Exposure to cigarette smoke puts dogs at a six times higher risk of bladder cancer. That’s according to a new study of Scottish terriers out of Purdue University.
The three-year study followed 120 Scottish terriers. The breed is roughly 20 times more susceptible to bladder cancer compared with other dogs - making the effects of smoke exposure easier to measure.
“If we did this across the general dog population it would take hundreds to thousands,” said Deborah Knapp, Distinguished Professor of Veterinary Oncology at Purdue. “Because you don’t really know which dogs to study. It told us where to look.”
Knapp said researchers measured both how much dog owners smoked - and how much smoke exposure showed up in dog urine.
“The dogs that lived in homes with cigarette smokers were six times more likely to develop cancer than those that didn’t,” she said.
Knapp said because of urine testing the study also showed that dogs who were exposed to smoke outside the home showed an increased risk of cancer.
“There was a higher exposure rate than what we had anticipated,” she said.
It’s not clear how the study’s findings translate to other dog breeds.
The study also found terriers responded much better to treatment when their cancers were detected earlier.
