Dr. Elsey’s Ultra Litter and Extreme Crazy Dust

Bird

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I have used Elsey’s Ultra unscented litter for years but my recent batch has to be thrown out and replaced due to extreme dust. I mean...EXTREME. Scooping produces billowing visible clouds of dust engulfing me and making me cough! I wouldn‘t even have believed it was possible if I hadn’t experienced the extreme dust for myself. Ridiculous and totally unacceptable garbage. I wrote to Elsey and they gave an excuse about using a different part of their mines, and offered to refund my recent purchase. I will give Elsey one more chance since I’m a longtime user, but if I get more dust storm, I’m done with that litter.
 

crouton

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Yep it’s been dusty for about over a year now. It’s also varying in size from the normal medium grain to very fine grain. It’s the bags of fine grain that are dustier I think. But you can’t specify when ordering online.

Even as dusty as it is now it’s still less dusty than nearly all the other clay litters I’ve tried and I’ve tried them all. The only less dusty one I’ve found was the arm and hammer cloud control but it did not clump well and the scent it has made my whole house stink.
 

Beholder

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Yes, many people have noticed it being dustier for the past few months. From their website:

Dr. Elsey is passionate about providing the very best products for your cats. A few months ago, in an effort to keep the dust content as low as possible, we switched to a different clay mixture for Respiratory Relief. The new clay is slightly darker than the clay we were using because it is mined in a different area. The color will not interfere with performance. However, after customer feedback, we have decided to go back to the original mixture. Anything with a date code after 20.11.20 will be the original clay and it will not have a sticker on it that states “new & improved particle size”.

From what I've heard from others the company told them it wasn't just Respiratory Relief, but the other versions as well.
 
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Bird

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This is the email that I received from Elsey...

”Thank you for the email. We are sorry to hear that our litter didn’t exceed your expectations. Due to supply chain issues and stockpiling, we have had to pull litter from different areas of our mine and this has resulted in some dustier batches of litter. We understand it’s frustrating and are working to improve our quality control processes. Please attach your receipt and provide a mailing address and we will refund your most recent purchase.
Again, we apologize and thank you for your loyalty as a customer.”
 

crouton

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This is still the preferred litter In my house though I wish the cats would be open to other things. To combat the dust I regularly wipe down the boxes either above the litter line or I push it to one side and wipe the box then repeat. Doesn’t help the dust in the air. Purifiers do nothing for clay litter.
 

jersharocks

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I had the same issue with Dr. Elsey's. I had always used Fresh Step unscented with Flakes but after he passed and we adopted new cats, I figured I'd try Dr. Elsey's because everyone raves about it. It was the most dusty litter I've ever used, worse than the cheapest store brand. There was dust everywhere in our bedroom where the Dr. Elsey's filled litter box was. The litter box in my home office had Fresh Step in it and it was fine, a little dusty as all clay litter is but nothing compared to Dr. Elsey's. I don't know if I'll ever try it again after that experience.

I am thinking about trying a non-clay litter with the cats at some point. Contessa doesn't cover her waste as it is so I feel like she'll use whatever I put down. Juliet is the wild card though.
 

ladytimedramon

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I felt Dr. Elsey's was overrated. I didn't see anything super special, and Delilah didn't care one way or another. I'm currently using World's Best.

Biggest bonus for me - I can lift the bag without throwing my back out (most litters are really heavy for me - this and Okocat have been the only ones I can manage but Delilah didn't like the pellets).
 

crouton

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I felt Dr. Elsey's was overrated. I didn't see anything super special, and Delilah didn't care one way or another. I'm currently using World's Best.

Biggest bonus for me - I can lift the bag without throwing my back out (most litters are really heavy for me - this and Okocat have been the only ones I can manage but Delilah didn't like the pellets).
One of my cats hated worlds best so much that she flipped over a box full of it on purpose. That litter was absolutely terrible, didn’t clump well at all clumps just mushed right apart, smelled like rancid grain, sticks together in the warmer months.I just don’t see how it’s the worlds best anything. And the tracking! Whoo boy the litter dust sticks to paws and left dusty footprints leading away from the boxes that had WB varieties.

My cats all disliked the oko cat litters too and I don’t blame them, they all had strong smells like perfumed pine and the paper one was just too big for them I guess. They used the yesterday’s news a few times but also rejected that. They just hate pellets

eta I never tried the breeze system and have considered it but Iread that sime cats were hospitalized for eating the pellets?
 
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Bird

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Update: I replaced all the extremely dusty Dr. Elsey Ultra litter with new Ultra litter (got the boxed, not the bagged), and the dust level is radically lower. Fingers crossed it stays this way.
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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Yes, many people have noticed it being dustier for the past few months. From their website:

Dr. Elsey is passionate about providing the very best products for your cats. A few months ago, in an effort to keep the dust content as low as possible, we switched to a different clay mixture for Respiratory Relief. The new clay is slightly darker than the clay we were using because it is mined in a different area. The color will not interfere with performance. However, after customer feedback, we have decided to go back to the original mixture. Anything with a date code after 20.11.20 will be the original clay and it will not have a sticker on it that states “new & improved particle size”.

From what I've heard from others the company told them it wasn't just Respiratory Relief, but the other versions as well.
Thank goodness for this. I, too, noticed how crappy the "new & improved" Respiratory Relief was -- stocked up on the old version! I am so glad to hear they went back to that original formula.
 

crouton

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Update: I replaced all the extremely dusty Dr. Elsey Ultra litter with new Ultra litter (got the boxed, not the bagged), and the dust level is radically lower. Fingers crossed it stays this way.
Interesting, Ive bought new bags every month and they are still dusty. I can't do the boxed as it takes nearly a 40lb bag to fill one of our boxes to 2-3" so the markup on hte boxes not to mention throwing out the boxes is just silly for me since I have so many boxes.
 

kittenmittens84

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Oh wow, I’ll have to look out for this! Haven’t gotten a dusty one yet but we have some extras in the closet so that’s good to know.
 

BucDan

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I've had better luck with the "low tracking" version, the color of the back is purple or pink, I think. That bag seems to have the larger granules, thus less chance of dust and tracking.
 

TardisDance

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I just purchased a couple 40 lb. bags from Chewy and opened one of them yesterday. It’s didn’t seem nearly as dusty this time, but there were some larger clay pieces like a 1/2” or so in size mixed in. It’s pieces that weren’t broken up properly. I scooped those out since it wouldn’t be too comfortable on cat paws.
 
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