Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with poop

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.

Scoop your poop!

specialagentwebb — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:34:01 -0800

How do I keep my yard free of dog crap? I live in a neighborhood that has a lot of dogs. A LOT. It averages out to about 1-2 dogs per household. Normally, not a problem. Everyone cleans up after their dogs (we're in townhouses, so not many have yards), everyone keeps their dogs leashed, and that keeps everyone happy.

Our house has a strip of lawn from the back deck to the front sidewalk. Not huge, maybe 10 feet wide by 30 feet deep. And someone's dog is crapping there. Big huge piles of dog crap. I don't have a problem with dogs pooping in the lawn, as long as the owners clean up after it. Apparently, that's too difficult for someone. To make things more annoying, that's the 30 feet that I walk three times a day with my own dog when we're going on a walk. I pick up the piles daily (or more), because I really don't want to step in dog crap at 7 in the morning

I have a strong suspicion of which household is letting their dog crap there, but no proof to back it up (as I've never seen the dog do its business there). I don't think that confronting the suspected poop-leavers would be very productive. So what's the best course of action here? Are there non-harmful things I can spray to keep their dog out of our yard (assuming that it's off-leash)? Can I put up a little sign in the most current pile of crap that reads "Please pick up after your dog"? What should I do?

I'm _____, I need to poop NOW

XQUZYPHYR — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:05:42 -0800

Is there a legitimate, non-slang word for the need to go to the bathroom? By that I mean a singular adjective, i.e. "nauseous," but for, well, pooping. Attempts to Google yield only annoying links to Urban Dictionary, etc.

Prunes are not the magical fruit.

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:09:49 -0800

According to this bag of prunes I'm eating, one serving only has 3 grams of fiber, which doesn't sound like very much. So (a) how did prunes get a reputation for being a cure for constipation and (b) is there something else I should be eating to get the desired effect?

Strangling the cat that poops on the floor would be acceptable to me.

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:50:49 -0800

Litterbox Troubleshooting: Two cats. One litterbox. One bathroom. No flushing. HALP. The only place in our apartment suitable for the litterbox is in our bathroom, right next to our shower. As you can imagine, this means when the litterbox is stinky... taking a shower is also stinky.

I try to scoop it out every day... but we have the world's worst toilet and the pee clumps clogged the toilet every. single. time.

So, switched to Feline Pine (which one of the cats has used before), which would solve this problem, but created a new one: the other cat won't use it. To the point where she went and crapped ON the floor.

HALP ME. I AM LOSING MY MIND. How do we get both cats to crap in the litterbox with some kind of litter that does not clump?

Everybody Poops. Except for you, apparently.

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:05:59 -0800

Poop (or lack thereof) Filter: Curing someone else's constipation. That someone else is four years old. One of the boys I've just started working with has some serious constipation issues. I mean, I've dealt with kids for years, and I've never seen anything like this. The poor thing was literally *howling* in pain today.

He does have some "bathroom issues" in general, but as I am his nanny, I'm letting his parents take the lead on this one and will go with whatever general plan they adopt. He is seeing a psychiatrist. (Just getting that out there up front.)

What I need is some advice on how to comfort the guy. Is there anything I can give him that will help things... erm... run smoother? He eats plenty of fruit, though obviously a few more dried apricots wouldn't hurt him any. Mainly - in the throes of agony, what can I do to make him more comfortable?

Cat poops on rugs. WTF?

Thorzdad — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:19:20 -0800

Cat has started pooping on the rugs. WTF? So, in the past several months, our cat has decided that the bath rug we keep next to the tub, the one around the toilet, and the two we keep in front of the front and back doors, are just dandy places to poop.

He doesn't pee on them. Just poop. And ONLY at night after we've gone to sleep. If we take the rugs up, or if it's during the day, he happily poops in his box, so I don't think this is a case of him not liking his box anymore. If the rug's not there, he uses his box. In any case, there's really nowhere else in the house to put another box where the dog won't get into it (Because, you know, in dog-think Litter Box = Godiva!) and a second box won't fit in the current cat room.

Covering the rugs with newspaper seems to keep him from pooping on them, as well. And it's just these small throw rugs. He's not leaving presents anywhere else on the carpet. Just these rugs.

Kitty is an 8-year-old boy. Fixed. Is perfectly healthy as far as the vet can tell.

My wife has reminded me that this behavior seemed to escalate after we cleaned the carpets in the house and had to temporarily move the litter box to the bathroom for about a day. But, he never pooped on the rugs in there at that time. He used his box.

And, yes, we keep cleaning the rugs with enzymatic cleaners.

We're stumped. Anyone?

