My daughter and my dog both got asthma from second hand smoke

[Susan Sadeghian]

Is second hand smoke really dangerous for pets or is my dog an exception to the rule?

[Eric Dunayer]

Susan,

There are some indications that second-hand smoke can be a problem for dogs as well. Dogs with long noses may get cancer of the nose because the toxins concentrate in their noses while short-nosed dogs may be more prone to lung cancer. In any case, second-hand smoke can be a problem for dogs just as it for people.

In cats, especially ones who already have asthma, the smoke can aggravate their condition.

[carolyn]

wow, I have a chihuahua thats a year old now, and I would of never thought of this.. yea, second-hand smoke is no good just ask children... and I smoke, my husband smokes... what about for birds & ferrets is it just as bad?

[Susan Sadeghian]

My hubby quit smoking after we found out my kid had asthma from second hand smoke. He tried it several times before but that was the clitcher. He never smoked in the house either,just outside and so did our roomy at the time but the dr said unless they stripped outside and took a shower outside and changed clothes to recently washed clothes it would still stay on their clothes,skin and hair and still have a chance of effecting nonsmokers esp children. We did not have a pet at the time. We inherited our dog from a different room later who smoked outside and who the vet said got asthma from second hand smoke. But he slept with the dog, so he got closer to the dog then my hubby got to my kid.oh its a big dog, a lab and pit mix primarly with tons of other breeds in it.

[Ann Lawrence]

As I read this question, after I had to put my sweet Dalmatian to sleep, I wonder where scientist actually come up with smoking being the cause of practically every disease that occurs in humans, and now seems they have added pets. Why do I feel this way, well I am a smoker and have always smoked around my pets. As I stated, my sweet Dalmation was put to sleep a couple weeks ago., and she was 16 years, 2 months and 5 days old. Yes!! 16 years +, practically unheard of when it comes to a Dalmatian. She did not have ashma, she didn't have cancer, lung disease, kidney disease, liver or heart problems. She had hip problems due to an injury she substained 4 years prior, after jumping off a balcony to get to a rabbit on the other side of the fence. So, she would have probably lived longer if her hips had not gave out completely. The rest of her was in excellent shape and as the Vet often said, its hard to believe based on her health, that she is that old. If I didn't have the papers to prove it, I too would find it hard to believe.

Some will say, that's rare. No, not really. I have had three pets since moving from my parents home at the age of 21. In those 30 years I have had 3 pets, the Dalmatian, a Terrior mix, who lived to age 18 and died of kidney failure and a cat who also lived to the age of 18 who had been diabetic for 7 years from steriod medication given to her for skin allergies caused by flea bite. All lived with 2nd hand smoke.

Then there is my sister, who has never smoked in her life, has no second hand smoke in her home, has never allowed smoking in her home. In the same 30 years she has had twice as many pets, and 4 have died of some form of cancer. Two of them very young, under 5 and both very rare cancers.

Parents, neither smoke, and no smoking in their home. Lost their pet to cancer.

So, does smoking really cause cancer, personally I don't think so, based on just my own family record.

[Susan Sadeghian]

