If you think, you have to be a smoker for letting smoking harm you, you are vehemently wrong, so is also the case with your pet! Like humans, household pets such as dogs, cats and birds can also have health problems from other people’s smoking – and can eventually develop malignant cancer.
Do you know, your little pet can silently fall victim to your smoking and can even develop oral cancer and lymphoma?
This is found to occur especially in cats. And, lung and nasal cancer from indoor tobacco smoke occur in dogs, with lung cancer more common in birds.
Dr. Carolynn MacAllister, an Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service veterinarian informs that secondhand smoke can eventually increase cancer mostly in the nose and sinus area among dogs, as well as to the lung in certain cases.
It has been found that household ‘passive-smoker’ dogs suffer higher risk of nasal tumors than ones living in a smoke free environment. To add to this, lung cancer rates are higher among shorter or medium nosed dogs.
And if a cat is own by a smoker, the poor animal is twice as likely to develop malignant lymphoma, killing 3 out of 4 cats within 12 months of developing it.
Next time you smoke with your pet around, pause a while to find if your smoking is worth its health and life.
