Lawn Chemicals As Possible Cause Of Canine Cancer

If you parent a dog, you would, naturally desire to have a perfect lawn, garden of back yard for your baby to run and sniff around freely. The perfectly maintained lawns and gardens, however, may be a significant health risk to your dog.

According to the six-years study of Foster Hospital for small Animals at Tufts University’s Cummings Schools of Veterinary Medicine, exposure to lawn chemicals can and has raised the risk of two different kinds of canine cancer. One of them, the canine malignant lymphoma (CML) risk was raised as high as 70% from the exposure to lawns treated with pesticides and herbicides. The study furthermore proved that large dogs of 50 pounds or more were at particular risk.

Another conducted study found that lawn chemicals led to higher risk of canine bladder cancer. The ingredients that caused the health risk are, “2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D), 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxypropionic acid (MCPP) and/or dicamba.” These ingredients are very dangerous for dogs especially since they can get into their organism trough sniffing, inhaling, be absorbed in the skin after the roll in the grass or even carried by the wind which can carry the chemicals as far as up to 50 feet from the site where they were applied.

In order to prevent any of the unfortunate situations and protect your fur baby, the safest option would be not to treat the lawn chemically at all. If you have no other choice, please do check the label before the purchase and at least try to choose the less invasive one. On the other side, there are many other available and safe options, such as compost for lawn fertilization which will leave both the lawn and your beloved dog safe and healthy.

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