you smoke=your sister had second hand smoke if you were ever within 20 feet of her. I dont want to hurt your feelings but my daughter stopped having asthma attacks when my hubby quit smoking and after even his clothes did not have that smell on him any more, my dog started breathing better when we took her in after her owner who did smoke moved. They both started heavy breathing again when my hubby let his best friend move in who does smoke outside. They watch tv in a room and my dog cant breath in that room, but she is fine in my daughters room.
I am not saying dogs cant get hurt in other ways too, just that I personally dont want to add any additional risk factors and that my hubby really really loves my daughter and that love is the only thing that made it able for him to quit. My stepdaughter smokes, so my kid is still around second hand smoke but she only visits once a year so my daughter waits til one hr after she smokes to give her a hug good bye when she lives, they see each other once a year and my kid would love to be around her sis but when her sis smokes even that one cigarette outside, my daughter spents that time and one hr after watching tv inside looking at the clock to when it is save for her to go out and still be able to breath and my stepdaughter doesnt stay that long since they live in mountains and have to go home before dark. I guarantee her daughter will get asthma at the latest at the age of 13. Oh they love their aunty who tells them she cant play when they ask while mom is smoking and a long time after, a minimum of 30 min after. My stepdaughter is still young, so her love has not grown that strong yet and its ok. I have never felt the need to fit in and my smoking and druggie friends in Hs liked that about me and even said they wished they were as strong as me because I am the only friend they can have fun with without smoking or doing drugs and without them feeling like they have to pretand to be someone else or do stuff to fit in with me since I like them for who they are,so they dont do drugs or nicotine around me, so I cant say I know how hard it is to quit smoking since I never started. I know it was really hard for my hubby and if it wasnt for his love for my kid, he would still be smoking. Since he is around his best friend a lot my kid still does not go near him because he smells like his best friend and that stops her from breathing normal. When there were no smokers in the house we went on all kinds of long charity walks with our dog and my daughter used her inhaler maybe 2 times a year, since a smoker moved in she has had her inhaler in her pocket and is upset t hat you have to wait inbetween puffs and that you cant take it more than every four hrs, so when she has a hard time breathing she has to think if she may have a harder time breathing in less then four hrs before taking her inhaler.
Your family IS around second hand smoke unless you litterally live in a bubble and smoke in a bubble. You can make it easier on your family by not smoking within 20 min of seing them and before you see them take a bath and change your clothes to freshly loudered clothes and do not smoke after you get all clean, wait til after you see them and come back home or at least in the car before you smoke, that is the only way to minmize their exposure to second hand smoke.
Remember the guy in the commercial who kept telling his wife that its his life if he smoked and got killed early? He finished saying "little did I know it was her life I would loose". My grandparents died of lung cancer from smoking and so did many people I know and my daughter and dog both stopped breathing around smokers or near a room that was used by a smoker even if he doesnt smoke in there but just did not clean his room everyday and his shirt and body every day and after every cigarette. I am not saying you should quit smoking, that is your personal choice, my hubby chose to help my daughter breath and I guess a persons love for animals is different than for people. I dont think he would have done that for a dog incl our dog.
Sorry but it is a fact smoking and second hand and even third hand smoke causes cancer and asthma. Everyone in my family has it from second hand smoke and I am starting to get the symptoms too since a smoker moved in. I know this hurts smokers feelings and they come up with excuses of why smoking is safe even for their loved ones who have less of a lung then they do, but that may erase the dangers in a smokers mind, but it does not erase the dangers in real life. Again I dont want to hurt anyones feelings. Everyone quits on their own time and decides for themselfs what event is tragic enough for them to quit,everyone has a different level of tolerance and different description for tragedy.
I am not saying a non smoker who doesnt have a single person in their family who smokes and not a single friend who smokes cant die of cancer, I am just saying those who smoke have a better chance at that and at killing their sister if they ever are more then 20 feet close to their sister esp if their sister coughs every time they are there. If you ever go trough their doorway there is second hand smoke in the home because you smoke even if you dont smoke in the house. Second hand smoke means your near someone who has smoked at one point that day or the day before or someone who has smoked in the last two days even just one cigarete has entered your home=they bring their sent=their smoke cent with them and leave it behind for a while when they leave, a small portion will always remain in the home. Again someday everyone will find a tragedy where even they will quit, but until than I dont want to hurt anyones feelings, I just want to tell them the truth and tell it like it is esp in my family and with my friends. My kid is in theatre and there is one time she could use a ride to an event but the only person able to do that was a smoker and she coughs a lot when she is on stage with that person, so we skipped the event and she trades out of shows with that person. The theatre knows this about my kid and does their best not to put her with a smoker and if a parent smoked my kid is the only kid allowed to go outside because they know if she stays she will stop breathing. They know when she leaves the waiting room is because she can smell someone.
This was not meant to hurt anyones feelings just to state facts. People often think their pets have allergies and try all kinds of med when often all they have to do is quit smoking or they rehome pets cause their kids are allergic to them and their kids have asthma and it must be from the pets. Hello if you the general you smoke it could be from you,so to keep the pets try to quit smoking for a month and see if the kids still have allergies and if they still do,than rehome the pets. My kid is a pet sitter and volunteers with all animals and never has to use her inhaler til she comes home to the smoke filled enviroment.
Today at the bank she start breathing weird and said "mom someone here smokes" I looked and sniffed and at first I thought it was the person infront of us and asked her to step back hurting that persons feeling but the smell got stronger. I looked behind me and there was a bank manager in a nice buisness suit looking all clean and proffessional standing close by and when we got closer to her the smell got stronger. She looks really great in her expensive suit but she reeked and the suit could not cover that up.With close I mean close to the front door and we were the second ones in line.
If one member in the family smokes than the entire family IS exposed to second hand smoke, if a smoker whether it be family or a handy man enters someones home that home IS exposed to second hand smoke, usually if its just a handy man that comes once a year its no big deal but if its a family member you actually like and they actually like you back ,than there IS A LOT of second hand smoke on each family member incl pets AND in the home.

[Ann Lawrence]

My sister lives half way across the country from me. When we do see each other, it is at my folks where no pets are around. Two of her animals who got cancer, were 2 & 3 yrs of age, I have never been around them, nor was anyone who smoked around them. Her animals were NOT exposed to 2nd hand smoke, my animals WERE exposed to 2nd hand smoke every day of their life. Her's died of cancer, mine lived longer than most animals of their breads.

As I do not want to hurt your feels either. Would your daughter have gotten asthma regardless of whether your husband smoked or not? Probably, since most asthma are genetic. Is she over her asthma since your husband stopped smoke. No, she still has it. Many kids around the world are never or have never been around cigarette smoking and still have asthma. Am I saying smoking doesn't affect those that have asthma. No I am not saying that, but I am saying that ashma IS NOT caused by cigarette smoking. The fact that she does have asthma, then yes your husband should quit smoking because I am sure it affects it.

For every case one brings up smoking as a cause, there is another case that can prove the opposite. Today, its just a politically correct thing to slam the smokers. The facts are, Asthma is caused by a complex factors that researchers do not yet fully understand. As with other complex diseases including cancer, many environmental and genetic factors have been suggested as causes of asthma, but not all studies posing such claims have been verified by further studies.


If your child has it in her head, place by you, that it is the cigarette smoke that makes you sick, then what do you think she's going to do when she smells someone who had just smoked a cigarette? React to it. Asthma can also be self induced also.



The most recent study to exonerate smoking and tobacco smoke as a cause of asthma was published in the British Medical Journal July 8, 2000. In this 20-year, intergenerational study, researchers found that the rate of asthma had doubled between l976 and l996, even as the smoking rate dropped by half during that same period. California has had the second-lowest smoking rate in the U.S. for many years. In l998, its adult smoking rate was 19.2. It also has the most draconian smoking bans in the country. Nevertheless, California has the largest estimated number of persons with asthma in the U.S., with an estimated l998 prevalence of 7.1%. Then we have Kentucky who has the highest smoking rate in the United States (they grow it for a living!!!) and has implemented few restrictions on public smoking. In l998 Kentucky's adult smoking rate was 30.8%, but its estimated l998 asthma prevalence was only 5.9%. Explain that one... I could have added many other examples in many studies on this issue but we don't want to use up more space then one needs.

My whole point is that people seem to think that the cause of most any disease that they cannot understand it must be because of smoking, which is ridiculous and taking valuable time away from actually finding what does cause the disease and a potentially a cure. As far as Asthma goes, the facts are middle-class & rich parents have stopped smoking, banished it from their homes, and yet their kids are getting allergies and asthma far more often than children in more smoking-tolerant times ever did.

