Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with feces

Throw shit away in another person's can?

c:\awesome — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:36:33 -0800

Right or wrong: throwing away a tied-up plastic bag filled with your dog's feces into another person's trash can (with trash already in it) at the curb. I take my dog for walks twice daily, and when he shits, I place it in a plastic grocery bag, tie it up, and usually walk it back to my house, where I throw it away into my own trash can. Occasionally, however, I'm tempted to toss the poop bag into a neighbor's trashcan if I'm somewhat far away from my house.

Is this OK to do? I wouldn't think of throwing it into an empty trash can (as in, the trash had already been picked up) I'm on the fence about it. My wife says no. Is there a right answer here?

This is in a mid-sized city in the Midwest, U.S.A. The trash cans are the standard large plastic bins provided by a private, local trash company. They look similar to this.

Large bowel movements + low-flow toilet = problems.

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:27:10 -0800

Large bowel movements + low-flow toilet = problems. So, all the units in my building have low-flow toilets (1.6 gpf). Ordinarily they work pretty well, but since I've made some changes to my diet I've been having monster-sized feces. 10-12", and dense. Pretty much every time I go, the toilet gets clogged and I have to plunge it to get things moving.

I've resorted to opening up the tank and depressing the floaty thing to add a bit more water, but even that doesn't always help.

Any advice?

Digestion and the end result.

jason's_planet — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:43:56 -0800

This is a question about digestion and the end result. This is purely a matter of abstract curiosity. I promise not to provide too much information. OK . . . here goes:

At what point in the digestive tract does food start to resemble feces?

Is it in the large intestine? The colon? Does this vary for different types of food? Would yogurt, for example, convert to feces at a different point in the digestive tract than, say, a big piece of steak?

Does this vary for different people? Or is this point pretty universal?

Thanks for your time.

You rolled in WHAT?

Brodiggitty — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:25:29 -0800

My dog rolled in human feces last night. The smell is clinging to her fur. What will get the smell out? I'm looking for a magic bullet here, like tomato juice on a dog that has been sprayed by a skunk. The smell is without a doubt the most putrid thing to have ever graced my olfactory. It didn't just smell like crap. It had this sour, inhuman smell that invaded my nostrils like a solvent. The only thing I can compare it to is old person BO.

So I'm thinking someone in the hive mind has worked in nursing/medical/septic business and has a secret ingredient that will take that smell out of her hair. It seems to get worse when she is wet, not unlike the way skunk scent will come back in a wet dog.

When we first brought her home you couldn't get within ten feet of her. Now that we've repeatedly washed her the smell is only there when she is within arm's reach. I'm sure it will dissipate with time, but I need help now!

And yes, I am absolutely sure all the nasty matter is gone. It is just the clinging smell that remains.

Also, should I be immediately concerned about having come into contact with the nastiness, however briefly, on bare skin?

Stupid Littermaid!

wordsmith — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:14:51 -0800

My Littermaid cat poop box broke. Again. Are there any decent alternatives? Seems like lots of people have problems with these breaking. When they work, they're awesome, but this is the second unit I've purchased in two years.

My question: are there any decent alternatives (that are still automatic) to the Littermaid?

How would you assign numbers to the different types of human effluvia?

Mapes — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:51:32 -0800

How would you assign numbers to the different types of human effluvia? We all know what "number one" and "number two" stand for. There is some precedent for referring to semen as "number three." What are some smart, memorable ways of numbering our other discharges: tears, sweat, earwax, saliva, breast milk, etc.?

Assume that the numbers might be used as a shorthand or code for privacy or obfuscation ("Cleanup number five on aisle seven").

The best answers will be suitable as mnemonics and be clever enough to seem obvious in retrospect. Example: #8 = vomit, because it's what you "ate." Creativity and memorability win here.

My body stores feces in the rectum -- weird, but is it bad?

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:33:23 -0800

Every anal-sex manual says not to worry, feces isn't stored in the rectum. Well, my body doesn't know that. Could this cause, or be the effect of, any health problems I should know about? Text gets explicit. I've used the politest words I know so I don't gross you guys out -- but if your interest is prurient rather than medical, you still aren't going to want to eat while reading this.

My boyfriend -- an anal expert -- has been wanting to explore that route with me. (I'm a woman, mid-20s.) I hadn't done any anal play before, but I'm GGG enough to be willing to give it a shot. I read a couple of books and websites, and although they all were clear about the need for cleanliness, they all said that the colon, not the rectum, stores feces.

So one night in the shower, exploring on my own, I inserted a finger. I've repeated this experiment a whole lot, and something's wrong with either the books or my body. Once I make it past the sphincter, there's not just traces remaining from my last bathroom visit -- even if I've just defecated and feel like I'm empty, I have little trouble reaching (with a finger or two) plenty of feces. I do have to twist and turn as soon as I make it past the inner sphincter.

