Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Dogs by Oscar Auerbach

Airborne nicotine can contaminate fish tanks, which essentially can poison the fish. Pet birds who live in smoking households have a higher risk of pneumonia, skin or eye problems, lung cancer, or sinus troubles.Įven fish are at risk. In addition to breathing in secondhand smoke, birds also “preen” their feathers (like how cats lick their fur) and ingest thirdhand smoke. It’s not just dogs and cats at risk: Birds, for example, are highly sensitive to air pollution. Since cats frequently bathe their own fur with their tongues, cats in smoking households have two to four times the risk of mouth cancer.

For example, dogs licking the skin of a smoker are ingesting the sticky, stubborn, toxic residue from the cigarette smoke. Cats who live with heavy smokers are three times more likely to get lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphocytes (cells in the immune system).īut another risk for pets is thirdhand smoke-the tobacco smoke that sticks to carpet, furniture, your skin, and their fur (or feathers). Secondhand smoke has been proven to increase the risk for other types of cancers in pets as well. That’s because dogs use their noses like a filter, so long-nosed dogs trap a lot of the toxins in cigarettes within their nose instead of the lungs, increasing their risk of nose cancer. On the other hand, long-nosed dog breeds who are exposed to tobacco smoke have a doubled risk of nose cancer. For example, short-nosed dogs (like pugs or bulldogs) in smoking households are at a higher risk of lung cancer. Like it does with humans, secondhand smoke can affect the respiratory symptoms of pets. Your dog, cat, and even your fish can be affected by secondhand (and thirdhand) cigarette smoke in ways that you likely never expected, according to the U.S.

Secondhand smoke can cause some of the same devastating health effects of cigarettes as those who are actually smoking them.īut what you might not be thinking about is how secondhand smoke affects your pets.

It’s common knowledge that cigarette smoke affects not just your own body, but the health of everyone in your vicinity.

Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Dogs by Oscar Auerbach