Can unscented baby wipes be used instead of pet wipes to disinfect my dog?

Question

NOTE: This is a follow-up of and related to my previous question — How to clean (disinfect) my dog everyday after walk?

Baby wipes are used to dry bathe babies, a good way to bathe them without getting wet too often. In a way, it's an easy solution to cleaning babies.

Similarly, we have pet wipes for dogs ⁽¹⁾. But can baby wipes be used to disinfect dogs? ⁽²⁾ i.e. as an alternative to pet wipes?

A baby gets dirty inside the house hence the risk is lower, where as a dog gets dirty outside, be it a park or streets, and it may involve other dogs' urine and other secretions—a common way for diseases to spread (sometimes even to us).

Given the case, the question is, will baby wipes work just as well in disinfecting my dog? If not, what are my alternatives, other than pet wipes ⁽³⁾?

---

Footnotes:

1. Good pet wipes are hard to find in my place (even online), and hence this question. I am from India.

2. Baby wipes can be harmful to dogs if they consume the solution from the wipes (through licking), esp. if one of the ingredients is Propylene Glycol. I can take care of this by getting unscented (free of fragrance) baby wipes and making sure that my dog gets dry before I let him out of my sight.

3. E.g. Towel bathing with a 1 in 40 solution of Dettol and water (i.e. 1 tablespoon of Dettol in 500 ml of water). The thing is I am not sure if it'd cause any skin irritation in dogs, or if it'd be effective at all.

Answer 1

Honestly, I wouldn't do it. First of all, I don't think that baby wipes contain a disinfectant. Yes, they'll clean the baby, but that's not the same as disinfecting.

Then: Babies don't usually lick themselves and I can't imagine that it would be healthy to consume large quantities of the residue of baby wipes, including the oil that most wipes include to re-moisten the baby's skin. It won't help if you prevent your dog from licking himself before everything has dried - the water (or whatever moisture they contain) will have evaporated, but most of the residue will be there no matter what. Also, I've never heard of baby wipes replacing a shower - they're usually used to clean the baby during a diaper change, but they won't replace the bath the baby gets every so many days.

But more in general, I question the whole idea of using wipes to clean your dog. Skin is not the same thing as hair/fur - surely you wouldn't think that you could wash your hair by using a baby wipe? Hair has a infinitely larger surface than skin, meaning that if you wipe it down with a wipe, you will only reach the part of the hair that is on the surface of the body, but not the part that facing the body. I really can't imagine wipes being that effective, not even the ones made for animals (meaning that I think they're made to pull money out of your pockets).

You're confounding two things here, one is your dog carrying dirt/bacteria/viruses on his fur, and the other is your dog being infected by a disease, thus becoming the carrier of this disease and then transmitting it to you, by means of bodily liquid. The first you needn't worry about that much, as most bacteria/viruses won't survive for very long in a fur, those aren't the life conditions they are made for. In the second case, disinfecting your dog's fur will do nothing at all.

If you're really worried about infectious diseases transmitted from dog to humans, stop kissing your dog, and wash your hands before you eat or use the loo, and whenever your dog drools on you.

Answer 2

I wouldn't use baby wipes on dogs, since the skin pH level differs.

There are wipes especially for dogs. I use alcohol-free wipes for my Shih Tzu puppy. The way I made bathing fun for my puppy was - I first introduced him to puppy wipes and gradually introduced him to water.

Watch this video to know how to give your puppy a relaxing spa treatment at home using puppy wipes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJNKDg7Y3rc

Answer 3

I don't know about using unscented baby wipes on dogs, but I do remember seeing this article about making your own wipes. That would allow you complete control over the ingredients.

http://lifehacker.com/5893511/diy-wet-cleaning-wipes-are-easy-to-make-cost-less-than-store-bought-wipes

Answer 4

Unscented baby wipes are used when caring for newborn kittens and puppies to help them use the restroom. Look up bottle feeding kittens on youtube though I wish there were some way to raise funds on or from youtube to care for orphaned animals etc.