“It's ok [to kiss your cat] as long as both owner and cat are medically healthy and the cat is well socialised and used to this level of contact from you,” said Nicky Trevorrow, behaviour manager at Cats Protection. However, she cautioned, kissing a cat on the lips is not recommended for hygiene reasons.
Following the specific instructions of your veterinarian, clean the wound two to three times daily with a mild antiseptic solution or warm water to remove any crusted discharge and keep wound edges clean. Do not clean the wound with hydrogen peroxide, witch hazel, or alcohol.
Cats are just as susceptible to everyday minor injuries as any other animal. Many cuts (lacerations), bruises (contusions), and scrapes (abrasions) are not life threatening and will heal with little treatment. Other wounds can be severe enough to require sutures and more intense emergency care.
Risks. There are potential health hazards in wound licking due to infection risk, especially in immunocompromised patients. Human saliva contains a wide variety of bacteria that are harmless in the mouth, but that may cause significant infection if introduced into a wound.
However, it is not advised that you kiss a cat who is sick, nor do I recommend kissing cats on the lips. Many diseases can be passed on from cats to humans (zoonotic). Cats and humans can become infected with common bacteria such as Pasteurella, staphylococcus, E-Coli and salmonella. All of which are highly contagious.
Cats pick up the same bacteria when they clean themselves, too, so letting your cat lick your mouth, nose or eyes is not recommended. However, there are benefits to cat saliva, although it makes me a little queasy to think about it.
Human saliva contains a wide variety of bacteria that are usually harmless in the mouth but can cause significant infection if introduced deep within an open wound. It is well known that the bite of a human can often be more serious than the bite of an animal (assuming the animal is free of rabies).
Dogs and cats tend to instinctively lick their wounds, which can often do more harm than good, so keeping your pet from licking their wound is an important part of surgery aftercare. With access to the wound, your pet's licking could delay healing, lead to infection, or even remove the stitches and reopen the wound.
Once the tissues have completely healed, which usually takes about two weeks, any remaining sutures will be removed.
For smaller wounds:
- Rinse out the fresh wounds and punctures with large amounts of this solution: 1 pint water, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon Echinacea/goldenseal tincture.
- Hydrogen peroxide may also be used to clean wounds, but it can damage delicate tissues.
- Cat wounds are notorious for forming abscesses.
"Very rarely, a cat abscess can be life-threatening if it goes untreated," adds Dr. Lee. "The bacteria can go into the bloodstream and cause sepsis." One of the toughest challenges you'll face is keeping your cat from adding insult to injury -- that is, licking his wounds and making them worse.
HEALING ABILITY: Through their deep purring, cats can mend broken bones. BACKED BY SCIENCE: Frequencies of 20 to 50 Hertz are helpful in speeding the healing process of bone injuries.
To show affectionFor cats, licking is not only used as a grooming mechanism, but also to show affection. By licking you, other cats, or even other pets, your cat is creating a social bond. Part of this behavior may stem from kittenhood when your cat's mother licked to groom them, as well as to show care and affection.
Of course, licking isn't always a good thing. In many cases, pets let their tongues get the better of them. In fact, beyond brushing off big particles of dirt and imparting the occasional dose of saliva on a wound, cats' tongues are better off where they belong — in their mouths.
The best way to get your pet to stop is to get an Elizabethan (or “E”) collar, AKA “Lampshade”, or “Cone of Shame”. These stay on your pet during the healing cycle and prevent your pet from licking.
Yes, it is OK to use Neosporin on your dog with veterinarian approval, but we do not recommend using it on cats.
Have you ever wondered how the cat stays so clean with just a “spit bath”? Surprisingly, cat saliva actually contains a natural detergent-like substance that helps keep the fur clean. Try sniffing your cat's fur when it is still damp from grooming, and you should notice a faint, pleasant and slightly soapy scent.
My mum says his saliva can kill bacteria, but I don't believe it. Is this true? A: No. A cat's mouth harbours one of the highest concentrations of bacteria in existence, and is far more likely to cause an infection than to treat one.
Cat scratch disease is caused by a bacterium carried in the cat saliva. The bacteria are passed from an infected cat to a human after the cat licks an open wound or bites or scratches human skin hard enough to break the surface of the skin.
A recent study by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, shed new light on how cats' scratchy tongues enable them to keep themselves so clean: they're covered with hundreds of sharp, tiny hooks called filiform papillae.
Cats are known for their personal hygiene and general cleanliness: They're easily litter-trained and, unlike their canine compatriots, rarely find themselves with an open jar of peanut butter stuck to their snoots. Still, being a cat owner does involve a fair amount of home cleaning and care.
Not entirely. “When dog saliva touches intact human skin, especially in a healthy person, it is extremely unlikely to cause any problems, as there will be very little absorption through the skin,” Dr. Kaplan said it was best to avoid having your dog lick those parts of your face.
Licking another dog's face or a human's face is a normal social behavior. Licking can be an appeasement gesture that signals a dog's social deference. It can also be a signal to solicit food, more social information, a sign of affection or to solicit attention.
Wounds in the oral cavity heal faster and with less scarring than wounds in other parts of the body. One of the factors implicated in this phenomenon is the presence of saliva, which promotes the healing of oral wounds in several ways.
Licking is a sign of affection. Your dog might lick your hands and face because they love you! Licking might feel good to your dog as it can release endorphins. Some experts also say that in addition to affection, licking is a sign of submission.
There are extremely less chances of dog's saliva causing any problem if it touches the intact human skin and especially when a person is healthy. But a dog's saliva can be absorbed easily through the mucous membrane of mouth, nose, eyes, cuts and wounds. That is why it is more dangerous when a dog licks your face.
Dogs will lick your feet to show your their respect and honor. They know they are your pet and they love being in that role, and being your companion. Just as though they lick your face or any other parts of your body, dogs will lick your feet, in a way to give you attention and affection.
Our results show that human saliva can stimulate oral and skin wound closure and an inflammatory response. Saliva is therefore a potential novel therapeutic for treating open skin wounds.
In a 1990 study done at the University of California, Davis, researchers found dog saliva killed E. coli and Streptococcus canis, another harmful bacteria.
