The Perils of Pet Intimacy

Jan. 17, 2011— -- Nikki Moustaki knew something was wrong when she got strep throat for the sixth time in a year. Her doctor wanted to take out her tonsils. But Moustaki, an otherwise healthy 30-something, was determined to uncover the source of the infection.

"I saw a bunch of specialists, and one suggested my dog might be a carrier," said Moustaki, a New York City-based dog expert and trainer. "I had never thought of that. When you think of contagious diseases in dogs you think of rabies and ringworm, you don't think of strep."

After four walks a day on the streets of Hell's Kitchen, Moustaki's dogs -- a schnauzer called Pepper and Ozzie, a schnoodle -- would curl up beside her in bed.

Following her doctor's surprising suggestion, Moustaki started cleaning Pepper and Ozzie's paws with baby wipes after each walk. And she's been strep-free ever since.

Increasingly considered part of the family, pets are thought to live in more than 60 percent of U.S. households, according to a 2009 study.

And they're not just living with us. Polls suggest that half of dog owners and up to three quarters of cat owners sleep with their pets.

With pet intimacy on the rise, a report published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases documents some unlikely conditions linked to sleeping with, kissing or being licked by pets. Although the examples are rare, they might make you think twice about snuggling up next to your dog tonight.

MRSA

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections start out as small, red, pimple-like boils on the skin. But they can quickly evolve into painful abscesses that can burrow through the skin infecting the blood, bones and even the heart. And because they're resistant to typical antibiotics, they can be tricky to treat.

When a 48-year-old diabetic man and has wife had unexplained, recurrent MRSA infections, doctors tested their dog's nostrils for the bacteria. It matched the MRSA collected from the couple's nostrils and their wounds (the husband, who was diabetic, had an infected leg stump after a below-the-knee amputation for a non-healing wound and the wife had lesions on her skin). After four months of treatment, the couple and their dog were MRSA-free. Although the couple was seriously ill throughout the ordeal, the dog was fine, according to the report.