Sharing the Bed with Fido Can Make You Sick

Do you love your pets so much that they sleep in your bed? Well, being close with your animals may feel good, but being too close may kill you:

Although they are not common, documented cases show people contracting infections by getting too cozy with their animals, according to work by researchers in California.

These so-called zoonoses include contracting plague from flea-infested pets, a MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infection, a bacterial infection resistant to multiple strains of antibiotics originating from the canine family, and various parasitic worms.

Bruno Chomel, a professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, said the research was prompted by stories he heard from his students when they described their relationships with their pets, and also from pet owners in general.

Link


If you read the article, you'll notice that they do NOT mention the actual rate of infection. I.e. for how many bed-sleepers and mouth-lickers, what percentage actually catches something.

When we wrote and asked, they were pushed into admitting that they really didn't know.

Hmmm......
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Well, you're supposed to take care of your animals and make sure they are don't have worms and help them get rid of fleas. If you do that, like a responsible pet owner should, that eliminates most of the dangers linked in the article.

I'll take my chances on the bacterial infections as well, since I'm guessing proper pet care reduces that risk of infection as well. I'd rather be warm and cozy in bed then be cold because of a minute chance of an infection.

Sounds like this study was done on people who let stray, flea infested animal sleep with them, yeah, that's probably a bad idea.
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