Dog Staph Infection

jrising

I'm a lurker, not a poster but I have a somewhat urgent question.

 Our housemate's Siberian Husky has been diagnosed with a staph infection - do I have to worry about this?  I don't know much about pets and a brief google search did not give me satisfactory answers.  

Basically I am wondering if I have to stay away from the dog our ask our housemate to limit the dog to a smaller area of the house? 

jrising

Thanks, I'll try calling the midwives - I just don't know how much they know about pets.

Mrs S 08

I would call the vet, then call your doctor. I don't know if you can get a staph infection from a dog, or if it is different than when a human has a staph infection. The vet would know if it humans could get it, the doctor the would tell you what to do and look out for.

Staph infections are highly contagious in humans. I got a staph infection in my leg when I was in college. I thought I had a bug bite and went to work and when I got home 8 hrs later I have a softball sized knot where the "bite" was. When I went into urget care they said staph infections are very serious and travel quickly through the blood stream.

siajara

You should call your doc/midwife to make sure, but in general, I would say you have no worries.  My dog gets staph quite often.  Basically, we (and dogs) always have staph bacteria on our skin.  It becomes infected when the immune system is compromised.  There is no crossover between the dog staph and the human staph.  My dog's staph flares up when she gets boarded for a long time or is put in other stressful situations. I just don't touch my dog on her belly (where the staph flares up), but my vet said there was nothing to worry about anyway.