What happened to my cat?

arnicae — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:40:00 -0800

Catfilter: my overweight, formerly feral cat has been on a diet and using a litter robot successfully for more than a year. He recently has started whining non-stop for food and intermittently pooping and peeing all over the house. We have a great, around 3 y/o formerly feral cat. He is the only pet in our household, and we are two adults with no kids. He knew how to use a litter box from the first day he came home with us and has had just a few accidents, usually around high stress events (such as moving). We transitioned to a litter robot more than a year ago and the transition period took some time (and there were some accidents) but he has used his LR happily since then. We've moved three times in the two years we've had him and each time he's been upset while there are boxes and debris around (and therefore needy and/or pooping/peeing problems) but as soon as we got rid of the boxes the problems ended.

Our third move was 1.5 months ago. As with the previous ones, he was initially upset by the boxes, but as soon as we got rid of them (within days of the move, 1.4 months ago) he settled down and there were no further accidents.

He is overweight, and on a strict diet from the vet, and this is also something that he's been doing for a year, so he is used to being fed a certain amount twice a day at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

10 days ago, we went out of town for a day. Our catsitter was unable to stop in, so we left extra food in his bowl and extra water. Since we've come back, he has been having accidents all over the house and cries nonstop for food. Last night he started whining for more food at 1 a.m. and kept howling in this plaintive, pleading yelp, until 8 a.m. He begs for food constantly, which is new- before he just looked hopeful, now he follows us around meowing.

We've never seen him like this. We thought there had to be something wrong, but the vet says he doesn't have a bladder infection or anything else to explain the yowling. There have been no other environmental changes other than that short visit out of town- no guests, no new furniture, no boxes, no changes whatsoever. He's been on the same litter since we first got him years ago and the litter robot is changed regularly. It isn't gross or smelly in the slightest.

He has pooped all over the house, in different spots each time, and peed all over as well- mostly on furniture (different pieces each time, though it is all the nicest furniture) but also on a paper bag once and several times straight on the floor.

We squirt him with a water bottle whenever we catch him and he always has this furtive look like he knows he's up to something that isn't allowed, but it doesn't stop him from doing it again.

He has also been back in the litter robot- on average he uses the LR once a day and the floor 1-2 times a day.

I've looked at the previous threads about this but am still kind of at a loss as to what to do. We adore this cat, but are tired and frustrated by coming home and wondering what he has peed on while we were gone.

canieatitfilter: the poop edition!

Wavelet — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:04:47 -0800

Can I Eat It Filter: a cat pooped in my lettuce bed... Novice gardener here - a neighborhood cat pooped in my freshly planted lettuce bed (the lettuce are only seedlings at this point). I removed as much of the actual excrement as I could find without disturbing the seedlings, but some traces might be left.

If this were a vegetable that I were going to cook, I wouldn't worry about it, but since lettuce is consumed raw, I'm concerned. Is it dangerous to eat lettuce which has been grown in proximity to minute traces of cat poop? Should I be warding off children and pregnant women from the salad bowl?

Why do humans smear their poop sometimes?

cmoj — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:04:56 -0800

Why do young children, demented old people and the like smear their poop? I don't know why I was wondering about this, but I was, so I asked my psychologist/neurophysiologist father, but he didn't know.

We agreed that it has to be something pretty innate because of the state of humans who usually seem to do it. He also mentioned that children usually do it once or so. Is this just because the parent would typically make a big deal about it? If not for cultural pressure, would poop smearing be a pastime we all enjoy?

Wild speculation and actual references welcome.

Dog poop dilemma!

zerobyproxy — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:48:49 -0800

Is there any type of enzyme or pet-safe chemical that I can spray on dog poop to help it to degrade? I searched ASK for this and found a bunch of different scenarios. Here is my complex scenario: my neighbors have two mean pit bulls. MEAN PIT BULLS. Most likely, the dogs are being mated so there will be more dogs soon.

I cannot go in their yard safely. The dogs poop all over the gravel covered yard and the owners will not clean up the mess (I have talked to them in the past). As you can imagine, it stinks. Further, the number of flies that are attracted and spawn are nuts. As the weather in Chicago gets warmer, my problem will get worse.

In the past, I have used the hose to spray all of the poop down. This helps somewhat but it takes a bunch of time to do. I'd really like to find some sort of chemical agent that can be used via a sprayer-attachment on my garden hose that would speed up the process. I don't know if this product exists though.

Obviously, nothing hazardous to the dogs or me. Any thoughts hive mind?

Cat-Pee To Meet You

spamguy — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:56:44 -0800

How do I manage litter box odour in my apartment? I've had my kitteh Wernher von Braun for six months, and only now am I admitting to myself that I have no idea how to maintain a litter box. The epiphany came when I was looking at litter at the grocery store and my girlfriend said, 'Can I make a suggestion? Choose scented.'

