It's Valentine's Day – Is it Safe for my Dog to "French – Kiss" me?
We love having our dogs lick our faces – but is it safe? After all, dogs use their tongues as toilet paper. And how many of our furry friends love to snack on stool – whether it is their own, other dogs, or that special treat above all others: “Kitty Roca”.
All of us baby boomers grew up with the comforting counsel from Dear Abbey that dog mouths were cleaner than ours. HMMMM……. See the first paragraph. That being said, the dangers really aren’t so bad for a healthy person. Thankfully, our immune systems are strong and we probably see worse than what’s on a dog tongue every day.
Still, there are a few things to be aware of. Dogs do get worms and other parasites and some of these parasites are transmissible to us. The usual victims? Toddlers and young kids! They’re not as careful about where their hands go and also not as careful about washing their hands. Not to mention the tongue in the mouth thing. The solution? Follow the Companion Animal Parasite Councils recommendation and de-worm your dog monthly with a product like Sentinel or Heartguard, have your pets stool checked by your veterinarian at least once per year, and teach children to keep their mouths closed when Fluffy gives her kisses and to wash hands after playing with the dog.
Other issues to be aware of include Strep throat in the house. Pets don’t give us Strep but we can give it to them! Our pets can effectively act as reservoirs for this disease. They can only give it back to us if we have already given it to them (through kisses?). Make sure your veterinarian and physician are aware of pets in the house if anyone suffers from recurrent episodes of Strep. Likewise, there could be a concern if your pet is on a raw food (BARF) diet. Studies show that approximately 75% of all raw food diets are contaminated with pathological bacteria such as Salmonella and others and that these bacteria are shed in stool of dogs. Most healthy pets are not seriously affected by these bacteria but we are putting immunocompromised people and pets in danger. Do the right thing and do not feed raw protein to your pets.
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