How do we not get sick from our pets sleeping in our beds considering they defecate without cleaning and are, well, naked all the time?
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Your immune system is designed specifically to prevent you getting sick from random germs in the environment – we evolved for millions of years without soap and being naked all the time.
Obviously serious infections exist and one should aim to avoid them, but I think people overestimate what is likely to actually cause I’ll Ed’s. <- edit: pretend that says illnesses
Your immune system is doing its job.
There is a chance of you getting something from your pet in a typical situation but it’s apparently small enough that we rarely hear about it.
White blood cell is like the police and the germs are the burglars and the police eat the burglars to keep you safe. At least that’s how it was explained when I was five. -Source: Osmosis Jones
Some people develop allergy like symptoms from their pets sleeping in their bed, so cleaning the sheets regularly (more than once a week) is required.
But having your pets sleep with you can also have benefitial results.
[https://www.sleepfoundation.org/animals-and-sleep/sleeping-with-pets](https://www.sleepfoundation.org/animals-and-sleep/sleeping-with-pets)
Most germs that infect dogs and cats don’t infect humans so it’s not that easy to get sick from them.
Up to a limit , look up Elizabeth Taylor and how she was living ( messy ) with animals all over the house . She got pretty sick from them .
I do have dogs and they sleep in my bed but there’s extra cleaning that I would not do if it was just me ( Roomba twice a day , wet mopping once a day, they don’t go in the house because they have free access to the backyard ..) so on
It’s all a balance
My friend has an indoor/outdoor cat that sleeps in his bed. He gets nasty eye infections more than most. Looks a lot like pink eye. I had always assumed it was the cat. Is this not happening to most people who let their cat roam the neighborhood and crawl into their bed?
We’ve all been brainwashed by society to believe everything needs to be perfectly clean to keep us from getting sick. Humans were living with dogs longer than humans have been making clothing.
That’s a good question, and the answers are these:
Firstly, as pointed out by others, our immune systems are capable of dealing with most bacteria and pathogens carried by our pets.
Secondly, pets do a lot of self-cleaning during a normal day. Cats do it multiple times a day and dogs do it less often and much less comprehensively, but they still do it, especially around the nasty parts.
Thirdly, assuming you change your bed dress often enough, you get rid of a lot of said bacteria and pathogens by virtue of washing said bed dress.
And lastly, even though the quote ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’ (L. Brandeis) originally applies to politics, it also applies here: sunlight (via UV rays) and fresh air (via air circulation) help eliminate a lot of the potentially nasty stuff that lives in and on your bed so long as a/ you open your bed and pull back the covers every day when you get up and b/ you actually let sunlight/daylight into your bedroom during the day.
The human body got used to a lot of stuff, because weve lived on earth for so long, and have gone through so many things. Thats why we dont get sick from a mere dog sleeping next to us
But, hold on, do you not clean your pets after they shit? I hope thats not the case lmao
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