Can Puppies Get Sick from Humans? (14 Illnesses + Care Tips)

Research shows that some human illnesses can jump the species barrier and make your puppy ill – but it is rare.

What do you need to be aware of to stop your sickness from infecting your vulnerable puppy?

Puppies Aren’t Immunocompetent Yet

Newborn puppies, like any other newborn, are especially vulnerable to infections, so regardless of whether your illness can pass to your puppy, practice excellent hand hygiene and consider wearing a facemask if necessary.

Typically, your puppy can catch flu (canine and human), but bacterial infections are the area of most concern.

Most bacterial infections aren’t fussy about their host and rapidly spread from person to puppy.

Are All Breeds Equally Susceptible?

Different dog breeds have different susceptibility to various illnesses:

• Bulldogs have respiratory issues and can overheat quickly.
• Boxers have a high risk of cancer, and catching mono from you increases that risk.
• Golden retrievers get skin allergies.
• Pugs have respiratory issues and pick up eye infections.
• Cocker spaniels are prone to conjunctivitis (pink eye).

Pedigree dogs can have genetic issues and weaknesses but can be more prone to illnesses because of their features, like droopy eyes or squashed noses.

What Do You Need to Do When You Are Sick?

When you are sick, you have three areas of concern:

• Looking after your puppy.
• Stopping the spread of illness.
• Looking after yourself.

Looking After Your Puppy

If you have vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms making you feel ill, you need to call in help for puppy walking and care.

If there is no one else to share the load, concentrate on the essentials – food and water for your puppy and access to outside space for bathroom breaks.

Your puppy will survive for a couple of days with minimal attention while you concentrate on getting better.

Your presence, despite your illness, will be enough to reassure your puppy.

Control Infection

Preventing the spread of infection involves practicing standard hygiene more diligently.

Wash your hands before handling the puppy, dispensing food, water, or playing with toys.

Avoid close contact with your puppy if you have one of the rare illnesses that can spread from you to your puppy.

In summary:

• Frequent hand washing.
• Put used tissues in an inaccessible bin.
• Limit close contact between your face and your puppy.
• Open windows and doors to change the air regularly.

Look After Yourself

Keep any medication out of reach of your puppy and allow yourself to rest, drink plenty of fluids, and don’t worry about not being as active as usual.

Most illnesses take a few days of feeling under the weather, and then you can work back to your normal activities for you and your puppy.

What Illnesses Can You Pass to Your Puppy?

Most illnesses are species-specific, but some diseases affect humans and puppies.

1. Can Your Puppy Catch Your Stomach Virus?

Stomach virus or Gastroenteritis is an inflammation of the stomach lining and is typically the result of Norovirus or Rotavirus.

These viruses are easy to catch and highly infectious.

Sadly, you can pass the stomach virus onto your puppy, and it will display the same symptoms as you.

You need to consult a vet for a confirmed diagnosis because there may be another underlying cause for your puppy’s symptoms.

2. Can You Pass on Your Cold to Your Puppy?

The common cold is a mild viral infection, varying in intensity of symptoms.

There are over 200 viruses capable of giving you a cold, but the rhinovirus family is the most common.

The good news is that your puppy won’t catch your human cold. The bad news is that your puppy can catch the canine equivalent, complete with sneezing, coughing, and runny nose and eyes.

But these symptoms can indicate a more severe illness like kennel cough or canine distemper.

It’s worth a chat with your vet to decide if your puppy needs a health check.

3. Do Puppies Catch Flu?

The influenza virus makes you feel very ill, and it can be fatal in vulnerable people.

Although your puppy can catch some strains of influenza (H1N1 and H3N2 strains), it doesn’t have the same impact on your puppy as it does on you.

Your puppy can catch canine flu, and this can be serious for your puppy’s health.

There are no cases of humans catching canine flu.

4. What About Fever?

Fever is the symptom of running a high temperature when your body is fighting an underlying infection.

Your puppy can suffer from a fever, but it won’t catch your feverish disease. If your puppy has a fever, it is from a dog-related illness.

Remember that dog’s bodies run at a higher temperature than yours, and while you have a fever above 100.4˚F, your puppy’s average temperature is 100.5-102.5˚F; you only need to worry about fever in your puppy above 103˚F.

If your puppy is feverish, it is time for a visit to the vet.

5. What About Parvo?

Human parvovirus only infects humans.

Canine parvovirus is a serious risk to your puppy between six weeks and six months. Your vet will recommend vaccination at six weeks, eight weeks, and finally 12 weeks.

Your puppy is vulnerable to infection until after it has had the entire course of vaccination.

Some breeds are more at risk than others – American Staffordshire Terriers, Doberman Pincers, Labrador Retrievers, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, and English Springer Spaniels.

6. What About Herpes or Cold Sores?

This virus is another that has one version for humans and another for canines.

You can’t pass your virus onto your puppy, and your puppy can’t give its virus to you.

