Dogs and cats at home: how to protect them from aggressive products
When you have dogs and cats at home , it's easy to forget their most obvious needs, like quality food, a comfortable bed, and a spotless litter box. It's less easy to monitor certain aspects we often overlook, like the presence of chemicals in the home or garden.
Detergents, solvents, and cleaners are among the main culprits: very common in our homes, they often contain corrosive or irritating chemicals, which can cause serious problems for our pets, in some cases even very serious ones.
Dogs and cats at home: allergies and sensitivity to chemicals
The dogs and cats that live in our homes are inevitably exposed to everything we keep in the house, from the food we carefully choose for them to the products we use for cleaning the house and for personal hygiene.
Spending part of the day on floors and surfaces in the home, our pets can develop allergies and sensitivities to certain products: foaming agents, sanitizers, and solvents almost always contain chemical agents, which in some cases can prove risky.
Dogs and cats are equally exposed : while it is true that dogs are generally more curious and more prone to involuntary ingestion, cats are more sensitive to poisoning and risk more serious consequences.
The most critical dangers are those linked to the ingestion of chemical products , but even inhalation or simple contact with certain substances can cause allergies, dermatitis and respiratory problems that can lead to real pathologies requiring veterinary care.
Poisoning at home: the risks for dogs and cats
According to a report by CNITV (Centre National d'Informations Toxicologiques Vétérinaires of the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Lyon), poisonings from household products account for 8% of reported poisonings in dogs and cats . Household chemicals are the most potentially dangerous substances for pets after pesticides, drugs, and environmental pollutants.
As reported in the AIVPA Bulletin “Indoor Poisoning in Animals” (Della Rocca G., Conti MB, Fuccelli A.), the most common routes of exposure are oral (through ingestion or following grooming) and cutaneous.
Intoxication through inhalation is less likely, but it should always be considered that dogs and cats live very close to the floor and to any fumes from the products we use to clean. It is no coincidence that when cleaning the floor, especially if you use volatile or alcohol-based products, it is best to keep dogs and cats out of the room until the surfaces are completely dry.
But there are other precautions we can keep in mind to protect our pets : among these, avoiding the use of products based on bleach and ammonia, preferring products that do not emit harmful substances and do not leave chemical residues on home surfaces.
What are the most dangerous products for dogs and cats?
We all have them at home: detergents, solvents, liquid soaps, degreasers and sanitizers for all types of materials, which we often use only after putting on a good pair of protective gloves.
In addition to ammonia and bleach , which we know can cause serious irritation to the mucous membranes of our small pets, there are several chemical agents from which it is important to protect dogs and cats.
Among the products normally present in our homes, the substances that most often cause poisoning in pets can be classified into four groups:
- The hydrocarbons and their derivatives, which can be found in paint solvents and moth repellents. Among these substances there are methanol, ethanol and isopropanol, very often used in products with degreasing and disinfectant properties;
- i soaps and detergents, such as spray stain removers, washing machine and dishwasher detergents: their ingestion leads to the onset of vomiting and corrosive phenomena of the gastrointestinal tract;
- le caustic substances, i.e. acids and alkalis found in toilet detergents, anti-rust, descaling, anti-limescale products, metal cleaning and oven products, as well as those based on ammonia. As they are corrosive, these substances can cause very serious damage even with minimal exposure;
- i disinfectants: Phenol and phenolic compounds found in many disinfectants can cause corrosive lesions, especially in small cats.
Then there are phthalates and propylene glycol , which are found in detergents, degreasers and home deodorizers: highly fragrant and very effective at cleaning, these products can cause irritation and interfere with the endocrine system of animals.
Dogs and cats at home: which products to choose
The world of chemistry encompasses everything we can see: “Among material things,” explain Peter Atkins and Loretta Jones in Principles of Chemistry (2008), “none is beyond the reach of chemistry, whether living or dead, vegetable or mineral, on Earth or on a distant star.”
From the rocks we walk on to the flesh we're made of, the two professors explain, chemistry is everywhere: just as we avoid bringing toxic plants into the house that can harm our pets, we can protect them by choosing products based on vegetable oils to clean floors and surfaces.
In fact, there are products that do not emit harmful substances and that exploit the properties of natural elements and new chemical compounds to guarantee the best results without any risk for our pets.
Even the most precious floors and extraordinary maintenance operations can be compatible with the health of house dogs and cats : simply replace aggressive products with pet-friendly solutions such as Apiwax soft parquet wax based on beeswax and propolis or Mistrall, a sanitizing surface cleaner based on plant-based surfactants and certified by ECOCERT and RSPO.
In general, it's best to choose products made from plant-based substances, which don't carry warnings on the label and are free of fragrances, which can confuse our pets.
