dog saliva is a natural healer ?

[Mattk]

i once read that if you have a scratch or some such you should let your dog lick it as its saliva contains healing properties.can anyone confirm this for me or am i mad !!!!?

[FP]

No you are not mad. I have always believed that this is the case. Saliva does have healing properties - I don't know whether this is because of the salt content. I presume this is where the expression to 'lick our wounds' comes from. I have been told that dog saliva is better than human saliva in this respect, but I could not vouch for this.

[Longman]

have absolutely no idea whether or not dogs saliva is healing or not (though i do like Fakeplastics reasoning for the 'licking your wounds' phrase!). Just thought I'd put in a strong recommendation not to let dogs or any other domesticated animals lick any open wounds you might have! I know rabies has been all but eradicated in the UK but i still wouldn't want to run the risk!!

[FP]

Longman, I must also agree with you that I would not recommend animals licking their wounds!

[sddsddean]

I once had to have 15 stitches across the palm of my hand after an accident at work. It was cut down to the bone. After a week they took the stitches out(which seemed a very short period at the time) and later the wound sort of ripped open again when I flexed my hand, although there was no blood. My dog sat licking the wound all that evening and I am sure it helped. It was actually very soothing and I think it it took a lot of the inflammation away.

[rinkytink]

Well there's definitely something in there !! That's why they can get away with sniffing each other bits and each other poo etc !

[muggyjim]

Its one thing for a dog to lick its own wound, but the dogs saliva (like ours I suppose,contains bacteria and I think it would cause infection in a human.It would be interesting if someone had evidence to the contrary.

[DixieCRL]

Dogs do have a natural germicide that kills bacteria. I guess as long as the dog has been tested for any other diseases, it wouldn't hurt to try. Here are a couple of websites: http://www.naturalstrength.com/history/detail.asp?ArticleID= 698 http://ia.essortment.com/doganatomy_rkav.htm