There is bacteria in animals bodily fluids that are dangerous to humans & bacteria that is not. As a child the doctors advised to permit the dogs to lick the wounds I had from an auto immune disease that manifested in my skin. The bacteria from a dogs mouth is generally not infectious with humans & is therefore not dangerous....GENERALLY. This may or may not be true. A cat's mouth has bacteria that is infectious to humans. I am still awaiting the science on this topic. But always disinfect an open wound is most certainly advisable.

Words to live by. Probably explains why the ER doc put me on a week's worth of heavy antibiotics, besides rabies shots, after I got bit by a stray dog while exercise walking last summer. The doc said that the dog's saliva could contain all kinds of nasty bacteria and didn't want me to suffer any infection. Cats and dogs are fine to lick you, as long as it's not on any open wounds.

A few years ago I broke up a cat fight between my two tabbies. They didn't mean to cause me any pain but I got scratched by one of them on my hand. The next day it was swollen and red. Two days later my hand had blown up to the size of a football and I went to the hospital. They said I was lucky to have come in then or they would have had to amputate my hand. Yes, it was that bacterial infection.