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This letter originally appeared in Dr. Hoffman's column on allHealth.com. |
Q: I am a healthy, 42-year-old woman. I have had three cases of strep throat since October 27th. I am volunteering a lot in my kid's classrooms this year and blamed it on the germy kids. Now, my little Maltese is sick, too. My vet did a throat culture on her. Can a human pass strep to a dog? Can a dog pass strep to a human? I am getting different opinions from my vet and my doctor.
A: Strep throat is a bacterial infection with Streptococcus bacteria. There are many different species of Streptococcus; some are capable of causing disease, and some are not. Your question, if you will permit me to rephrase it, is this: "Can my species of Streptococcus infect my dog, and vice versa?"
The rapid tests available in doctors’ (or vets’) offices only answer the question, "Is it a potentially dangerous case of strep?" and do not provide exact species-specific information. For that, your doctor (vet) would need to send a sample of your (or your dog’s) throat mucus to a microbiology lab for culture. The lab attempts to grow the bacteria on a variety of different culture plates. Its growth characteristics enable the microbiologist to identify the particular species that is prevalent in your (or your dog’s) throat.
I do not know for certain whether the disease-causing strep species which plague humans can also infect dogs, and vice versa, but I strongly suspect that the answer to the above question is "yes." It certainly seems sensible that you should avoid close contact with your Maltese when you are infected, or when she is infected. No wet kisses, shared ice cream cones... you get the idea. Oh, and teach her to cover her muzzle with her paw when she coughs.
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More information available on other diseases of the ears, nose and throat! |
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