How to Protect Pets from Secondhand Smoke

Опубликовал Admin
30-10-2016, 08:42
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Secondhand smoke is a serious hazard to your pet's health. It can impact their respiratory systems and cause a variety of cancers to develop. To avoid this damage to your pet's health, it is important to avoid smoking around them and to keep them away from other smokers. If you can do this, they are less likely to develop cigarette smoke associated diseases, such as lymphoma and respiratory diseases like lymphoma. You can help your pets life longer and healthier lives.

Keeping Pets Away From Smoke

  1. Quit smoking. The easiest way to protect pets from secondhand smoke is to stop smoking yourself. If you smoke often, for instance in your home, and your pet is exposed to that smoke, then it can have very severe health consequences for both of you. Instead, work on quitting smoking so that both you and your pet can have longer, healthier lives.
    • Quitting smoking can be very difficult. Get help from other people, such as family members and health professionals, and from smoking cessation products, such as patches and gum. It's important to use whatever tools you can and whatever is helpful in order to quit a habit that is so bad for your health.
  2. Smoke away from pets. If you cannot quit smoking, then at the very least do it far away from your pets. If your pet could potentially smell the smoke, then you are too close to it and you are exposing it to secondhand smoke.
    • The easiest way to smoke away from pets is to do it outside in an area that the pets do not go in. This will guarantee that the pets are not exposed to your smoke.
    • Although it has not been linked directly to causing diseases, some scientists argue that thirdhand smoke, meaning smoke particles that land on fabric, hair, and skin, is full of toxins that can affect other people, and pets, as well. If you are concerned about this, make sure to wash your hands and change your clothes after smoking and before snuggling with your pet.
    • While electronic cigarettes do not pose the same threat of secondhand smoke to pets as traditional ones do, they do pose a small hazard. Make sure spent cartridges are kept away from pets, so that they do not chew or eat them.
  3. Make sure that others are not smoking near your pets. Even if you have avoided exposing your pets to secondhand smoke, other people may do it without knowing that it could damage your pet's health. If you see someone smoking near your pet, move your pet far enough away so that you can no longer smell the smoke.
    • If you hire a pet sitter or get friends to watch your pets, make sure that these people know to keep your pet away from secondhand smoke.

Understanding and Treating Second Smoke Damage

  1. Learn what secondhand smoke is. Secondhand smoke is a combination of smoke coming straight off a cigarette or cigar and the smoke exhaled from a smoker's lungs. It can build up especially well in an enclosed room, such as when a smoker smokes inside their home, but can enter one's lungs if they are close to a smoker who is smoking outside.
    • Secondhand smoke is emitted from all tobacco products that are burned, including both cigarettes and cigars. In fact, a cigar can put off as much secondhand smoke as an entire pack of cigarettes.
  2. Find out about the toxic chemicals in secondhand smoke. There are a wide variety of chemicals in secondhand smoke, such as cyanide and arsenic. These chemicals are inhaled into the lungs and transferred into the bloodstream when one inhales secondhand smoke. These chemicals can be extremely toxic to pets and humans alike.
    • There are actually more than 7,000 chemicals that have been identified in secondhand smoke. Many of these are cancer causing, while others can cause other illnesses.
  3. Recognize the risk to your pet's health. Secondhand smoke does a variety of harmful things to your pet's health. It limits the ability of blood to get oxygen to the heart by limiting the oxygenation of blood, it introduces a wide variety of toxic chemicals into the body, and it promotes the growth of cancerous tumors, particularly in the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system.
    • It has been scientifically proven that secondhand smoke is a known carcinogen, meaning that it causes cancer. While there has been much less testing on its impact on animals than its impact on humans, secondhand smoke is nonetheless extremely dangerous to their health as well.
  4. Know the signs of illness. Secondhand smoke can cause a wide variety of illnesses, including, but not limited to, diseases of the respiratory system. These include less serious illnesses, such as asthma or bronchitis, and more serious diseases, such as precancerous and cancerous lesions in the lungs. If you notice that your pet has a dry cough, has a cough that is getting progressively worse, or the pet is wheezing when it breathes, then it could be a sign that your cat needs veterinary care.
    • Many less severe illnesses associated with secondhand smoke, such as bronchitis, can clear up on their own if the pet is no longer exposed to secondhand smoke.
  5. Seek out treatment for your pet. If you suspect that your pet is suffering from a disease associated with secondhand smoke, then go to the veterinarian. Keep a record of its symptoms, including when they started, and bring that information with you to the veterinary office. The best thing you can do for your pet at this point is to get it good veterinary care.
    • Your veterinarian will likely run a variety of tests on your pet. These could include a blood test, an x-ray, and a thorough examination of your pet's body. These tests will help the veterinarian to assess the animal's overall health and they will help him or her to locate any problems.
    • Ask your vet about potential treatment plans for your pet. Always make sure to closely follow the vet's instructions.
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