Is it safe to let your dog lick your face or can you get sick from it?
I’ve mentioned here before that my girl and I are about to celebrate our 10 year anniversary—it’s this Friday!! I already know what my girl, a sassy little chihuahua-dachshund rescue, is getting for me: licks and kisses. Licking is her love language. Which means we’re about to have an awkward conversation, because an infectious diseases specialist recently spoke to The Washington Post about some potential risks in getting a good face licking:
The odds of getting sick from a friendly lick across the face are very low. But the fact is that all dogs will be dogs from time to time—that is, chomp down on goose poop by the sidewalk, like their nether regions multiple times a day and bring home the odd dead critter. That’s the same mouth you’ll be getting up close and personal with.
So there are good reasons the official answer from many experts is “don’t do it,” especially for people who are immunocompromised. Infections acquired from pets are likely underestimated and underrecognized due to general, flu-like symptoms that tend to resolve on their own.
Serious bacterial infections from a dog lick have been described in the medical literature. For example, a rare but potentially deadly pathogen—Capnocytophaga canimorsus—can be especially risky for the elderly, those who consume a lot of alcohol or among those who are immunocompromised, such as those without a functional spleen.
Capnocytophaga infections are most common after a bite, but can occur without getting bitten.
While these risks sound scary, it’s important to remember that they are extremely rare, said Sonya Krishnan, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Some researchers have estimated the incidence rate of Capnocytophaga sepsis to be around 0.5-0.7 cases per 1 million people per year. And as Krishnan pointed out, that’s around the same odds as getting struck by lightning.
Yes, the odds are low, but they’re not non-existent. In August of last year South African actress Charlbi Dean died suddenly (at age 32!) from Capnocytophaga sepsis. In her case, though, the sepsis was a complication from her not having a spleen, and there was no reporting that confirmed she was exposed to the bacteria from her dog. So my takeaway is, if you know you’re immunocompromised or if you have no spleen, then you probably need to cut off the face kisses.
The specialist quoted is clearly a dog lover, and made a point of noting the kick of oxytocin both humans and dogs get from each other. I can vouch for that. Her other suggestions were fairly common sense: make sure your dog is up to date on vaccines and tests, give them monthly anti-parasitic meds, and maintain a no-licking zone on all open wounds (of the physical variety, dog kisses can be most beneficial to alleviating the emotional kind). Thinking of my girl in particular—and noting that I am not immunocompromised nor missing a spleen—I’m most concerned over the fact that she’s a little dickens and stealthily snarfs up scraps of food. With the recent confirmation that the five second rule is a myth, I’m figuring whatever my girl gets at must be worse by about a 1,000%. But… but… our kisses! I know it’s complete cognitive dissonance on my part, how I’m able to separate what I see her do on a walk from the lickings I get from her later. What can I say, I’m only human!
Photos credit Blue Bird, Helena Lopes, Trace Hudson and Bethany Ferr on Pexels, Vadim Kaipov on Unsplash
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