All this doesn't put a stop to his exploration, although he knows to go slow; so far he's only rimmed and fingered me. Before we get involved with anything in the area, I hop in the shower and get as clean as I can inside and out (yes, I scoop it out with my fingers, drop it in the toilet, and flush...yes, it took me a few tries to be okay with that). Then I rinse the inner area thoroughly, use tons of soap on my anal area (outside only, obviously), tons of soap and Purel on my hands, and we're good to go. An enema might be another option, but he says I'm perfectly clean after I do what I do, so I'm okay with that.

My question is why I have to do it.

For anal it doesn't really matter. So I jump in the shower beforehand -- so what? The logistics aren't important to me. But is storing feces in my rectum a sign or a cause of some important digestive health issue I should know about? I'm including everything I can think of that could possibly be related. Feel free to ask more relevant questions if you want Jessamyn to deal with TMI e-mails from me (sorry, Jessamyn).

I go to the bathroom a few times a day, but mostly to urinate; I only defecate once or twice a day, and never without urinating.

I don't feel like I have to push or strain. When I'm done, I feel like I'm done, not like there's more hanging around inside my rectum. I've tried bearing down after I feel I'm done, but with no results.

I have no trouble wiping clean or washing the exterior -- what I'm worried about is well inside the anus.

I average about 20 grams of fiber a day as part of a healthy diet. The fiber comes from fruit, vegetables, hot and cold cereal, and whole-grain bread/pasta. If I add, say, a bran muffin to my day, I can't go far from the bathroom and am very unhappy all day -- but the problem described above doesn't change. (Side note: I keep track of everything I eat, so if you have any more questions about my diet, I can answer them accurately.)

Corn is a food widely noted as being visible in feces. I also experience this with some other vegetables, including peas, green beans, spinach, and spaghetti squash. I'm not sure if this is normal or not.

I drink a fair amount of skim milk, but I have no reason to suspect I'm lactose-intolerant (no excessive gas, bloating, constipation, discomfort, etc., and no race-based risk factors). When I stopped drinking milk for awhile, nothing changed.

Let me know if any other information would be helpful. Again, I'm really not looking for clean-up tips or whatever -- both he and I are totally fine with what I'm doing now. I just want to make sure this aberration isn't a health concern worth taking to a doctor.

How can I remove a dark brown shit stain from my mattress?

davidriley — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:12:35 -0800

For a friend: My ex-roommate shit in my bed for revenge. What do I do? I haven't been sleeping in my room: there is a mess of brown streaks on the mattress. No odor, but psychologically traumatizing. How do I get rid of the stain? Should I get a new bed? Is the mattress safe to sleep on?

Can the smell of human sewage have health risks?

MotorNeuron — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:18:42 -0800

Yuck! The boat I'm working on has a sewage problem. The smell in my bunk room is really bad. Are there any health risks associated with this?

My Bloody Poopentine

rbs — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:28:42 -0800

I always have bloody poop after a night out drinking. Does that mean there's something wrong with me?

What is the etymology of the phrase "to shoot the shit?"

jrb223 — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 08:41:01 -0800

What is the origin of the phrase "to shoot the shit?"

I'm not a hater, I just flush a lot.

FortyT-wo — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:26:05 -0800

Erm... I have an issue with some "residue" in the toilet bowl after flushing. I'm looking for insight as to why it's happening, and how other people deal with it. So I've never had this problem before, but I've moved to a new apartment and in with my boyfriend, I'm not sure which to blame. But you get the drill... I clean the toilet, and within 24 hours there are remnants of bm below the water line in the bowl. I guess I'm not really sure how to take care of it without doing a full-out bowl cleaning basically every day.

I'm used to cleaning the bowl and it remaining that way, no smears of this or that, until the next cleaning. I'm getting frustrated because my just-cleaned bathroom will, within 24 hours, become something I wouldn't show company, and that's an issue for me.

Are some toilet bowls maybe rougher and more likely to gather "marks" while being flushed? Are some feces more likely to leave streaks than others?

I've been to peoples houses where they have a toilet brush at the ready beside the bowl, and it confuses me. It seems kind of gross to have something that was just touching feces to be hanging out beside the toilet like it's a decoration. Do people wash them off before putting them in their nifty stands? Is the whole point of these things that they can be used whenever streaks occur? Or are they usually for the once a week thing? I don't understand them and never have, but am wondering if it was specifically made to address this particular problem.

I've heard of clorox (or someone) coming out with cleaning supplies containing Teflon... Is this a job for that stuff?

Bookstores: the natural laxative?

nitsuj — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 07:20:46 -0800

Why do bookstores and libraries make me poop? At first I thought this was some sort of kindred-based phenomena; all the men in my family experienced similar reactions when visiting bookstores and libraries. Over time I've found that many of my aquaintinences also experience this same thing. Is this just a case of conditioning, or could there be some sort of chemical floating through the air that triggers excretion? How wide spread is this phenomena?