Cats, water, and chloramine

Recently my local water system changed over from chlorine to
chloramine. Yours may have changed already, or be considering
changing. You may not know that unlike chlorine, there is no way to
effectively remove chloramine (a toxin) from tap water. Chloramine is a
combination of chlorine and ammonia.

My cat is very old (coming up on 22nd birthday) and a bit feeble. Last
week, she simply stopped drinking water and eating food. To the vet on
Wednesday, and they gave her sub-cut fluid, and when she got home she
ate again. By Thursday morning, again no food or water, again fluids at
the vet, again eating and drinking, but only for a while. We'd made an
appointment early Saturday, and if the cat wasn't better, that was to be
the end.

The afternoon before, I was thinking and thinking, and ended up thinking
about water. I'd read about chloramine, so I knew that it simply killed
aquarium fish, that it sometimes causes behavior problems in dogs, and
more. So I emptied the Drinkwell and the face washing bowl, cleaned
them, and refilled them with spring water. The poor cat drank like
she'd been dehydrated for days, which of course was the actual case. We
were able to cancel the "last" vet appointment. Now, she's doing MUCH
better, eating and drinking like (recent) normal.

So then we switched the bird (a cockatiel) to spring water as well, and
after a few days, he's more energetic and happy.

But the dangers of chloramine don't stop with our pets. This is, after
all, a toxin. But it's not just that we're drinking a toxin with our
water. Chloramine leaches lead from pipes. If you have children, this
is very bad news as lead will hamper your children's mental
development. But there's more. Why might beverage plants be not
allowed to use chloramine? Why do water department workers now have to
wear gas masks, when with chlorine they only needed goggles?

At least with chlorine, you could boil it out, or let it evaporate out.
But you can't get rid of chloramine, popular water filters like Britta
and PUR are almost completely ineffective at removing chloramine.
Thankfully, they do at least filter out the lead that chloramine causes
to be in your tap water.

I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Lisa

From: Lisa Horton


I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Thanks for the heads up, Lisa. I'm so glad to hear your kitty is going to be
ok. Thankfully I don't give my cats tap water. I am going to check this out.
I started with the MSDS which can be found he

http://www.hschem.com/msdscht.html

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

From: Lisa Horton


I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Thanks for the heads up, Lisa. I'm so glad to hear your kitty is going to be
ok. Thankfully I don't give my cats tap water. I am going to check this out.
I started with the MSDS which can be found he

http://www.hschem.com/msdscht.html

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

Lisa Horton dumped this in
on 19 May 2004:

I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Thanks for sharing this. I have my suspicions about the tap water here,
too. I have been giving mine spring water ever since I got a fish and
killed it in 3 days, and I had put the additive in that was suggested if
you use tap water. I have one cat with IBD, and one with allergies that
manifest as skin lesions. I have no idea if any of this is related to the
water but it is one thing they have in common. This area (Wash. DC area) is
going through a tap water crisis with overly high lead content levels in an
uncomfortable number of both random and regional tests.

--
Cheryl

Lisa Horton dumped this in
on 19 May 2004:

I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Thanks for sharing this. I have my suspicions about the tap water here,
too. I have been giving mine spring water ever since I got a fish and
killed it in 3 days, and I had put the additive in that was suggested if
you use tap water. I have one cat with IBD, and one with allergies that
manifest as skin lesions. I have no idea if any of this is related to the
water but it is one thing they have in common. This area (Wash. DC area) is
going through a tap water crisis with overly high lead content levels in an
uncomfortable number of both random and regional tests.

--
Cheryl

Cheryl wrote:

Lisa Horton dumped this in
on 19 May 2004:

I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Thanks for sharing this. I have my suspicions about the tap water here,
too. I have been giving mine spring water ever since I got a fish and
killed it in 3 days, and I had put the additive in that was suggested if
you use tap water. I have one cat with IBD, and one with allergies that
manifest as skin lesions. I have no idea if any of this is related to the
water but it is one thing they have in common. This area (Wash. DC area) is
going through a tap water crisis with overly high lead content levels in an
uncomfortable number of both random and regional tests.

You may want to check. Chloramine leaches lead from pipes, leading to
high lead levels in the water. Also, chloramine does kill aquarium
fish. Sounds like you've got toxic tap water too.

Lisa

Cheryl wrote:

Lisa Horton dumped this in
on 19 May 2004:

I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Thanks for sharing this. I have my suspicions about the tap water here,
too. I have been giving mine spring water ever since I got a fish and
killed it in 3 days, and I had put the additive in that was suggested if
you use tap water. I have one cat with IBD, and one with allergies that
manifest as skin lesions. I have no idea if any of this is related to the
water but it is one thing they have in common. This area (Wash. DC area) is
going through a tap water crisis with overly high lead content levels in an
uncomfortable number of both random and regional tests.

You may want to check. Chloramine leaches lead from pipes, leading to
high lead levels in the water. Also, chloramine does kill aquarium
fish. Sounds like you've got toxic tap water too.

Lisa

Lisa Horton wrote in message ...
Recently my local water system changed over from chlorine to
chloramine. Yours may have changed already, or be considering
changing. You may not know that unlike chlorine, there is no way to
effectively remove chloramine (a toxin) from tap water. Chloramine is a
combination of chlorine and ammonia.

My cat is very old (coming up on 22nd birthday) and a bit feeble. Last
week, she simply stopped drinking water and eating food. To the vet on
Wednesday, and they gave her sub-cut fluid, and when she got home she
ate again. By Thursday morning, again no food or water, again fluids at
the vet, again eating and drinking, but only for a while. We'd made an
appointment early Saturday, and if the cat wasn't better, that was to be
the end.

