HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Pseudomonas and environment (Pets)

Support Forums
>
Cystic Fibrosis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 7/1/2015 5:07 PM (GMT 0)
Does anyone know if pets (dogs) with long hair can cause problems with CF people especially babies
Also my granddaughter was diagnosed with pseudomonas and she is only 5 months old. Does her environment cause this. Should be near farm animals or household pets. Is there anything to be done to help reduce this bacteria?
Posted 7/3/2015 7:43 AM (GMT 0)
Only if she has pet allergies which can be tested for if she starts having problems/wheezing more etc.
Lots of people with cf have pets. I've been through them all, rabbits, Guinea pigs, hamsters, dogs. I now have 2 cats.

Pseudomomas is everywhere in the environment. Normal psuedomonas from the environment might cause a small infection but doesn't do so well in CF lungs so can be got rid of with antibiotics and its not likely to reoccur again. There is transmissible and untransmissable mutations of pseudomomas that has different DNA structure. Hospitals are worse places to be for bugs really as the constant cleaning causes them to get wiser and mutate to survive.

She can be near farm animals but not the hay. Hay and straw contains aspergillus and most people with cf are likely to get abpa which is an allergic response to the aspergillus fungus. So she can ride horses for example but wouldnt be able to clean out their stalls.
Posted 7/13/2015 12:18 AM (GMT 0)
Actually, I've known many CFers, myself included, who've had horses and handles hay for decades with no aspergillus issue. I've mucked stalls since I was 6 every day of my life and not only fed hay, but helped load and unload haytrucks. It's been my experience that horse hay is pretty high quality (horses wont eat moldy hay unless they are starving) and aspergillus wouldnt be much of an issue. I WOULD be concerned about round baled cow hay though. I also have bad allergies to mold and never had an issue with my horses (I had my own stable and 6 critters). If you are super concerned, wear a high quality respirator mask for grooming and stall mucking. That will cut down on the dust, which your granddaughter should NOT be breathing. I always vacuumed my horses :) Seriously..... Too clean an environment is just as bad as filthy.

Like the moderator said, PA is everywhere and you're going to pick it up if your lungs are comprimised. Best you can do is keep the lungs clear and your immune system cranking.
Posted 5/1/2016 4:12 AM (GMT 0)
Yes Pseudomonas (P) is everywhere! Dogs ears are often infected with a strain of it esp those with flop ears and after a bath or swim. It is an opportunist - loves warm moist places which a dogs ear is. But research at the QCMRI, Brisbane, Australia showed that very few of the strains were found both in dogs ears and children with CF even though sharing the same house. It is nice to know.
Certainly when handling hay, cleaning horse stables and in any environment which is dusty wear a dust mask. Also if hosing a floor that has been recently wet - hosing creates aerosols and wet floors are ideal environments for P to grow on - and not just P but other bacteria, yeasts and fungi!
ie THINK what you are doing and reduce exposure by any reasonable means - not just masks. But do no get paranoid about it.
Posted 5/1/2016 4:14 AM (GMT 0)
Remember too: evidence is that children living with 2 or more healthy pets have on the whole less allergies.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply