Bathroom is dangerous for dogs and cats says veterinarian

I think this veterinarian has made an extreme statement but I understand where they are coming from. They specifically issued a warning to dog owners about their pets entering the bathroom. But they also add that it applies to cats as well. They said dogs should be banned from bathrooms.

The reason is that dogs tend to, or they might, drink water from the toilet bowl which is water that might be contaminated to a certain extent both from the faeces of their owner and from the chemicals used to clean the bowl. I have seen cats drink water from the toilet bowl probably because they were neglected and no water was left out for them.

Veterinarian says that dogs and cats shouldn't go in the bathroom because it's too dangerous. Image: MikeB

Fair point but that problem can be resolved by keeping the toilet seat down which I think is a better solution because domestic cats like to be in the bathroom particularly when their owner is in the bathroom on the toilet! This is because of the smell they produce which cats find reassuring but which people don't like. The problem there is that a lot of people don't keep the bathroom seat closed. Simple!

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Also, sometimes people store bathroom cleaning products in a careless way which might allow dogs to have access to them. A lot of cleaning products are dangerous to pets because they contain chemicals which are toxic. That issue applies to many chemicals in many cleaning substances anywhere in the home including of course in the kitchen.

There are, perhaps surprisingly, a large number of toxic chemicals in household products in homes where there are companion animals. More should be done by the manufacturers to make these products less toxic but of course in doing that they would become less effective and therefore the manufacturers won't entertain that thought.