Hygiene issue with dog and baby

[fluffyslippersplease]

I'm expecting a baby in October. Dh had the dog before we met 5 years ago. I really am not a dog person which Dh knew. The dog is quite old and seems to have chronic problems with skin, ears and particularly his eyes. We had his eyes operated on but the problems persist. It's constantly shedding skin and hair everywhere and its eyes are always filled with gunge. You clean them and apply drops and ten minutes later they're green again. Two vets have just said keep cleaning and use the drops. I'm very concerned about the hygiene aspects of having this dog around the baby, even around me. I've already had four miscarriages. I have suggested to dh that the dog should remain in the conservatory and the garden rather than coming into the main house. Dh is totally against this because he likes to spend time with the dogs and the conservatory, although it has tv, sofa etc, isn't as comfortable as the rest of the house. He acts like I'm Cruella Deville in this and just accuses me of not liking the dog. I don't dislike the dog. I feel sorry for it but I really don't like touching and stroking it because of its problems especially having a baby. We also have a youngish dc he had from a previous relationship that strokes the dog a lot and I worry about it touching the dog and then touching the baby.

You're being massively unreasonable.

From what you're saying, the dog just has problems with his eyes and sheds a lot - why would that pose any kind of hygiene issue for you or your baby? Touching dog hair doesn't mean your child will spontaneously combust!

Let the poor thing be. If DH suggested our dog be confined to one room in the house, I'd be telling him he could spend his life in one room if he wanted but the dog would be staying with me!

We do not call other humans 'it' because it dehumanises them

I can't believe you need to have this explained.

@MilleniumHallsWalledGarden don't lecture me about my language. It's very pretentious.

This dog needs a referral to an eye specialist to get it sorted out - problem then solved .

I honestly can not believe some of the comments on here! I do not think OP is being unreasonable at all!
Dogs have this horrendously awful smell that makes me feel like throwing up and dog owners do not know this as they are used to it! Think of a newborn baby breathing it that smell- if you can not get rid of the dog completely I would go with leaving the dog in the conservatory and then keeping the baby in a room with air purifiers and humidifiers.

Op YABU - the dog came first, dogs are great for kids and it sound like the hound is just living his twilight years.
No one disowned my grandad, when during the end Of his life he was incontinent and bedridden that’s not how it works.
We are in it for the long haul.
The baby will be fine.

I would suggest sardines in olive oil for the dog thoguh, oils and fish really can sort oug dry skin

Also please don’t follow the advice from @HyunJiEun it’s bloody horrid

Oh dont be ridiculous. If a dog smells, it's because they aren't being cared for adequately. If they are bathed/groomed properly and their teeth are clean and they have a healthy diet, they shouldn't smell.

The ear and eye infections are most likely to be allergies which won't harm you or the baby. As someone who works with dogs and handled some pretty big strong ones during my pregnancy I do think you're being unreasonable. The only thing I had to be avoid was dealing with any dogs that were positive for zoonotic diseases such as E. coli, campylobacter or salmonella. Other than that as a risk assessment done by my manager I was to wash my hands after handling the dogs and with the particularly boisterous ones ensure I had colleagues for support. There is scientific evidence that a baby brought up in a home with a pet has a better immune system. I presume the dog has its own bed, given it's old I would imagine it would just chill on its bed. The problem will be your baby when it becomes mobile and not leaving the elderly dog alone.

@fluffyslippersplease out of interest, do you know what food the dog is on?

There are certain quality feeds that may help the dogs skin condition so may help you relax. Some of the natural products may help too, such as leucillin or the stinky stuff range for the eyes. The dog does need treating to make him more comfortable and that would in turn make you more comfortable. Definitely worth looking into

@HyunJiEun - you personally feel this way, so you won’t get a dog, and you probably wouldn’t marry someone with a dog knowing full well they live for fifteen odd years? Right.
Fair play, that’s your perogative.
BUT it’s totally unreasonable to marry a man with a dog and expect him to get rid of an elderly dog with health problems who we all know is more than likely to end up living out his twilight years in a tiny kennel without the love of his “dad” and without any comfort- scared and confused not knowing why they can’t go home

I think it's just when I look at the dog and see green gunge it looks very infectious to me. If it didn't have that I wouldn't feel the same. The hair and dry skin I can cope with.

