Cats & OCD

[MrsGrumps]

Well I say OCD but I have a cleaning issue and it is getting ridiculous. Just to clean out the litter tray which gets done three times a day takes ages.

It goes something like this:

Shut cats out of lower half of the house. Open back door so I do not have to touch the handle with my soon to be soiled hands, and get out pedal bin bag. Scoop out waste matter and put in wheelie bin by lifting a set corner of the wheel bin with one finger and I'm now 'soiled'. Back in door and shut with foot and turn on tap with just two fingers. Wash and scrub hands, rinse. Wash and scrub tap where I touched it, rinse. Wash and scrub hands again now I've touched a previously soiled tap which is now 'clean'. Re-wash hands with antibac and rinse. Now I am clean but hands are sore and need hand cream. This is getting stupid, I now my hands are not 'soiled' the cat litter scoop handle has never touched any waste matter so it's really clean but my mind is saying it's soiled. I was never this bad until I was pregnant and all the cat poo/pregnancy stuff that comes up - years and years later I'm getting worse if anything.

Love my cats, wouldn't part with them but fed up with sore, dry hands :(

[msrisotto]

Have you tried going to your GP? CBT can be really helpful for OCD and the less time you have had this issue, the better chance you have of solving it. New problems are easier to tackle than lifelong, deeply entrenched ones. No need to wait for it to get worse.

[tabulahrasa]

As a short term thing, could you not wear disposable gloves?

[Fluffycloudland77]

You can buy disposable vinyl gloves from sainsburys pharmacy for about £6 for 50 pairs.

There's a way of taking them off by peeling the cuff down and holding the first glove you take off with the second glove end up with the gloves in a nice little sack to throw away. I work in the health service so we have to take gloves off like this so we don't spread germs.

But long term please try and get treatment for this.

I just chuck waste litter in a nappy bag and chuck it in the bin, sometimes I wash my hands.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Talk to your vet I often sell pregnant women boxes of disposable gloves mine are £2.50 for 50 pairs.