Over time, the ammonia from pet urine will evaporate into the air, generating toxic fumes that can cause respiratory illness and skin and eye irritation.
When you breathe in these ammonia fumes, not only does it smell bad, but it can cause some severe problems as well. If your pet has urinated in a place with reduced ventilation such as a room or even in the house, it could trigger issues like asthma, pneumonia, and in some cases, even suffocation.
Ammonia exposure can lead to the following:
Tracheal burns, nasopharyngeal cancer, alveolar edema, bronchiolar edema and airway damage–leading to respiratory distress or malfunction. This would include bronchitis, pneumonia and in extremely rare situations, people can experience asphyxiation (suffocation).
Prolonged exposure to the odor can also cause skin and eye irritations like skin burns, permanent eye damage, and even blindness! Additionally, your dog's urine can also cause tracheal burns, airway damages, cough, shortness of breath, the list just goes on.
In small doses urine probably does not have much affect on your health, but prolonged breathing or highly concentrated urine could be a problem. Sharp ammonia odor from urine can be irritating to the lungs, throat and eyes. Excessive exposure can even cause skin irritation.
In otherwise healthy people, the bacteria and microorganisms found in old urine stains may cause sinusitis, watery eyes, allergies, and inflammation of the airways.
If odors are significant, pet waste can emit ammonia into the air. Ammonia can cause unpleasant reactions in humans, and it can also lead to illness.
There's potential health risks associated with forcing your dog to hold its pee for too long. Although he physically might be able to do so, extended periods of holding it in can lead to urinary tract infections or urinary crystals and stones. The inability to urine can also lead to behavioral issues.
A word of warning to dog owners: your pooch is a possible source of urinary tract infections (UTIs). UTIs occur when bacteria infect the bladder, urethra or kidneys. They can be very painful, but are usually treatable with antibiotics.
Repeated exposure to ammonia may cause chronic irritation of the respiratory tract. Chronic cough, asthma and lung fibrosis have been reported. Chronic irritation of the eye membranes and dermatitis have also been reported. Ammonia has not been classified for carcinogenic effects.
Traditional household cleaning products such as vinegar, baking soda, soap, and the like seem to work at first because they eliminate some of the components of your pet's urine. White vinegar in particular is highly alkaline, which means it can act as a deodorizer for spaces marked with dogs' urine.
There are many additional zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted by animal feces, including E. coli infection, cryptosporidiosis, hookworm infection, hydatid disease, yersiniosis, and psittacosis (birds —by inhalation).
The illness typically lasts one week but for people with compromised immune systems, Campylobacter can spread to the bloodstream and result in a life-threatening infection. E. Coli and other fecal coliforms live in the intestines of many animals.
Parvovirus. Parvovirus, also known as parvo, is a dangerous disease spread through dog feces and if ingested by mouth, can be life threatening. This disease can affect dog of all ages, but young puppies are especially susceptible.
Your dog or cat urine smells sharply of ammonia, which is an irritant to the lungs. In the case of large amounts of urine, your lungs could feel like they are burning. Inhalation of large quantities of ammonia causes immediate burning of the throat, respiratory tract and nose.
Is It Bad For Dogs To Hold Their Pee In? In general, most larger and healthy adult dogs could hold in their pee for 12 hours if they really had to. But it is not good for them if they are forced to do it on a regular basis. It could put them at risk of developing some medical conditions.
Dogs can go for 8 to 10 hours without urinating overnight, while sleeping. However, all dogs need to be taken out after a meal or a drink, upon waking up and after a period of play. Health: Urinary frequency in dogs will vary due to factors such as age, sex, body size and overall health.
The EPA classifies dog poop as a biohazard and has found that it is responsible for a large amount of water pollution.
People may become infected while walking barefoot or when exposed skin comes in contact with contaminated soil or sand. The larvae in the contaminated soil or sand will burrow into the skin and cause the skin to become irritated in that area.
Most people can begin to detect ammonia odors when it is at least 1 ppm. Exposure to more concentrated levels (above 25 ppm) can cause headaches, nausea, and intense burning of the eyes, nose, throat, and skin.
No known antidote exists for ammonia exposure. Treatment consists of removing ammonia from the body as soon as possible and providing supportive medical care. Symptoms can be treated in a hospital setting or by trained emergency personnel. If someone has ingested ammonia, do NOT induce vomiting.
Ammonia has a strong smell, similar to urine, which can be detected by most people even in small amounts. Ammonia gas is non-flammable, but because at certain concentrations when mixed with air it could explode if ignited, it is treated as flammable.