The afternoon before, I was thinking and thinking, and ended up thinking
about water. I'd read about chloramine, so I knew that it simply killed
aquarium fish, that it sometimes causes behavior problems in dogs, and
more. So I emptied the Drinkwell and the face washing bowl, cleaned
them, and refilled them with spring water. The poor cat drank like
she'd been dehydrated for days, which of course was the actual case. We
were able to cancel the "last" vet appointment. Now, she's doing MUCH
better, eating and drinking like (recent) normal.

So then we switched the bird (a cockatiel) to spring water as well, and
after a few days, he's more energetic and happy.

But the dangers of chloramine don't stop with our pets. This is, after
all, a toxin. But it's not just that we're drinking a toxin with our
water. Chloramine leaches lead from pipes. If you have children, this
is very bad news as lead will hamper your children's mental
development. But there's more. Why might beverage plants be not
allowed to use chloramine? Why do water department workers now have to
wear gas masks, when with chlorine they only needed goggles?

At least with chlorine, you could boil it out, or let it evaporate out.
But you can't get rid of chloramine, popular water filters like Britta
and PUR are almost completely ineffective at removing chloramine.
Thankfully, they do at least filter out the lead that chloramine causes
to be in your tap water.

I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Lisa

This is quite helpful if not distressful after I figured out my water
filters to eliminate chlorine, chloroform (by-product of chlorination,
trihalomethanes and what not. Most volatile organic something or
other, carbons? Gaseous stuff.

The water authority is supposed to do a yearly analysis. You might
want to ask them for their yearly report. It can be quite helpful. The
best is of course to send the water out of your tap for analysis, but
that runs around $100 and you have to be careful that the volatile
gasses don't escape owing to poor handling. Guess chloramine is not
that easily dissipated so easier to assay?

From what it seems, the chloramines are not that volatile, unlike the
previous baddies which gassed off around 106 Fahrenheit. Then there
was a problem if taking a shower in an enclosed area, well, minor
problem, but you get the idea.

Don't know if reverse osmosis would handle chloramine, but that's a
handful and does not work if water is too hard, above what, 10 grains
per gallon. But noticed a lot of these units on sale for half price
everywhere. A little more complicated than ordinary water filters. A
good quantity of water is wasted in this process and it's slow.

Treeline

Lisa Horton wrote in message ...
Recently my local water system changed over from chlorine to
chloramine. Yours may have changed already, or be considering
changing. You may not know that unlike chlorine, there is no way to
effectively remove chloramine (a toxin) from tap water. Chloramine is a
combination of chlorine and ammonia.

My cat is very old (coming up on 22nd birthday) and a bit feeble. Last
week, she simply stopped drinking water and eating food. To the vet on
Wednesday, and they gave her sub-cut fluid, and when she got home she
ate again. By Thursday morning, again no food or water, again fluids at
the vet, again eating and drinking, but only for a while. We'd made an
appointment early Saturday, and if the cat wasn't better, that was to be
the end.

The afternoon before, I was thinking and thinking, and ended up thinking
about water. I'd read about chloramine, so I knew that it simply killed
aquarium fish, that it sometimes causes behavior problems in dogs, and
more. So I emptied the Drinkwell and the face washing bowl, cleaned
them, and refilled them with spring water. The poor cat drank like
she'd been dehydrated for days, which of course was the actual case. We
were able to cancel the "last" vet appointment. Now, she's doing MUCH
better, eating and drinking like (recent) normal.

So then we switched the bird (a cockatiel) to spring water as well, and
after a few days, he's more energetic and happy.

But the dangers of chloramine don't stop with our pets. This is, after
all, a toxin. But it's not just that we're drinking a toxin with our
water. Chloramine leaches lead from pipes. If you have children, this
is very bad news as lead will hamper your children's mental
development. But there's more. Why might beverage plants be not
allowed to use chloramine? Why do water department workers now have to
wear gas masks, when with chlorine they only needed goggles?

At least with chlorine, you could boil it out, or let it evaporate out.
But you can't get rid of chloramine, popular water filters like Britta
and PUR are almost completely ineffective at removing chloramine.
Thankfully, they do at least filter out the lead that chloramine causes
to be in your tap water.

I'm not a regular here, just a cat owner who almost lost her cat to
toxic tap water.

Lisa

This is quite helpful if not distressful after I figured out my water
filters to eliminate chlorine, chloroform (by-product of chlorination,
trihalomethanes and what not. Most volatile organic something or
other, carbons? Gaseous stuff.

The water authority is supposed to do a yearly analysis. You might
want to ask them for their yearly report. It can be quite helpful. The
best is of course to send the water out of your tap for analysis, but
that runs around $100 and you have to be careful that the volatile
gasses don't escape owing to poor handling. Guess chloramine is not
that easily dissipated so easier to assay?

From what it seems, the chloramines are not that volatile, unlike the
previous baddies which gassed off around 106 Fahrenheit. Then there
was a problem if taking a shower in an enclosed area, well, minor
problem, but you get the idea.

Don't know if reverse osmosis would handle chloramine, but that's a
handful and does not work if water is too hard, above what, 10 grains
per gallon. But noticed a lot of these units on sale for half price
everywhere. A little more complicated than ordinary water filters. A
good quantity of water is wasted in this process and it's slow.

Treeline

I fill plastic water bottles at a spring about 15 miles from the house.
The spring runs continuously and is used by a lot of locals. I use this
water for the cat's water dishes because my well water has a lot of iron
in it which would stain the bowls and the drinkwell.


-MIKE