Passive Smoking in Dogs!

Professor Clare Knottenbelt, from Glasgow Veterinary School reported her recent study of passive smoking dogs to the April 2013 BSAVA (a Vet Society meeting/conference). She measured nicotine levels in the fur of dogs owned by non-smokers, outdoor smokers and indoor smokers. Unsurprisingly there is an increase in fur nicotine levels in that order.  Clare said that this indicates that they have absorbed the smoke into their bodies and this had ended up in the fur, rather than just being an innocuous (but smelly!) deposit from the air directly into the fur.  She did not report any direct evidence to state that this gave dogs cancer, but she believes this is likely by the age of about 8 years old.  She is actively researching whether owner smoking statistically shortens lives of dogs. Clare was keen to discuss this with owners when they got their puppies... rather than waiting until the dog actual got cancer! I’d have been interested to know whether you find nicotine just in the smoky deposits themselves of course, because, whilst that’s not nice, that would not lead to cancer at least!