Can You Make Your Dog Sick?
Can your dog make you sick? It’s a question veterinarians hear often. And it’s a relevant question, too—we live closely with our pets, after all, and if there are health risks that could affect us or our kids, we’d want to know about it.
The short answer is yes, it is possible that your dog could make you sick by transferring parasites, bacteria, or viruses from them, to you. It happens. The CDC even has a list of some of the most common diseases that can be spread by dogs, which include Brucellosis, campylobacteriosis, tapeworm, and even Giardia.
But some new research unveiled something fairly surprising: Humans are actually more likely to make their dogs sick, rather than their dogs making humans sick.
Yes, you can make your dog sick
The study, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution in March, says that “we find that humans are as much a source as a sink for viral spillover events, insofar as we infer more viral host jumps from humans to other animals than from animals to humans.” In other words, humans make animals sick more often than animals make humans sick.
This is interesting, especially as more concern and attention is being paid to the ability of viruses and other diseases making the “jump” from animals to humans. The study continues: "The majority of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in humans are caused by viruses that have jumped from wild and domestic animal populations into humans (that is, zoonoses).”
Obviously, there’s a lot of data and jargon in the mix that can be difficult to understand if you’re not a scientist or veterinarian. So, if there is a key takeaway, then, it’s that you should be aware that you can get sick from your pets, and that you can make them sick. It doesn’t happen all the time, and not every cough or sniffle is something to be concerned about, but it does happen.
This most recent study actually follows another similar analysis published in 2023. One of the researchers from that study—Benjamin Anderson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions and member of the Emerging Pathogens Institute—says that “we’re starting to see a lot of examples of reverse zoonosis.”
Generally, the differences between species can make it difficult for diseases to jump between them. “Typically, the viruses that I will have as a human are not going to fit into the receptors that a dog or cat has,” Dr. Anderson says, but it still happens.
What can you do to keep from getting your pet sick (or vice versa)? Simple: Be careful if you, or your pet, is sick. Wash your hands more. Wipe things down—you know, the basics. There’s no way to really guarantee that you’ll avoid getting sick, but taking some simple measures can help both you and your pet.
And, of course, if you have any questions or concerns, you can get in touch with your veterinarian, or give them a visit!
Contact us to make an appointment today!
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