Second-Hand Smoke Is Killing Your Pet

She lays back on her couch after getting home late from work. Her dog, Charlie, sleeps on the throw rug beside the heat vent. She lights up a cigarette and flips the tv on, oblivious to the second-hand smoke that is spreading through the air. Charlie, too, is unaware his health is at risk but has trust in her that she would do him no harm. Charlie watches her for a few moments then puts his head back down trying to ignore the smell of fresh cigarette smoke he is unwillingly inhaling. He loves her and trusts that she is there to protect him. Sadly, that is not happening.

Awarness

Second-hand smoke harms, diminishes, and kills pets with lethal cancer and tumors. It is a sad state of affairs to witness a caring pet owner blatantly harming their beloved pet by smoking in the same home, let alone the same room their animal is located. Somehow, for some reason pet owners who smoke indoors fail to make the connection that smoking harms the health of pets just as much, if not more so than humans. Smoking is an unnecessary health hazard pet owners are exposing their pets too.  When it comes to second hand smoke it simply appears that people are not aware that others – including animals – are breathing in that toxic, smoke laden air. Perhaps because the pets are animals and are physical different from us, a physiological barrier is created that makes the pet immune to smoke in their minds. Perhaps the concept of health does not extend beyond the pet owner circle of awareness. Perhaps it’s a smoking addict’s unwillingness to accept responsibly that their destructive behavior that harms and kills those around them, including pets. But you need to be aware, very aware, that animals due suffer from second-hand smoke no matter the amount breathed. Smoking even just one cigarette inside your home when your pets are present is not acceptable. It simply harms their health

Biology

Small animal pets such as cats, dogs and birds are several degrees smaller than humans and thus their metabolism is much faster than ours. The health threat from second-hand smoke is several degrees greater for pets than it is for humans due to smaller bodies and faster metabolisms. For example, since dogs and cats age something like seven times faster than humans, the damage from second-hand smoke inhalation shows up real fast on the x-ray charts, sometimes in a matter of a year depending on the level of indoor smoke the pet inhaled. Because of the pet’s small size and fast metabolism it is very important to keep your indoor home air quality high. This can be accomplished by opening windows, buying air purifying systems and replacing air filters in central air units and heaters often. Clean air improves health for all organism. This means you too.

Cancer In Dogs

Veterinarians see both cats, dogs and other loved pet’s that develop cancer due to exposure to second hand smoke. These animals get cancer in different locations for different reasons, however. Dogs get cancer in their nose or sinus or in their respiratory tract such as in the lungs. On the other hand, cats get a type of lymph node cancer called Lymphoma as well as mouth cancer.  Finally, birds develop lung cancer and respiratory diseases and ferrets can get nose or nasal cancer.

Second-hand smoke that causes cancer of the sinus in dogs, which includes the whole length of the canines nasal cavity, was shown in a 2001 Colorado State University study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The study detailed how the size of the nose correlated to the location of cancerous growths. Short nosed dogs, having a shorter air pathway from the air outside down into their lungs, are likely to develop lung cancer from breathing second-hand smoke. Dogs with long snouts are twice as likely to develop sinus cancer than short or medium nosed dogs according to the study. Overall, cancer develops somewhere in the dogs respiratory track when exposed to second hand smoke in the home.

Chronic coughing or difficulty breathing along with weight loss and abnormal fatigue are warning signs of lung cancer in dogs. Look for unhealthy physical signs to detect nasal cancer like sneezing or bloody nasal discharge. If your dog nose has swelling, that can be a sign of cancer in the nose, too. Finally, poor hair quality is always a key sign of distress in your pet.

Cancer In Cats

Cats are very sensitive to their environment. Smoking even one cigarette is perhaps the worst passively harmful act you can do around your cat. Understand that second hand smoke doesn’t just disappear. It’s not out of sight, out of mind. The smoke particles dissipate throughout the home and being heavier than air, settle on clothes, rugs, beds, furniture and on the cats fur. Smoking inside your home spreads toxins over every household surface including your bed, your skin, hair and the beloved pets themselves. Not only are the cats forced to breath your polluted air, they lick it off themselves after you smoke, after they sleep on your bed and couch and after the walk through your toxic, cigarette polluted home. You claim to be taking care of these animals? Frankly, you are destroying them in a quick, painful manor. Remember, dog and cat metabolisms are very fast compared to ours. Cancer in your pet will show up real quick if you smoke in your house.

Perhaps a given is the fact that cats who live with smokers have nicotine and other toxins in their urine according to a 2007 University of Minnesota study. This is from cat grooming. Cats have an instinct to be orderless. Cat’s groom themselves with their tongue to remove order causing particles such as caused from second hand smoke which gently and invisibly fell onto their bodies like a nuclear winter. Your toxic, second hand smoke particles enter the cats mouth, stomach and kidneys causing stress throughout it’s body. This stress from ingesting toxins is displayed through poor fur quality. Dandruff, oily, matted and excessively shedding fur are clear signs the cat is unhealthy to some degree.

The rest of the harm you cause from smoking around your pet occurs inside the cat. Mouth cancer develops from constant contact with your toxic and polluting second hand smoke as it settles on the cats fur and it’s bed. Survival rate is one year. Lymphoma, a tumor forming cancer develops and spreads rapidly throughout the cats intestinal track from contaminates ingested from second hand smoke you exhaled. Survival rate is one year. More over, cancer in cats forms rapidly. Feline mouth cancer risk is 3.3 times higher if exposed to less than three years of second hand smoke. [Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and University of Massachusetts {UM}] You read that right. Even one year of second hand smoke exposure can triple cancer rates in cats.

Here is another fun fact for you: a male cat is twice as likely to develop life-threatening intestinal tumors with one household smoker. [UM] Have two smokers in the house? The risk doubles to four time as likely to develop this fatal, intestinal cancer. [UM]. Ever consider chemotherapy on your sick cat for the cancer you caused from smoking? It will be an expensive bill

Notably, male cats are more likely to develop Lymphoma for an unknown reason.

Quit Smoking To Save Your Pets

If you want to inhale toxic smoke, due so. If you want to slowly diminish your quality of life through a bizarre social act of smoking cigarettes, feel free. You are a free willed human being with total control of your well being. If you want to intentionally make yourself sick, do it. I wont stop you. But do not bring innocent beings you claim to care for into your circle of destructive, selfish behavior. Leave them out of this. They did nothing to deserve a painful death to mouth, nose or intestinal cancer. Your pets rely on you 100% for a healthy and strong existence. You are your pets caretaker. Feed them love for health, not poisonous second hand smoke to make them sick. They need you. Your pets rely on you. Don’t let them down.

If you can’t stop smoking for your own health, quit for your pets health.

Please.