Your Dog's Health Is At Risk If You Don't Clean Their Bowl Properly

Your Dog's Health Is At Risk If You Don't Clean Their Bowl Properly

Harmful microorganisms such as bacteria can thrive in your dog’s bowl if you don’t wash it often or properly, making it as contaminated as a toilet bowl. Some serious disease outbreaks, including E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes, have been linked to contaminated pet food.

While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided helpful guidelines for preparing and storing pet foods, not everyone knows or follows them. Two veterinary experts discovered something surprising when they conducted an experiment.

Emily Luisana, a member of the veterinary advisory board of Tailored, and Caitlyn Getty, a scientific affairs veterinarian for NomNomNow Inc, worked together to create an eight-day bowl contamination experiment using fifty dog parents.

The participants were divided into three groups. The first group followed the FDA guidelines. The second group followed the same guidelines, but with additional preventive measures. The third was free to do whatever they wanted with their dog bowls before and after feeding.

After the experiment, the authors noticed a significant decrease in bacterial contamination among Groups A and B. In Group C; they noticed that none of the participants bothered to wash their dogs’ bowls throughout the experiment, despite receiving information about the FDA guidelines.

The study authors advocate that extra measures should be taken to educate the public about the importance of cleaning dog bowls due to the health risks that contaminated dog bowls pose.

Image Credit: YouTube

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