12 Diseases Humans Can Get from Dogs
Dogs are man’s best friend, and best friends love to share. While we teach our kids and animals that sharing is a good thing, it’s never good to share your diseases and illnesses. Unfortunately, we’re all guilty of that from time to time. If you are under the impression that your dog can’t share his illness with you, you are mistaken. Your dog can share infections, disease and illness with you and the rest of your family if you are not careful. It’s the main reason dogs should be taken regularly to the vet. Your health is at risk if your dog contracts certain diseases. Here are 12 to watch out for….
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Rabies
Rabies is a terrible disease to be diagnosed with. In fact, it can kill you. Rabies is a disease that affects the central nervous system. You’ve probably heard of rabies because it’s a disease that causes a lot of foaming at the mouth and erratic behavior. There are five stages when humans contract this disease. The final stage is death. Dogs can transmit rabies to humans through biting, which is common behavior in dogs that have contracted rabies. While it’s possible to be transmitted in ways that don’t include biting, it’s very rare and not likely.
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Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis
This flu-like disease is one dogs pass on to their owners through biting. It’s not something that causes dogs to bite their humans out of anger and spite, but if a dog playfully nips an owner or attacks someone that’s putting their family in danger, the disease can be passed along. This illness begins with the same symptoms as the flu. You’ll experience a slight fever, headaches, sneezing, and possible even bronchitis. From there you might notice issues with your central nervous system that include neck stiffness and confusion. If the disease is not discovered at this point, a secondary disease will develop.
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Nipah Virus
If a dog is infected with this virus, simple contact with humans can cause it to spread. This might be in the form of a petting an infected dog and coming into contact with a bleeding lesion or a dog licking you. The disease derived in Malaysia and was discovered only 15 years ago. It’s highly contagious, and dangerous. The high fever and muscle pain that show up as first symptoms are often mistaken for the flu, causing people to get sicker before they get better. This disease comes with a 50 percent chance of death.
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Rickettsiae
These are small microorganisms that attack their host. They can be obtained from small creatures that bite dogs and humans, and it can be spread from dogs to humans from contact or a bite. Small animals such as chiggers and fleas can pass along this disease. A dog that has this disease can pass it to a flea that might bite a human when it gets into their home, which is another way dogs can pass it along to humans, despite the fact that this method is indirect. It’s dangerous and often requires a series of medical tests to diagnose.
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Lyme Disease
There is no vaccine for lyme disease, which makes it dangerous. It’s also not something that sufferers will get over quickly. Lyme disease is very dangerous. It’s known to spread primarily through ticks, but it can be given to both dogs and humans. How lyme disease spreads from dogs to humans is through the introduction of infected ticks into a person’s home. If a dog is playing in the woods or heavily infected area of ticks, it’s possible that the dog can bring it in the house and deposit it somewhere it has access to human flesh, where it will pass along the disease.
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Bordetellosis
When this type of bacteria is passed from dogs to humans, it can cause anything from cold-like symptoms to respiratory infections to pneumonia. It’s a dangerous illness that will cause several negative side effects in both dogs and humans. It might cause diarrhea, vomiting, bloody stool, abdominal pain and even fever. It’s spread when any type of droplet from a dog is transferred to a person. This could come from a simple sneeze to a cough to a good, old-fashioned happy to see you when you get home from work lick on the arm or hand.
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Brucellosis
This particular infection is only given to humans through dogs and other animals. It cannot be contracted by humans unless an infected animal presents the infection to a human. Dogs are particularly dangerous because they are common carriers. This one is difficult to diagnose, however, because it comes with a myriad of common symptoms. A high fever, back pain and fatigue are all common, but they’re all common in many different cases as well. These symptoms last anywhere from two weeks to a month and are known to come back over time.
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Campylobacter Enteritis
This one isn’t the worse infection a dog can give to a human, but it’s an uncomfortable one. Thankfully, it’s not too dangerous. However, dogs carry this disease without giving any indication of carrying it, so it’s often not until their humans get it that dog owners realize their dogs are infected. It’s a disease that causes intermittent diarrhea that lasts for weeks or even months at a time. It might not show up in this sense in your dog, but it will show up in you and your family members. It’s too late to do anything about it at this point, but shelter dogs are often the most common carriers.
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Meningitis
When a dog bites a human, he can pass along an infection from bacterium called pasteurella multocida. This can cause a myriad of illnesses including meningitis. The first signs of meningitis might include a sore neck or back, headaches that are severe enough to be mistaken for migraines, severe nausea, rashes, seizures and extreme confusion. It’s sometimes difficult to diagnose in all cases, and it’s something that will last a long time. It requires medical attention and prescription medication to get rid of meningitis, which means that it will require a significant recovery time.
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Endocarditis
This is one of the more dangerous illnesses that can be transferred from dogs to humans. This disease is transferred through bit. When a dog infected with this bites a human, it will cause endocarditis. This is a heart condition that can cause death if not treated right away. It’s easy to spot because it’s a disease that comes with a myriad of symptoms. The most common symptoms include fever, chills, heart murmurs, shortness of breath, cough, fatigue, aching muscles and severe paleness. It’s something that must be treated with medical help as soon as possible.
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Septic Shock
The same bacterium that causes several other diseases can cause septic shock, as well. When this occurs from a dog bite, it takes only one of the major symptoms to make sufferers aware of what they are suffering from. It’s imperative that anyone suffering from this seek medical help as soon as possible. Without medical help death can occur. Symptoms of septic shock include lower levels of urination, discolored skin that appears in patches, extreme weakness, confusion and major difficulties breathing. Left untreated, symptoms will progressively become worse until hospitalization is required and it might be too late at that point.
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Chagas Disease
This particular disease is not that easy to get from dogs. It has to be transmitted through blood, which means that you must have a cut on your body and your dog must be bleeding. Since you’re not consuming your dog’s blood, it’s not likely you will become infected this way. When this infection occurs, people will begin to notice they suffer from fever, inflamed lymph nodes, heart enlargement and myocarditis. It’s dangerous and can cause several different health issues if it’s not diagnosed and treated right away. Call your doctor if symptoms appear.
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