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6 Surprising Things All Pet Parents Should Know About Baking Soda

6 Things You Should Know About Baking Soda

Updated On October 5th, 2017

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Reviewed By Christie Long, DVM

Everyone has at least one box of baking soda sitting around on their shelf or in their refrigerator. On the side of the carton there are many helpful suggestions for household uses for this product. But is baking soda helpful to your pet? Could it potentially be harmful? Read on to find out.

It’s a key component of the best de-skunking recipes

Baking soda is good old sodium bicarbonate, one of nature’s best neutralizers of odors. If your dog (and subsequently, you) are unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a [skunk’s wrath](http://www.petcoach.co/article/removing-the-smell-of-a-skunk-from-your-pet/), you’ll need a good recipe for a shampoo that will effectively remove the smell.

Many recipes exist, but one of the never-fail concoctions used by veterinarians contains one quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide, ¼ cup of good-ole baking soda, and one teaspoon of liquid hand soap. Lather into the coat, and rinse very well – even as long as 10 minutes, to ensure that you remove all of the residue from the coat. This mixture may lighten the coat of black dogs, and will surely bleach your clothes, so use with caution.

It’s a pretty good carpet deodorizer, within limits

Carpet smelling a little stale? A little baking soda sprinkled onto the surface, allowed to sit for 10 minutes, then vacuumed up may be all it needs to regain its freshness. And if your pet has an accident on the carpet, baking soda applied to the area after cleaning may be enough to hide the smell from your nose.

But don’t be fooled: your cat or dog can still smell urine that’s masked with a little baking soda. And an area of carpet that smells like urine to your pet continues to smell like a place that’s OK to eliminate. So be sure to use an enzymatic cleaner.

It's not a dental miracle

If your [dog](https://www.petcoach.co/article/why-does-my-dog-s-breath-smell-so-bad/) or [cat](https://www.petcoach.co/article/why-does-my-cat-s-breath-smell-so-bad/) has bad breath, it’s probably because they have dental disease or another illness. The idea that adding a teaspoon of baking soda to drinking water to freshen breath, while technically not harmful, the flavor of baking soda in the water may be a bit off-putting, and discourage your pet from drinking enough water.

But ultimately, if your pet has bad breath, it needs to be dealt with definitively. Get his teeth checked by your veterinarian, and consider lab work as well to rule out internal issues.

It makes a lousy toothpaste

Pet toothpaste is formulated specifically for pets so that it is safe for them to ingest it, since we can’t teach them to spit out the toothpaste once they’re done. Because baking soda contains large amounts of sodium, if sufficient quantities are ingested it can cause hypernatremia, or sodium toxicosis.

Hypernatremia can cause swelling of the brain, and ultimately seizures and coma – even death – if not treated. Since you can’t make sure your dog doesn’t ingest dangerous amounts of sodium while brushing his teeth with baking soda, avoid it, and use a pet-safe toothpaste.

It may relieve itching in some pets

Very occasionally, it’s been reported that baths given in warm water with baking soda dissolved into it may be soothing for dogs with itchy skin. If nothing else seems to work for your pet, you might give it a shot, however if you don’t get immediate and impressive results be sure to see your veterinarian, as there are many topical and internal treatments that can definitively treat the causes of itchiness in pets.

Your cat may not "dig" it in his litter box

Be aware that baking soda may artificially increase the pH of urine. This doesn’t do any inherent harm to the cat, but urine that’s collected for diagnostic testing from a litter box that contains litter with baking soda may yield invalid test results. Accurate measurement of urine pH is critical in managing feline lower urinary tract disease, as those cats need to be creating urine that measures neutral on the pH scale. So an inaccurate measurement may confuse your veterinarian and make his job more difficult.
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