It's more impressive that dogs can just drink out of rivers, lakes, puddles etc and not get sick
this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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My dog has no concept for stale water. He'll drink the muddiest water possible. Deal is, he's got terrible gut health.
It's weird because they have more taste buds than humans and are supposedly better at tasting water
Tastes more interesting when it's muddy and gross
No they don't? A human has ~9000 taste buds on average while dogs have ~1600ish.
Their noses are way more sensitive than ours but we have way more taste buds than dogs do.
Dogs have specialized taste buds on the tip of their tongue specifically designed to taste water, a feature not found in humans
Thier dog brains get in the way of thier taste buds.
Ours is constantly trying to find and eat literal shit.
Their concept of a bad taste is very different from ours.
That might be repaired to their higher body temperature. We intentionally get a fever to kill viruses. They're already at a higher temperature.
They still get sick, just like people will, maybe a bit less so
Dogs stomach acid is a lower ph than humans (stronger acid) which helps reduce the chances of bacteria, viruses, and parasites from getting into their systems.
Dogs also do absolutely get sick from drinking contaminated water, usually specific parasites. If you have a dog that spends a lot of time in wilderness areas, there's a lot of vaccinations you can give them to reduce the types of problems they'll get.
You should still try your best to let them only drink clean water, but with enough precautions, dog's bodies can handle much more contamination that human bodies can.
Imagine the power you'd have if you could walk into a room and make everyone sick by farting
Trust me, it's not as useful as youd think.
The Spleen has entered the chat.
Something being stinky or something being a germ doesn’t automatically mean they can harm you. Lots and lots of bacteria exist that can’t hurt you that you’d find in a digestive tract, and maybe a few that could, especially if you ate them. Beyond that, lots of things like scent particles are airborne but not all harmful germs are airborne, a few are but this is very uncommon in the digestive tract, as long as you don’t consume them, they’re not going to harm you in almost every case.
If something was coming out of your butt that could genuinely harm people just from inhaling you would likely be a very sick person with a pretty rare and probably scary infection.
Lots of the stink from the digestive tract is also not from germs at all, that’s just what food smells like once it’s broken down, same as if you left it in the fridge and it rotted and got stinky.
Clearly you haven't heard the good word about Miasma Theory of Illness.
Have you ever picked your nose?
You’re good, don’t worry.
That’s not how bacteria are transferred. They aren’t just wafting off the turd and going airborne. If you place a shit in the vicinity of a Petri dish in a sterile field, it’s not going to grow anything.
I don't think you can get sick from smelling shit or assholes. You'd have to lick them.
Not really. You can get sick by just sniff at a distance aerosol of dry mice poop (hantavitus, that's how I spreads ..)
So yes, you can get sick by sniffing.
Obviously there are some airborne diseases that could end up in poop in specific circumstances. But in general you don't get sick from just smelling poop.
Smell my dogs after they rolled on some cow poop... I assure you will get sick as in vomit.... (Obviously /s)
Dogs have anal glands which is part of what they're sniffing when sniffing each others rear ends.
Luckily, there's really not many pathogens that cross from poop to the airway.
Then, the sinuses and the mucous orifices produced there are part of our immune systems, as well as dogs'.
From there, the lungs have a similar level of defense, so the chances of sniffing a bunghole resulting in a disease are extremely low.
Even with direct nose-to-anus contact, there's very low risk. The stuff that grows well in the colon and poop just aren't evolved to set up shop at the other end, and vice versa.
"that protect them infection"
oh no, someone on the Internet is not 100℅ fluent in the english!
Skunk spray your diarrhea for maximum effect