Is it safe to give my dog kisses? A friend told me that they can pass germs in their mouths to people. Even if the answer is yes, I probably won’t stop.
Ah, the kissing debate. Scientists, medical doctors and veterinarians say yes and no.
“While disease transmission does happen now and then, it’s usually more of an annoyance (such as ringworm) than a threat,” veterinarian Marty Becker wrote March 1 on vetstreet.com. Becker, author of Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual, was responding to a study that warned against puckering up with pets. Becker says he has no plans to stop kissing his dogs or his canine patients.
The study Becker referred to was by a team of Japanese researchers who looked at dental plaque specimens of 66dogs and 81 dog owners and found traces of human bacteria in the dogs’ saliva and dog bacteria in the human’s saliva. Their study, published in the October 2012 edition of the Archives of Oral Biology, concluded that germs can be spread between people and their pets.
The Japanese scientists never linked the exchange of bacteria to people kissing their dogs. Their study, however, raised the question of whether the bacteria spread between dogs and their owners could possibly lead to periodontal disease in the humans.
No way, says veterinary dentist Jean Joo of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. “There’s a big difference between contamination and infection,” Joo says in the February issue of Your Dog, a newsletter published by Tufts.
When you kiss your dog, you may be exposed to some bacteria but that doesn’t mean you are infected or will become ill, Joo explains. She says that plaque-causing bacteria makes its way into our mouths every day and we remove or destroy it by brushing and flossing our teeth.
Joo’s final word on smooching your pooch: Go ahead.
But you might consider the opinion of Lloyd Resnick, editor of Harvard Health Review, who advises against swapping saliva with pets. He says in an April 2012 article that peoplecan catch a few diseases (like rabies, transmitted through bites) from their pets.
Resnick acknowledges, however, that the chances of getting sick from licking or kissing your dog is low if you practice basic hygiene. When your dog is really affectionate and gets in a few good licks, wash your face - and hands - with soap afterward. It’s also good practice to wash your hands after any contact with your dog, because research has shown that we unconsciously touch our faces, mouths and eyes every three minutes while, we wash our hands maybe six times a day.
Regardless of what the experts tell us, the one thing that may make you think twice about kissing your dog is to consider what he licks or might put into his mouth. This came home to me in a dramatic moment when I discovered my dainty little doggnawing on a dead rat. Ewww, rat germs. Since then, Simoneand I have exchanged only air kisses. That works for me.
Do you have a question about
pets? We’ll get you an answer
from an authority. Send your question to Rhonda Owen,
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203 or e-mail [email protected]
Family, Pages 34 on 03/20/2013