The litter box is enclosed and looks like a pet carrier. Even though the kitteh has normal bathroom habits, my apartment's kitchen reeks of cat poo and old urine. I do what I can to scoop the poo, even though the kitteh's a crap factory and I worry he may be a little diarrhetic. His fresh poo reeks. The pee-soaked litter I haven't been able to control either because it's hard to isolate. Thus, the blackened litter sits and sits and sits until I purge the whole damn litter box.

Teach me from the ground up your kitteh odour control skills!

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.

Metallic smelling poop

CrazyLemonade — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:34:16 -0800

Metallic-smelling poop question inside. Whenever my husband...er, poops, there's always a heavy lingering metallic smell, kind of like a bunch of rusty pipes. I don't know how long it's been this way, since we just moved into a new house where we share the bathroom, (we used different bathrooms before), but now that I think of it, even when I went in to his bathroom to change the towels, the "rusty pipes" smell was there too.

So, any idea of what would give my husband's poop such a strong metallic smell?

How do I get my two and a half year old daughter to poo?

Tuatara — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:48:47 -0800

How do I get my two and a half year old daughter to poo? [more inside] She previously had no problems with bowel movements when using nappies but recently she started using the toilet.

Things were going beautifully for a couple of weeks until she decided she wasn't going to poo anymore.

Now the last couple of weeks have been an ongoing drama with her seemingly fighting the movements: "don't want it"

Currently, we are trying to encourage her to poo anywhere (warm baths etc) with some success but it is a constant battle and the whole process is very upsetting for her.

We have seen 3 different doctors and seem to get the standard medical answer (lots of fiber and vegetables etc) but think that there may be more to it then that. She is currently on laxatives to ensure she doesn't get too blocked up.

Any help or pointers from someone who has experienced something similar would be greatly appreciated.

Help me change my poop cycle!

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:39:23 -0800

How do I change my poop cycle? I used to poop every day when I woke up (6am ish) and I would usually be good until the next morning. Then I went out of the country, changed time zones, all that stuff, and now I'm back. I've been back for about 2 months but for some reason now I poop every day at about 5pm. How do I alter my cycle to poop when I want to?!

My daugher is a poop player

allthewhile — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:51:39 -0800

I need to know if my daughter is exhibiting normal behavior, or if she's going through some sort of psychological thing. It all started when my 5 year old ran up the stairs screaming, RUBY is playing with her poop! Our 3 year old, playing by herself in the playroom in the basement, had a field day with her poop. She must have been playing with it for 10 minutes. It was everywhere and disgusting. She is potty trained and has been for quite a while. It was EVERYWHERE. Mushed into the carpet, all over her body, on the television, etc.

She didn't seem to be phased at all.

She has been having more accidents recently, so maybe that's part of it.

I think we were more disturbed by her LITERALLY PLAYING WITH IT, than with her having an accident. She's intelligent, very verbal, everything else seems to be fine. The 5 year old never had such an issue.

Is this normal? If anyone has any, "My kid played with their poop and they're now a successful lawyer" stories, I would really appreciate it.

Has my cat lost her mind?

tzikeh — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:50:57 -0800

Why does my cat take a victory lap when she poops? My cat is 17 years old (and is going to live forever, knocking wood). For the first fifteen years of her life, she'd use the litter box perfectly normally, no problems. Just in the past two years, whenever she poops in the box, she covers it up as usual, and then gallops up and down the hallway in some kind of deranged celebration. My roommate and I have taken to calling it The Poopie Run.

Has anyone got a real explanation for this? Any vets out there with any answers?

Ketones in BM

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 05:53:31 -0800

Hangover BM question. My BM smells like acetone the morning after I drink. Is this a result of normal ketosis, or something I should worry about?

Dingleberry Filter.

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:45:12 -0800

Dingleberry Filter: Can I wipe my cat's butt with baby wipes? The question is pretty straightforward.

I know that "pet wipes" exist, but I don't have any at the moment. I DO, however, have an unlimited supply of baby wipes. I just want to know before I try it if it will make my cat turn into a newt or explode or something.

a shitty question

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:46:03 -0800

Poop question about normalcy and bowel movements [possibly disgusting] First, I realize this is sensitive issue, but any feedback would be appreciated (although that might be difficult since responses can't be anonymous).

