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Hello-
I'm sure this has been discussed before.... My son (21) is coming back to live with me, he moved away three years ago, all of a sudden since the past year on visits he is allergic to the cats. Congestion, eyes water, etc. He never was allergic to them growing up.
Now my wife and I are divorcing, and I want to get two new kittens. With my son living with me is there any recommendation regarding cats that cause less of these allergies? Also, what can you do/take to help with the allergies (anything besides Benadryl)?
Keep a very clean house, brush your furries several times a day, keep immaculate litter boxes. Short hair cats.
Have your son go through actual allergy testing. "I am allergic to cat" seems to be almost a stereotype. Especially in Spring there is so much that can contribute to the sniffles. We did allergy shots for years. Last year I got tired of this and stopped. No problem. An occasional storebrand antihistamine especially when everything outside is blooming.
Izzi has turned into a Dyson test pilot with tail hair of six inches. The rest is nothing but downy soft long fur. ChaCha has asthma and dandruff.
^^As Threestep said. Plus, please at least consider older cats. Those are the Forgotten Ones, and they're just as rewarding as kittens if not more so. We adopted two difficult-to-place cats--Bizzie and Shelly--and after some adjusting they did very well. We later added a sweet Lab retriever, all three got along great.
Our later adoptions were 11-year-olds Molly and River.
Molly died last year via eye cancer--four vets didn't know what Dr. Pol knows with one look, "Red eye, cancer eye," and she was too fragile to go through a second sedation. The first sedation was to get samples for the lab--they should have just removed her eye at that point, it was gone, kaput. She was 19, river is 20 and still kicking and a sweet sweet lap cat.
But yeah, allergies can be treated. Your son will need to get them under control anyway, there's stuff everywhere.
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I would strongly recommend not getting two cats just as your son who is allergic arrives.
Allergies are completely miserable, and actually cause health issues beyond the obvious sneezing and eye watering.
It would be one thing if you already had a cat and your son needed to come live with you, but to go out and purposely get cats as he arrives just sounds miserable.
It would be one thing if you already had a cat and your son needed to come live with you, but to go out and purposely get cats as he arrives just sounds miserable.
Agree! Why set everyone (especially the poor kitties) up for conflict and possibly failure? Wanna bet who will end up leaving their new home if the allergies progress or turn out to be harder to manage than expected? Odds are on the cats who will end up needing rehoming all over again.
When I was younger I was mildly allergic to cats. By the age of 30 it meant a trip to the ER. The doctor told me it just gets worse with repeated exposure. I would wait until your son moves out to get the cats.
Allergy shots may help, but also have him test to see what he is actually allergic to. I have lived with cats my entire life, & about 10 years ago, I had some bad sniffles ec, & mentioned I to my Dr. Her first response was do you have pets, yes, then it must be the pet cats. I thought that was a lazy response. But if he tests positive to Cat allergy, then hold off on new pets till he has left again.
I had cats during childhood but didn't develop an allergy until I was an adult.
Two things helped me. First thing I tried was a homeopathic preparation, BioAllers Animal Hair & Dander, putting drops under my tongue 4 times a day. It really helped with the symptoms. After a year or so on the drops I was no longer allergic.
Second thing that helped massively is changing the cat's diet. Switching the cats to a meat-based higher-protein food (no grains or legumes), or raw diet (the absolute best) totally did away with my allergy.
Several years ago after not having cats for a while I adopted an adult cat (ironically, she had been given up to the rescue because the children in her family had become allergic). She was used to certain supermarket brands, so that is what I fed her, and within 3 weeks my allergy came back. I immediately set about trying different brands (raw food was a complete nonstarter), until I found ones that she liked. Once I successfully changed her diet, the allergy disappeared.
Has your son seen an allergist? I started taking generic Singulair (not for animal allergies, but dust mites) and it's a wonderful thing. Plus I also take one of the OTC ones, generic Zyrtec.
When I was younger I was mildly allergic to cats. By the age of 30 it meant a trip to the ER. The doctor told me it just gets worse with repeated exposure. I would wait until your son moves out to get the cats.
I was allergic to cats in my younger days too. Some of my friends had cats and my nose would run. For some reason over the years, my allergies went away. Now I have two cats of my own and they sleep on my bed - I don't sneeze around them. So for me, it got better over time, not worse.
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