Is it infectious though? Have you spoken to the vet about your concerns?
I don’t see how this ‘eye gunk’ would regularly, if ever, get so near or on the baby that it would be an issue. The dog isn’t going to go and rub it’s gunky eyes on the baby, is it? Presumably you wouldn’t let it? A quick sniff, if any contact at all - I can’t imagine an old dog being that interested in a baby tbh - then let it go about it’s business. They’re not sharing a bed.

Also a spoonful of coconut oil in his food every day will help with the dry skin. Does wonders for their coat and apparently deters fleas too. Not had frontline in 3 years and not a flea to be seen.

It’s fine if you don’t like dogs and don’t want dogs around your baby. OP chose a man who already had the dog. Why? Can’t start kicking off now.

YABU. I cant imagine making an old frail dog sleep away from everyone in the house and never allowed to be with family, thats horribly fcking cruel.
Go back to the vets and get the eyes sorted. As for hygiene, many studies have shown that children who grow up with dogs and other animals are FAR less likely to develop allergies and asthma when older so actually, you are entirely wrong there aswell.

@nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut Some old dogs can just be smelly sadly, my last dog in her last 4 months was groomed and bathed, with clean teeth but her Coat got dusty, and her breath stale and the vet said it was an unfortunate side effect of her congestive heart failure and we just needed to help her be comfy

@fluffyslippersplease so it’s a witch hunt as everyone agrees your DH is correct and you are wrong. Sorry you didn’t get the replies to validate your incorrect opinion but YABU.

Dogs don’t cause miscarriages, and unless the eye condition is born contagious and impacts pregnancy the dog poses zero threat to you or to your baby. You just don’t like the look of it and now you’ve a baby on the way it’s out with the old in with the new regardless of how the dog did nothing wrong and your DH is it’s only family.

My 19 month old old has shared my bed with my old dogs (one passed away at 16, the other is 16 this year) Only illness my child has ever had was croup, and he caught that from another kid at the child minders.

Why don't you discuss the dogs health issues with the vet again? Could he have an allergy to something that's causing these issues? It could be something quite easily solved.

It’s worth going back to a vet. If there isn’t a physical cause ( I assume the operation treated any issue like that thing where the eyelashes curl in or the skin folds are too close) then ask the vet about taking a swab to find out what’s causing the infections. It could be something that doesn’t respond to the usual antibiotics. It can’t be comfortable for the poor dog. You could try a change of diet for the dog if any the issues are allergy related or at least aggravated by allergies.

Tiny babies won't be going anywhere near the dog. Toddlers eat dirt and stick their hands in their own poop.

Tbh given how little exposure babies are going to have to germs in the current climate and how important germs are in the first year of life in terms of cutting down on things like the risk of asthma and childhood leukaemia, I wouldn't be worried about a dog. Quite the opposite.

The problem is more that you don't like the dog and never have and this is a convenient reason to pressure him to get rid of it, even if it's not really a good reason. Maybe he can stay on top of the cleaning etc., which he should be doing with a newborn and being off on paternity leave anyway.

I think you're asking in the wrong place, OP, as MN can be quite strident about dogs.

FWIW, I wouldn't turn a hair at having a baby around dogs. I grew up with them (and cats, ponies, chickens, small furries, etc), and while we were taught to respect that they were dogs (rather than living stuffed toys), we were also thoroughly "unhygienic". One of the dogs used to lick our mouths when he dug us out of bed in the morning.

My siblings and I never had a day's illness, and no allergies. My mum used to say it was because we were brought up with animals.

@Runtowintowalk witch hunt because people are making assumptions about my treatment of dc because I said 'it strokes the dog' which was merely my way of avoiding outing details, same way I didn't use the dogs name

'Outing ' ffs

@Glowcat that is the operation that was done. It was to do with the eyelashes being inside the lid. I will ask about the swabbing.

@ScarfLadysBag I'm not trying to get rid of it. I stupidly thought it wasn't unreasonable to keep the dog from accessing two rooms in order to keep at least some rooms clean