Comforting Your Dying Pet Could be Hazardous to Your Health!
Attention pet owners: Comforting your dying pet could be hazardous to your health! That’s because a growing number of people are getting life-threatening infections from their pets, due to close contact during the animals’ last days.
For example: Two people we read about were hospitalized after cuddling and kissing their dying cats, and one woman nearly dropped dead after licking a tube she’d used to feed her dying dog!
According to the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, most of these pet owners are being infected by P. Multocida, a bacteria that lives in the mouths of 70% of all animals. It’s usually passed along through bites and scratches, and it’s the most common cause of skin infections in wild and domesticated animals.
However, in humans this bacteria targets the respiratory tract where it causes sore, swollen throats, and difficulty swallowing or breathing! And experts say it only makes sense that if you’re in close contact with an infected animal, your risk of getting sick rises as well.
Dr. Anthony Smith is a veterinarian who runs a pet hospice service in California. He says it’s great that so many people want to comfort their pets in their final days of life, but he urges using common sense.
For example: Go ahead and pet your animals, but think twice about kissing them, or letting them lick your hands and face, and definitely avoid sharing utensils with them! Dr. Smith says from a human health perspective, that’s a really bad idea.
