Pregnant, bye to our pet?

There are many new parents who, upon receiving the news that they are expecting a baby, wonder how the fact of pregnancy will affect pregnancy. live at home with a pet. In principle, pregnancy and pets are not contraindicated. Of course, it is important that we take care and precautions during these months so that they do not transmit any disease to us.

When knowing that we are pregnant, we must say Goodbye to our pet? Living with a pet (a dog or a cat, for example) when you are pregnant requires keeping a series of considerations in mind, since domestic animals can not only transmit some diseases that are dangerous in pregnancy such as toxoplasmosis or parasitosis, but also that, in addition, they can create some other dangerous situation for the future mother (trips, falls ...).

Avoid direct contact with your pet

Caring for a pet can exhaust anyone. Therefore, and whenever possible, let us not hesitate to delegate your care and attention to other people during these months. In addition, this will not only allow us to rest, but by not coming into direct contact with the animal we will be avoiding possible infections.

If we have a dog or a cat, it will be essential that we make sure that the animal is vaccinated. In the same way, we will try to deworm it with any of the products that, for this purpose, we can find in drugstores or specialized stores.
Regularly aerating and disinfecting areas where the pet usually sleeps is a trick to keep the environment in good condition.

Pets for all tastes

In the case of birds and fish, contagion is usually much more difficult to occur. Anyway, it is always advisable to maintain a minimum security measures when we have a pet at home: wash your hands after having cleaned them, avoid direct contact with your food and excrement ... Hamsters or rabbits, on the other hand, are usually cause cutaneous infections.

Although its severity is not usually significant, eliminating the redness or spots caused by direct contact with these animals in the skin implies having to ingest a series of medications that during pregnancy are not very advisable. Therefore, we must take extreme precautions in order to get away from possible infections such as listerioris, leptospira, toxoplasmosis or herpes.

Symptoms of diseases from contact with pets

The most common symptoms of any of these conditions are usually muscle pain, weight loss, tenths of fever, vomiting ... Being such common manifestations, the danger lies precisely in that these infections are often confused with some symptoms of their own of pregnancy.

Therefore, it is essential that if we notice any strange signs, we should not only contact the doctor as soon as possible, but we should also mention that we live with an animal during pregnancy. Although it seems incredible, this simple reference will help you to have the possibility that our little animal has infected us with some condition.

In that case, the most likely thing is that they prescribe a mild treatment that will help us prevent the infection from going further.

5 tips to live with our pet

1. Since the animal was already living with us before the baby was born, we must be vigilant when our little one arrives home. In this way we will be sure that the animal is not jealous of the child.

2. Try not to go out alone with your dog and even less if it is of a considerable size. It could be the case that he ran and threw you to the ground.

3. A good trick to avoid the jealousy of domestic animals is to try that our pet gets used little by little to other children for smells and the movements of the children are quite familiar.

4. If your baby is going to have a room separate from ours, it is customary for your pet to avoid entering it if we are not present.

5. Sometimes dogs have the habit of getting under chairs, tables ... If your baby's crib is accessible, try to get your dog used to not hide there because he could dump it tomorrow when playing.

While you are in the clinic it may be good for someone in the family to take home some baby clothes so that our pet can become familiar with its smell. When you get home, also, leave the baby in his father's arms while we greet and play a little with our pet so you do not feel displaced at any time.

Marisol Nuevo Espín