[Susan Sadeghian]

You have been around your sister who carries it home on her clothes. The roomy we have talked about we have never been that close to either but we are around my hubby who stinks like him. I did not say all asthma is caused by smoking, but my daughters and kids is. If they are not around smokers or others who have been around smokers,they are fine, if they are around somone who has smoked in two days or has been around someone who smoked a lot or the day they see them they litterally stop breathing. My daughter has her inhaler which she never had to use when there was no smoker living with us. Yes some times smoking may be misdiagnosed, but sometimes smokers like my roomate are in denial too. He has asthma since birth and he keeps smoking and caughing. He didnt smoke as a baby but his mom did, so I would take a guess if he stopped smoking he would stop coughing. Except I would never tell him this because we need his money to pay our mortgage and he told us his ex wife told him he would probably stop coughing non stop if he stopped smoking and he divorced her for it, because he did not need anyone telling him what to do. He coughs a lot more when he is smoking than when he is not smoking and he too thinks smoking is the healthiest ever. I am just saying if there is a problem why not try rulling out smoking by quitting for one month and if the problem persists go ahead and start again and I am not talking about you, but a general you. I dont see how it can harm humans or pets if someone does quit smoking.
A lot of smokers give up their pets because their kids have asthma. They may have gotten asthma from their smoking relatives not the pets and they may be able to keep the pets after all. I said they MAY have gotten it from their pets. If you only see your parents once a year then you may be right, you only leave the residue in for that one day and it should be gone within a week esp if they leave the windows open.
A lot of deseases were not known in earlier times, that does not mean people did not get it, they just did not know why people were wizzing,caughing, breaking out for some deseases etc or their was just not any cure so why bother talking about it. Now they have cures or ways to curb the attacks so they will talk about it more and the deseases are exposed more.Again I am not trying to hurt a smokers feelings, just stating facts I observed in a lot of people inc family members I know. Some people do get asthma from pets but a lot do get it from smoking. My stepdaughter is the only person I know who did not get it from smoking. She did not get it til she was in her 20s so it probably was not cause of her mom smoking when she was born, she got it as a firefighter from the smoke of a fire she was at. She still smokes but like I said she visits once a year and my kid cant be around her very long or around her nieces.We lived with not a single smoker for one whole year and she did not need to use her inhaler in the house or yard at all that year. She stayed away from her sister except long after the cigarette was extinguished. That is the only year she did not have to use her inhaler. Now that my hubby is hanging out with a smoker, she cant go near her dad or any room he has visited either. Her dad does not smoke but he reeks and gets her to choke because he hung out with someone who smokes every day.
Also he would never have quit smoking for a dog, but he did for my daughter and she did not have to use her inhaler after that until our new roomy moved in. Before my hubby quit she used her inhaler every 4 hrs and is now going back to that. She volunteers with animals and cats so she doesnt buy " I have to give up my cat because my child has asthma". Try to quit smoking, try to get rid of dust in your home and than if your child is still having asthma symptoms than and only than give up your cat.
I live in Ca and work in a daycare, many of my kids of smoking parents have asthma. Ca does have one of the highest asthma rates.
Only a few people report smoking asthma because they dont want to admit they caused their kids to have asthma, so out of 1000 who caused this only 1 will be honest and admit it just like with dogbites, very few will admit they were bitten by their own dog or by a chiauau or poodle, all that is too embarasing for them incl parents who caused their kids to have any kind of desease whether it be trough smoking or something else. Again I am not trying to hurt your feelings, just saying if someone has to give up their pet to try all other ways first and if their pets keep getting sick to try ALL methods to prevent it but since I never felt the need to fit in I dont exactly know how hard it is to quit or to even admit that you have to quit, so unless someone is about to give up a pet I would never directly ask that of someone. I put this in here to get a pros oppinion and to give people with an open mind and strong love and strong will power a reason to stay healthy and a alternative to keep their pets healthy and kids healthy inspite of having pets and that maybe they should try giving up smoking for their pets and kids sake. I understand its not for everyone. My kid and dog DO have asthma and they DID get it from second hand smoke and it gets worse with second and third hand smoke. I see it. Often people who get second hand smoke do suffer a lot more than the smokers themselfs do. Because of my experiences and my Entire families suffering I will always believe that smoking causes more harm and more deseases than we can count and new ones are discovered every year. I will always believe that you and my roomate are in denial. Because you are a smoker and so is my roomy, you two will always believe that there is absolutly no harm in smoking or second or third hand smoke and the sergen general,doctors,experts and I are full of it. We will never see eye to eye and I think that is the one and only thing we will ever agree on, so lets leave it at that.

