Smokers sometimes comment that they feel picked-on, like a minority group with no rights.
MyPetsDoctor.com is not here to pick on smokers, just to ask them to make considerations for pets we love.
Pets are subject to the same effects from secondhand smoke as people. I once had a Doberman patient who belonged to a terminal chain-smoker. I am not exaggerating when I say I literally saw this dog every few weeks for a cough. When the lady passed away he went to live with a nephew who was a non-smoker and thereafter the only time I saw him was for routine preventive care. The power of the body to heal itself is amazing.
I used to radiograph the Doberman’s chest periodically. Mainly I was looking for lung cancer to show up (from which, by the way, his smoking owner died). He never developed cancer during the time I treated him, but he had terrible emphysema with scarring of his airways.
Our pets are much too precious to subject to a carcinogenic irritant that could take the joy from their lives and take their lives from our lives.
See you tomorrow, Dr. Randolph.
