Is it true that dog saliva is the cleanest type of saliva?

Answer 1

NO, they get infections from licking themselves all the time. This is an old wives tale.

Answer 2

Absolutely not, in any way, can you consider a dog's saliva clean. A dog bite can rapidly become infected because of the assortment of bacteria found in canine saliva. In fact, in many cases of deep dog bites requiring stitches (on humans and other dogs) a drainage hole is left to allow infections to drain and antibiotics are almost always given...

I can't believe how many people said yes... here are the straight up facts. Canine saliva does contain some anti-microbial enzymes, but your mouth contains the same ones, in fact, most mammals have anti-bacterial aspects to their saliva (as well as numerous other enzymes involved in digestion.) They don't have any sort of super-charged cleaning mechanism in their mouth or salivary glands. If your dog is out in the yard and chews on dead mouse, whatever bacteria were on that mouse are now in your pets mouth. If this weren't true your dog would never get sick, and every time he licked a wound it would never ever get infected. Dogs mouth's, as well as the mouths of just about every mammal are a mass breeding ground for bacteria and infection. The anti-microbial agents help reduce the chance of the bacteria invading the entire system (body) but they don't make it 'clean' or 'safe' or 'anti-septic' in any way.

The whole misconception comes from the idea that dogs lick their wounds. They do, and they DO do it to clean the wound and because saliva contains certain enzymes which speed healing. Guess what, your saliva and that of most mammals contains a lot of the same enzymes! So do your tears actually... Most mammals lick their wounds for the same reason, and there is nothing special about canine saliva that makes it especially clean. The anti-septic abilities of saliva will never outweigh the infectious qualities of it... the difference is that when a canine licks his own wounds, his body has already been dealing with those same strains of bacteria and generally has an ample supply of anti-bodies already flowing through the blood stream. Again, you would get the same benefits from licking your own wounds.

Answer 3

No. Dog saliva is less dangerous to humans than human saliva is to dogs. But dog saliva has a higher bacteria count than human saliva does. It's just that dog saliva is less hazzardous to humans--their bacteria is least likely to hurt humans.

Answer 4

no a dog saliva is the cleanest type of saliva

Answer 5

not sure but i have heard that the dog has the cleanest mouth

Answer 6

not the cleanest type but alot cleaner than cats or so .dogs are like humans they eat bones to clean their teeth. humans brush

Answer 7

Yes

Answer 8

Old wives tale, but true, think about it, they clean themselves, cuts and such, and they heal cleaner then when the human intervention comes into play, IE... when we put medications on the animal and what do they do, LICK IT! So as I say do the research thang and make your own decision...

Answer 9

well i watched a show on tv once a year or two ago where they did studies and found that a dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's mouth

Answer 10

ya its weird but true hu i have a dog it licks everthing