bleach

Hi everyone, so let me start this off with my cats have NOT touched bleach. I am worried about them coming into contract with it in my clothing. We do not wash anything other than our clothing/bedding with bleach in the washer but we had a incident about a week ago where someone put 7 cups of bleach in the washer (without cloths in it) thinking it would disinfect the washer of a certain pathogen. I have since done multiple rinse cycles in order to clean it out. I am worried that I have not done a good job of it and when we finally decide to use the washer again we will get residue on it and the cats then will lay on it and get sick. So, my question is should I be worried? All the info I find on bleach and cats are more centered on the actual liquid being touched or cats walking on floors/tables where bleach was used. Does that also go towards clothing? For example, if I wash a blanket or something and the cats sit or sleep in it will are they at risk? I imagine if there is still bleach residue in the washer that any clothing washed would be stained but I am worried

Hello!  Let me recap: there has been bleach in the washing machine, which is not being used at present.  Hopefully the door is closed so that no animals can go in or lick it out. Hopefully it can go on several empty cycles to clean it out and can then be used to wash some clothes.  If there is still enough bleach in the washer to damage the clothes , you should be able to tell when the clothes come out, especially if you wash something really brightly coloured. If not, then it seems unlikely to me that animals coming into contact with the clothes would then be effected.   However, you should also chat this through with the team who have responsibility for your pet.

The debate about whether we are all being damaged by the tiny doses of plastics and chemicals in our water in general rages on, but it terms of bleach toxicity, what you are describing sounds as though it may be sufficient.

The debate about whether we are all being damaged by the tiny doses of plastics and chemicals in our water in general rages on, but it terms of bleach toxicity, what you are describing sounds as though it may be sufficient.

I think i wasnt clear the bleach is not in the washer. We have done several rinse cycles to clean the bleach out but the problem is we dont know if there are residues theres that can do onto the clothing and harm are pets.   So let me clarify my question (1) can pets get ill from bleach residue on clothing? I would ask how to know 100 percent there are any residue in the washing machine but Im sure that isnt in your expertise.

You are right; you would need to tell the concentration of the bleach, the size of the washing machine, any other chemicals present, the length of the spin and the precise nature of the clothing material and it would still be a matter of probabilities, not absolutes, for a material chemist to be able tell you how likely it was that there was no bleach residue on the clothing at all that could come possibly come into contact with the pet. I am not a chemist but a veterinary surgeon so that is not within my experience. Do you have any clinical questions?

Sorry - I see that you did have a clinical question. The bleach toxicity cases I have come into contact with have usually involved direct contact with the substance (most frequently inadvertent drinking).  However there is a service (The Veterinary Poisons Information Service) who can often give assurances as to whether a residual dose is likely to affect an animal on a clinical level.  They are good people to speak to; historically they have asked that only the patient's vet calls them, but such information will be available on their website.  I hope that something here will be helpful.

On a subjective level, I suspect that you have done sufficient to stop bleach residue from harming your cat on the levels that we can detect and the levels that I, as a vet, am currently aware of.  However, as more is being found out about chemical residues in the environment, even a chemist may not be able to tell you with absolute certainty that that bleach will never effect your cat at all.  Thankyou for this fascinating and thought provoking question.

I suspect that we will hear more about it in the coming years.