It is a common topic and practice for people to bathe their dogs with dish soap or baby shampoo, and do “skunk baths” with products like baking soda, mouthwash, vinegar etc.
Background:
Mammals have a thin layer of oil that protects skin from viruses, external harm, and bacteria. Human skin has the capability to regenerate this "acid mantle" that gets washed away during bathing. Often times - human shampoos have moisturizers that help replace this layer until our bodies can regenerate its natural acid mantle.
Did you know that baby shampoo is 150 times too acidic for a dog’s epidermis?
pH level in dogs vs humans:
– Dogs 7.0-7.52
– Humans 5.2-5.5
Canine skin moves more into the alkaline range of the pH scale. By bathing your dog in human shampoo - you'll see dryer, itchy skin that can lead to intense scratching, sores, and bacterial infections because of the canine skin's inability to rejuvenate the needed oils for their acid mantle.
There is evidence that these simple products can severely irritate dog’s skin, because dog’s skin has a different pH level and thickness compared to ours:
The dog’s skin is the most alkaline of all species making it a perfect breeding ground for bacteria (aka skin infections) if the pH is disrupted. If this happens, inflammation and infection can occur due to over-drying and eroding of the epidermis (the outermost layer of the skin). A dog’s epidermis is only 8-10 cell layers thick, whereas human’s are 18-20 cell layers thick! The dog’s skin is thicker overall, but the epidermis is very thin and susceptible to bacteria if it is stripped away with improper ingredients that are not pH balanced for their skin.
Not everyone knows that a very alkaline product can do just as much damage as a very acidic product. Just as a very acidic product to humans like sulfuric acid would basically burn away human epidermis, very alkaline products such as Lye, can produce inflammation or even chemical burns on human epidermis. The same thing applies to a dog’s epidermis.
Here are some examples of pH levels of products some people use on dogs:
– Ivory dish soap pH 9.5
– Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo pH 5.5
– Baking Soda pH 8.3
– Vinegar pH 2.2
– Scope pH 5.5
– Listerine pH 4.2
When you move on the pH scale from one number to another, it indicates a change of 10 times 10, or a 100 fold change. For example, if you went from 7 to 5, that is 200 times more acidic, or from 7 to 9, that is 200 times more alkaline.
This means that dish soap is approximately 250 times more alkaline to a dog’s epidermis.
Baby shampoo is approx. 150 times more acidic to a dog’s epidermis.
Baking soda is approx. 130 times more alkaline to a dog’s epidermis.
Vinegar is approx. 500 times more acidic to a dog’s epidermis.
Scope mouthwash is approx. 200 times more acidic to a dog’s epidermis.
Human products should NEVER be used on a pet.
Sourced from: Everloved.com and Happy Tails Spa Blog