Canine Herpesvirus (CHV) is potentially fatal in puppies – fluid-filled blister around the genitals and respiratory issues. The disease is less severe in adult dogs.

7. What About Bacterial Infections Like Strep?

Most sore throats are viral in origin, but strep is a bacterial infection from Streptococcus. You may know this illness as strep throat.

Your puppy will not catch strep throat from you, but it can carry the infection from you and reinfect you and other members of your family.

If you keep catching strep throat, you may want to get your vet to check and treat your puppy to eliminate this infection source.

Other bacterial infections you can share with your puppy include:

• Salmonellosis – causes fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. You pass it to your puppy if your hand hygiene is poor. The feces carry it, but it transmits through the mouth.
• Campylobacteriosis is like Salmonellosis in effects and transmission.
• MRSA – you carry it on your skin, and this can infect your puppy.
• Tuberculosis can pass to your puppy and make it severely ill.

8. Are Lice an Issue?

Despite massive advances in cleanliness, lice still live alongside humans – bed bugs and head lice still infest homes and hair, and their food is human blood.

The specialist diet means your lice won’t infect your puppy. You may find the odd head louse on your puppy if you have head lice in the family, but it won’t survive in your puppy’s hair.

Your puppy may suffer from a lice infestation, but it will be canine-specific, and you can’t catch lice from your puppy.

9. Can Puppies Get Scabies from Humans?

Scabies is the condition when tiny mites infest human skin and lay eggs.

Your scabies mites can travel to your puppy, but they won’t reproduce or survive.

Your puppy can get the canine equivalent – mange, and this requires prompt treatment from your vet. But your puppy won’t get mange from your scabies.

10. Can You Spread Pink Eye to Your Puppy?

Pink eye is the slang name for conjunctivitis – itchy, sore eyes resulting from an infection of the eye lining membrane.

This infection is one you can easily pass to your puppy. It is rare for you to catch pink eye from your puppy.

Any puppy can get conjunctivitis, but hounds, retrievers, poodles, pugs, spaniels, and the Pekingese are all particularly susceptible to pink eye.

11. What About Pneumonia?

Pneumonia is a bacterial or viral infection in the lungs.

Most Pneumonia results from bacterial infections and is more severe in vulnerable people.

Typically, you and your puppy don’t share respiratory infections. Your puppy can get these types of illnesses but from other dogs and not from humans.

Technically it is always possible, but super rare.

12. What About Bronchitis?

Bronchitis is the inflammation of the bronchial tubes, and you tend to catch it because of colds or flu.

Your puppy can get a form of bronchitis (kennel cough) but not from you.

13. Can Puppies Catch Chickenpox from Humans?

Chickenpox is a uniquely human disease, and neither chickens nor puppies can catch it.

If your puppy seems to have chickenpox, it is likely to be:

• Allergic reaction.
• Bacterial skin infection.
• Fleas or mites.

14. What About Mono?

Several viruses result in mononucleosis, a contagious disease spread through the exchange of body fluids like saliva.

The “kissing disease” spreads rapidly through young populations found in a college.

Technically, you can transmit the Epstein-Barr virus (responsible for most mono in humans) to your puppy by exchanging puppy kisses or allowing the puppy to lick your mouth.

It doesn’t give your puppy mono, but it can make your puppy sick.

Some research indicates that this virus may result in lymphoma (cancer) in adult dogs.

What Do You Do When Your Puppy Gets Sick?

If your puppy is showing signs of being ill, your first call is to your vet.

Puppies can get sick quickly, so establishing what may be wrong with your puppy is the best way of dealing with illness. Unlike children, your puppy is likely to spend a lot of time sleeping.

The tips for dealing with a sick puppy are:

• Timetable medication and treatment.
• Have special treats available to reward your puppy for taking its medicine or cooperating with procedures like eye washing.
• Understand how to administer any medication – a syringe without a needle helps squirt liquid medicines down a puppy’s throat.
• Schedule regular bathroom breaks and have paper down to help clear up after a pup with messy symptoms.
• Wash all the puppy toys to prevent reinfection.
• Keep washing your hands.
• Snuggle and play with your puppy as appropriate.

If your puppy has a loss of appetite, you can tempt it by hand-feeding it small amounts of treat foods and follow this by feeding its main meals.

Encourage your puppy to drink plenty of water by allowing it to lick water from your fingers; this reminds the puppy it is thirsty. Once your puppy has the taste of the water, it will want to drink more.

Keep an eye on your puppy while it sleeps to ensure it is not feverish, cold, or unconscious.

Most puppies bounce back quickly from illness if they receive appropriate medication and care.

Conclusion

Some illnesses you can pass onto your puppy, but generally, your puppy gets ill from infections picked up from hard surfaces and contact with other dogs.

You can help both you and your puppy stay healthy and free from illness by practicing handwashing and keeping your puppy vaccinated.