First, some background. I lived the first 27 years of my life assuming that pooping would take 20-30 minutes and afterwards my butt would be dirty. We're talking really dirty. It would take maybe 1-3 minutes of wiping to clean things up. This might not sound terrible, but the point was that I could _always_ wipe more. There was no point at which the toilet paper would be completely clean. I hated this situation, but I assumed everyone lived like this and I was too embarrassed to mention it to anyone. However, I was more open with my second girlfriend .The subject was broached when I asked her eating habits after noticing (what I thought were) incredibly short bathroom trips. This led to me watching my diet more carefully and finally realizing that I was lactose intolerant. I also discovered the wonders of psyllium husk. Since then pooping has gone from something I dreaded to something I look forward to and actually enjoy. I feel "empty" when I'm done. And I usually wipe completely cleanly (I mean I wipe once to make sure, but most of the time it's completely clean). I'm also usually in the bathroom for less than five minutes, as opposed to a half hour. Occasionally things won't work this well, but that's an abberation.

Now there seem to be two possibilities. One is that this story is unique and most people are not walking around with mudbutt, assuming they don't shower immediately after a dirty poop. I hope this is the case. The other is that many people are living how I used to live. I realize there are obviously personal variations, but I wonder what you experience personally or what you believe is normal or common.

To clarify: When I say a poop is "complete", I mean I feel "empty" and done afterwards and I rarely have to wipe more than once or twice.
When I say a poop is "incomplete", I mean I could keep wiping forever and the toilet paper would still be dirty (from the anus, not the cheeks). Wiping at this point is mainly to get poop off your ass while acknowledging that nothing can really be done about the poop that keeps coming out. I suppose showering would be one solution to this.

I've noticed a few things that have led me to believe a large amount of people are walking around with mudbutt.

1) The prevalence of bathroom reading materials. In movies and on TV people are always reading in the bathroom. I can't imagine having the time to read anything these days, although before my poop habits changed I could probably have read a novel in a sitting. Assuming length of time sitting corresponds with dirty/"incomplete" poops (does it?), this seems to suggest that people who find reading in the bathroom normal are more likely to have dirty butts.

2) Sheryl Crow recently said that one or two squares of toilet paper should be sufficient. This led to a wave of ridicule (ie, Jay Leno: "Remind me not to shake her hand!"). But ridiculing her seems to suggest that people use way more than one or two squares, which should not be the case if their poops are "complete".

3) I've spoken to women (obviously I don't think all women are the same) who have talked about being mortified about farting in public bathrooms. Men's bathrooms seem to smell much more and women seem to not take as long when pooping. These are gross generalizations, but I wonder if length of time in the bathroom and smell correspond with "incomplete" shits and on average, men have mudbutt more often than women.

4) I recently mentioned an "invisible shit" I had to a friend since it was such a rare occurance. By "invisible shit" I meant that I had taken a poop, but it has disappeared into the bowl and when I looked down, I could see nothing in the toilet. He thought I was talking about not having to wipe, where an "invisible shit" meant that nothing was on the toilet paper after pooping. Since he found this to be an extremely rare occurance, that suggests that he often has "incomplete" poops.

I'd be interested if complete/incomplete was actually something other people experienced or just something I made up, and what other people's normal habits are.

I didn't poop this morning, therefore I shall OM NOM NOM all day long

woebot — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:41:55 -0800

Why do I crave sugar on days when I've had a lackluster/no bowel movement? Normally I take a dump within a half hour of waking up, and my day is all sunshine and flowers afterwards.

On days where I don't poop in the morning (either from constipation [rarely], or because I don't have enough time/privacy to poop in peace) or if I don't completely expel all the poop that needs to come out (time restraints. sigh.), I notice an increased craving for sweets and an increased appetite in general (but mainly in the area of super sweet junk food and drinks). The cravings stop once my bowel movements go back to normal.

While this doesn't horribly cripple my life in anyway, I am quite curious as to why my bowel movements change my eating behavior as it seems to do. Any ideas?

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 do I remove caked-in cat poop from wood floors?

Braeog — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:24:53 -0800

A bout of constipation and butt-dragging resulted in my cats rubbing their poop into the poorly-surfaced hardwood floors of my apartment, and no amount of scrubbing or Lysol will remove the poop caked into the grain of the wood. This is not a stain, the poop is literally caked into the wood. What do I do to remove it with a minimum of damage to the floors? Is there some way to dissolve the poop?

Riverfront Scrub-a-Dub

yellowcandy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:04:27 -0800

Complicated microbology/ecology conundrum: Just bought a little house on a river. The house has two big rocks that jut out into the water that are perfect to sit on...if it weren't for the poop on them (most in a thin, dried layer). Help me figure out a solution that maximizes sanitation and minimizes environmental impact... We think either deer, beavers or raccoons have been leaving their deposits on the rocks. Ideally, I would like to scrub the rocks clean with something that will kill any microorganisms left behind in the poop. BUT, because the rocks stick out into the water, I want to avoid using anything excessively toxic (i.e. bleach). What can I use to clean the rocks? One biologist friend recommended Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap (which has the added bonus of being repellent to future poopers), but I am sure there are other, possibly better solutions. What are they?