[Ann Lawrence]

Just because I don't agree with your argument, that smoking was the "cause" doesn't mean I am denial. Smoking has never been stated a "cause" of Asthma. Smoking can agrevaite the airways, therefore it will affect individuals who have Asthma, after all asthma is disorder of the airways. Any smoke will, a bon fire will affect it.

I never said that there was absolutely no harm in smoking. But there is harm in almost everything we do. I stated, it is not the CAUSE of every disease out there. And I believe I also stated your husband was wise to quit. It is not the cause of ashma or any other disease for that fact, it can affect the disease. Big difference between the two. Genetics play the primary roll in what illinesses individuals have or will have. My bet is, if you research both yours & your husbands medical histories back at least three/four generations, you will find that someone had asthma, or some other respiratory illiness. Some diseases only hit every other generation.

As for parents, not reporting their smoking, I would think the doctor could smell it on them and figure it out. But you certainly give very little credit to parents. I doubt that the majority of parents would not tell the doctor they smoke. After all parents don't want their children to be sick and they are going to the doctor to get them help. Nor do they want their pets to be sick. I am sure more tell then not, after all smokers are not heartless individuals, even though some seem to think otherwise.

Your right, we won't agree on what is "the cause". But the difference is, just because you don't agree, I won't say your in denial. I'll say we have different opinions on the subject.

I can only tell individuals that I personally have not had any pets have any problems due to smoking and that my pets have always lived a long and healthy life, longer than the norm, exposed to smoking 24/7. And that I found it amusing reading this just a few days after I had to put down my 16 yr + old Dalmatian, who had hip problems which is common in her breed and old age. I guess I am to believe after reading this news that if it were not for my smoking my Dalmatian, who lived 4 years past the high norm, would have lived much longer.

But good luck to your family and I hope someday soon they find a cure for Asthma.

[Susan Sadeghian]

I never said you are in denial but that I always will believe you are in denial and smoking WAS stated as a cause in my families ashtma and in many other peoples asthma, please do not belittle my families breathing problems. They are serious. I said lets agree to disagree. My family is fine as long as they are NOt around smokers. For them it IS smokers, why else can they breath normal when no smokers are around. If your family ever is within 20 feet of you they ARE experiencing 2nd hand smoke, but again lets just agree to disagree and not belittle anyones serious breathing problems.

[Susan Sadeghian]

one last thing, my kid litterally either chokes or stops breathing when a smoker gets even somewhat close to her, she gasps for air even if we dont know the person smokes but she can smell it and her lungs gasps for air and she litterally stops breathing. I have to push her out of the person area and sometimes they fallow us because they want to talk to us. My dog has started doing this too but she is 80 lbs so I cant move her out of the way.
I started caughing a lot when our roomy talks to me and he wont get the hint that I want him to move furhter away, he keeps comming closer. Please do not tell people who stop breathing when a smoker is near by that they are full of it, thats not cosher.You believe what you want to believe and I believe what I want to believe. I dont want an argument, I just wanted an oppinion and wanted to tell people they dont have to give up their pet. Like I said quit for 2 mos and than if you are still allergic and thats the general you than give up the pet. I still dont see how it can "hurt" anyone if someone in their family stops smoking. Please do not belittle my kid almost dying everytime she smells a cigarette.