ-iv]

JBDreefs;1038633 wrote: Going to Change hvac filters and add a carbon filter to my skimmer air line. Will also make sure to clean my litter box well. Once it cools off a bit I will open the windows.

I have also discontinue the scented oils. I will repeat the test tomorrow.

dust the top of the filled litter box with baking soda as well. aeration is your main concern.

also remember bleach with ammonia is a nerve gas. try to wear a mask when cleansing.

 

[jennm]

I concur about the API test kit. While it's notorious for giving false positives at 0.25, there's no denying that something is going on to have ammonia in 2 vessels and none in another.

You said you have 6 cats? Respectfully, there's no way you can *not* smell cats when there are that many of them. Do any of them spray? That behaviour would be problematic, no matter how meticulously clean the litter boxes are, because that activity doesn't hit the litter box.

Trying to remember how many cats I had back in the day when I bought a house where the prior homeowner left me 2 pregnant cats (!) ... and I already had a (neutered, male) cat... 1+2+4 kittens and 5 kittens... I got you beat - 10 cats. (Although we rehomed the kittens pretty quickly, and then another litter came along and then we took care of fertility business...)

I digress - the presence of cats in and of itself, and their associated litter boxes shouldn't pose a problem or I'd have seen this sort of thing happen a lot more often. In fact, I had a client who had umpteen cats, whose house would make your eyes water, and she had, surprisingly, no water quality issues (but the air quality in the house was likely a health hazard.)

We may be meowing up the wrong tree, as it were.

Where are (were) the scented oil dispensers, in relation to the locations where the water samples were collected?

Also, do you have a phosphate test? If so, what are the results of phosphate tests on the same specimens?

Jenn

 

[jbdreefs]

5 cats and two concrete mixing tubs for litter boxes. Regular litter boxes, and definitely just a single, was not enough. If someone made "commercial" litter boxes, this would be them.

Haven't test for phosphates in a while. I will work on testing that to see if I can detect any issues.

I already dumped the sample water. So it will be tomorrow most likely.

 

[russ-iv]

JBDreefs;1038651 wrote: 5 cats and two concrete mixing tubs for litter boxes. Regular litter boxes, and definitely just a single, was not enough. If someone made "commercial" litter boxes, this would be them.

Haven't test for phosphates in a while. I will work on testing that to see if I can detect any issues.

I already dumped the sample water. So it will be tomorrow most likely.

i think it is pretty conclusive the ammonia is condensating in. whether you gained an immunity to the smell or w/e doesnt make a difference.

jenn also had a good point of whether they spray or not.

to prevent the issue, can you put the litter boxes in a room with a box fan blowing out the window? just thinking of ways to mitigate the saturation inherent of your home.

 

[jennm]

I had another client with about 5 cats - they had a basement (do you?) In the basement they had a tent with about half a dozen litter boxes in it, and a kiddie pool being used as a litter box in the middle of the tent. Effective, contained most of the tracked litter and such...

When I house-sat I had to clean the boxes each day when I'd tend the tank (tank was on the main floor). The cats were hiders - I only ever saw one but there were 4 or 5 there. You'd never know on the main floor of the house, but OMG when I'd have to enter the litter tent to clean it, I'd wreak of it til I went home to shower... so yeah, concentrated 'catness' is gnarly. At least the tent contained it in one area. They never had any tank issues either but then again the litter tent was in the basement and the tank was on the main floor.

Jenn

 

[jbdreefs]

How's this for a diy air scrubber?

Drilled several small holes in the cap and one large hole in the center. I filled it with carbon and some ammonia reducing media to about half way.

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[qasimja]

i gotta say this is the strangest problem ive ever seen lol hopefully you can get it sorted out

 

[russ-iv]

more than one way to "skin a cat".

bad pun intended of course. I'd still aerate the hell out of the house and then monitor the situation. Definitley a first.

 

[catgirl29]

I have four cats. One is 18 and uses potty pads. I have a Litter Robot (expensive automated cat box) and a regular, small cat box in the master bathroom for my reclusive Sphynx cat.

I can occasionally smell ammonia from the potty pads (which are changed twice a day). My Red Sea ammonia test has only shown even an inkling of ammonia once in three weeks on my saltwater tank. My freshwater tank only showed ammonia while it was cycling a few years ago.

I'm following this. I find it a little hard to believe that my pee machines will effect the tanks but I want to know if they do.

 

[crew]

JBDreefs;1038628 wrote: We could use better husbandry with our litter box, as in not cleaned daily. I wouldn't say it gets disgusting, but I usually clean the box when I start to smell it. I wouldn't say it ever gets to the point where it smells like cracking open a bottle of ammonia.

If you are waiting to smell ammonia, then you are definitely allowing it to build up. By the time it's registering in your nose (which probably has a pretty high tolerance due to repeated exposure) it's been airborne for a while. The odor threshold is something like 50 ppm in the air for the average person. That + scented oils masking it? :wow2:

 

[qasimja]

we have 2 cats in our house never had that issue as hes describing but we keep the boxes cleaned

 

[jbdreefs]

Came home yesterday and was pretty discouraged because I was still at about 1 ppm after changing the HVAC filters, installing the air scrubber, and doing a 20% water change yesterday morning before leaving for work.

Today, however, I tested with API and it seemed a bit better, so I pulled out the Red Sea test. I am between .2 and .4. Hopefully, tomorrow I will see more progress.

 

[russ-iv]

JBDreefs;1039218 wrote: Came home yesterday and was pretty discouraged because I was still at about 1 ppm after changing the HVAC filters, installing the air scrubber, and doing a 20% water change yesterday morning before leaving for work.

Today, however, I tested with API and it seemed a bit better, so I pulled out the Red Sea test. I am between .2 and .4. Hopefully, tomorrow I will see more progress.

500% decrease is pretty good.

keep it aerated. you may have had it saturate for a while and stuff will leech.

 

[jbdreefs]

Other parameters:

SG - 1.026
Nitrite - 0 - API
Nitrate - 15 API and Red Sea
Phosphate- bad test kit, will replace.
Mag - 1050 - Red Sea - going to retest once I clean the test tube well.
Cal - 420 Elos
Alk - 9

 

[jennm]

With that much ammonia it's strange that there is no nitrite...

Something doesn't compute.

Jenn

 

[russ-iv]

im more worried about a bacterial load crash depending how long its gone on.

its also possible his house was saturated enough that through gas exchange it kept an equilibrium with the water much like co2 does.

i would put a dehumidifier in there and try to cut off the conversion from the ammonia gas to ammonium hydroxide.

 

[jbdreefs]

Russ-IV;1039304 wrote: im more worried about a bacterial load crash depending how long its gone on.

its also possible his house was saturated enough that through gas exchange it kept an equilibrium with the water much like co2 does.

i would put a dehumidifier in there and try to cut off the conversion from the ammonia gas to ammonium hydroxide.

About two weeks.

 

[jbdreefs]

JennM;1039303 wrote: With that much ammonia it's strange that there is no nitrite...

Something doesn't compute.

Jenn

Agreed, seems strange. I will pickup a new nitrite kit today as well. The one I have is old. I wonder if the fact that this isn't a normal "cycling of the tank" explains the lack of nitrite.

I am also going to take a sample of water to the LFS.