02-06-2004, 07:04 AM
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Dog feces in compost?
In article .net,
(Rez) wrote:
In article , Katra
wrote:
Interesting. So would one assume that poop from veggie dogs would be ok ?
My
three are veggies, healthy, wormed reguarly, given regular shots, etc. and
only I and my bf (and the dogs) will eat from my garden, which has to be
said, is mostly flowers, but this year with some sunflowers, tomatoes and
peppers, plus a few herbs.
As long as your dogs are getting enough protien... :-)
Highly unlikely on a veggie diet, tho some of the small pet breeds
(ie. those not bred for a mission in life) can get by on diets that
would be starvation for a working dog or brood bitch.
The protien requirements of predators like dogs are higher than that of
About double that of humans, 3-4x that of herbivores.
herbivours, so the feces should be higher in nitrogen since that is a
waste product of a high protein diet.
Yep.
As for safety, more folks are concerned about possible pathogens that
dogs may carry in their poop, including parasites. Most dog parasites
tho' are not communicable to humans.
Not exactly. Coccidia and giardia don't really give a flip what they
inhabit (beaver, elk, and cattle can all carry them, as well as
dogs; drinking from those sparkling mountain streams is a good way to
get giardia).
Note that I said "most" parasites. ;-)
There are always exceptions...
Dog and cat tapeworms, if ingested by humans, may live there for awhile
but they won't reproduce in humans and complete a life cycle. Same I
think goes for the common Ascarids?
And the various common worms (roundworms, tapeworms,
hookworms) will also infect just about anything in the short term, tho
may not reproduce there. Some of these are commonly found
(encapsulated) in soil anywhere that has EVER had livestock present.
If you make a habit of licking your shoe soles, you'll come up with
roundworms or pinworms fairly quick. You can almost always culture
coccidia and giardia from any dog if you work at it hard enough, being
they are natural inhabitants of the gut.
Yeah, Giardia is pretty universal! Even birds get that and it makes them
(and humans) very sick!
As to disease-causing pathogens, those outside of E.coli (which is in
anything's lower gut and only a problem when it gets where it doesn't
belong) tend to be species-specific. Frex, you can't get canine
distemper or parvovirus. You CAN get canine brucellosis (a venereal
disease of dogs), but only by contact with the mucosa of an infected
dog. But picking up anything from dog shit is pretty damn rare -- it's
sure not a problem for we with kennels who work around dog shit every
day for years on end, and take no special precautions.
Cat feces are somewhat more of a problem, what with -- now I can't
make the name come to mind, but the common pathogen that is a specific
hazard to pregnant women.
~REZ~
Toxoplasmosis.
You have to work at it tho' to get it, but pregnant women still should
not clean litter boxes. You can get the cats tested and treated for it
if you are all that worried. :-)
Pregnant women can also get it from Blood transfusions... Humans can
become carriers.
K.
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