He’s not delusional. “We know how dogs greet each other,” he says. “We know where that tongue has been.” But he lets his expertise take over afterward. Griffin diligently washes his hands after his dogs lick them, especially before picking up a slice of pizza.
First, forget the thing you may have heard your whole life. “I used to hear, ‘Oh, dogs’ mouths are like 10 times cleaner than people’s mouths,’” says Kelley Steury, a veterinarian and clinical associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Public Health. “I don’t think that’s based in science.”
The risk also depends on who’s getting licked. People being treated for cancer or taking immune-suppressing drugs are more vulnerable to severe C. canimorsus infection. So are people without a spleen and those with alcohol-use disorder. But for healthy kids and adults, the occasional lick is fine, experts say.
What if your cat licks you?
A cat lick is usually a non-event, too, provided your skin is intact. Cats commonly carry Pasteurella multocida, but on unbroken skin, Steury says, it “pretty much will not be a problem at all.”
If a cat bite breaks the skin, wash it immediately with soap and running water and see a medical provider, Steury says.
If a claw catches you, wash your skin right away with soap and running water. The goal is to rinse the bacteria away before it settles in, not to disinfect. “Disinfectants don’t kill everything,” he says. “Running things are better than stagnant things in general.”
What if you have a fresh surgical site?
Coming home from surgery might be when you most want your furry friend on your bed. It’s also when experts want you to put a little distance between your pet and whatever is healing.
Yes. Cats can shed Toxoplasma gondii in their poop, and the parasite can travel from the box to your hands to your mouth.
“I think people are aware of the cat litter thing,” says Jill Roberts, a molecular epidemiologist and professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. Meat gets less attention. Roberts is so wary of undercooked pork that she skips thick cuts, which she worries are harder to bring to a safe temperature. “All I can see is Toxoplasma,” she says. You don’t have to give up pork chops, but you should use a food thermometer: Whole cuts of pork should reach 145°F. Once they come off the heat, wait at least three minutes before cutting or eating them; the meat’s temperature holds steady or continues to rise during that time, helping destroy pathogens.
Can you catch your dog’s parasites?
Sometimes, but your dog’s diagnosis doesn’t automatically mean the whole household is next. When Griffin’s dogs had giardia, an intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite, he wasn’t panicking about catching it himself. “In general, it’s a different giardia that we get vs. dogs,” he says. The type that usually makes people sick isn’t the same type that usually infects dogs and cats.
Always use actual soap and water after handling a sick pet or cleaning up poop. Sanitizer is helpful when it’s all you have, but it doesn’t remove dirt or every kind of germ.
Ticks are remarkably good at hiding in plain sight. On people, they tend to hide under arms, behind knees, around the waist, and in the hair. On dogs, check the ears, under the front legs, and between the toes. Torres says many people who develop Lyme disease or another tickborne illness “have no recollection of ever being bitten by a tick or ever seeing a tick.”
What about backyard chickens and petting zoos?
Your pets aren’t the only animals capable of handing something off. More than 60% of known infectious diseases in people can spread between animals and humans, Steury says. The list of germs that can make the trip includes E. coli, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, and Salmonella—none of which care whether the animal carrying them looks clean.
The same logic applies at the petting zoo, with the added complication that children are extraordinarily efficient at putting their hands in their mouths. Steury isn’t telling you to skip it; just wash everyone’s hands with soap and water on the way out, and keep fingers and pacifiers out of mouths until you find a sink. Hand sanitizer is a useful backup, but it isn’t an equal substitute.
When does an animal encounter require a same-day phone call?
The reassuring part is that less than 10 people die from rabies each year in the U.S., largely because most pets are vaccinated and people who may have been exposed can get preventive treatment.
Steury knew a veterinarian in Alabama who had an unnerving encounter. “A bat just fell out of the sky and fell on her neck,” she says. It tested positive for rabies, and the veterinarian needed post-exposure shots even though she’d already been vaccinated in the past.
Of course, none of this means treating every animal like a biohazard. It means knowing what calls for soap, what calls for a phone call or doctor’s visit, and what you can stop worrying about. As Chin-Hong puts it, “The benefits of pets outweigh the disadvantages.”
Hence then, the article about should you let your dog lick your face 9 animal hygiene questions answered was published today ( ) and is available on Time ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Should You Let Your Dog Lick Your Face? 9 Animal Hygiene Questions, Answered )
Also on site :
- All Haul The King is a co-op comedy corpse-dragging simulator from the makers of Eclipsium, one of 2025's best horror games
- The best time to start a business is in your 20s—not 30s—says cofounder of $2 billion toy giant Spin Master: ’No one sees you as competition’
- Dolly Parton’s 12-Piece Porcelain Butterfly Dinnerware Set Brings 'Bright' Country Charm to the Dinner Table