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I was talking with someone this morning who has two cats. She said that she has become allergic to the cats. I asked how bad the allergy was, and she said if she touched them, and then touched her face, etc. that it would itch very bad. She is taking allergy medications for it, but I wondered if there might be another answer. If I remember right, it isn't like a dog allergy (dander), but more of a saliva of the cat issue, so maybe it couldn't be addressed any other way.
I know with my son, he started having problems which seemed to be related to the neighbor's cats, which he just loved and could not keep his hands off and holding/petting them, but in that case, I really think that being outdoor cats, they may have been carrying allergens from the grasses/weeds as a couple of the 4 of them liked to hunt varmints.
Any thoughts? I am sure she will keep these cats as they are older, and she is just the kind of person that would keep them versus those who would rehome.
It is the cat's dander that is the allergen. It's caused by the cat's saliva. The cat washes himself, the saliva dries on the fur, and the fur carries the allergen around, which is why some people, who are just so allergic, can't even be in a house where there is a cat.
Some people can get by with wiping the cats' fur down a couple times a day, with a damp paper towel. This cleans off the saliva, And stops the fur from floating, at least temporarily. She should wear gloves, of course while doing it. Daily vacuuming would help too (but..ugh! lol), using a special allergen filter.
I'm so sorry for your friend that this is happening. Has she had a check up? I wonder if she has an underlying health problem, that has triggered her allergy.
Some other ideas: Diet matters in every living being. Has she changed their food? Or has the food she feeds changed it's formula? Maybe a food change has altered their chemistry (I don't know if that's possible or not just throwing out ideas)
How about the litter? Has that changed?
I am relieved to know they won't lose their home and human. I hesitated to even open the thread..in case it was something like that.
I'm allergic to cats, too. I never told Cookie or Checkers - they would have been insulted.
What I did, however, was vacuum a lot. I brushed the cats daily (which they happened to love) and rubbed them down with damp towels (which they did not). I used cheap fleece blankets on the furniture and changed and washed them frequently. I took Allegra, and if necessary, Benadryl (I do not miss that!).
My reactions to the cats wasn't the same every day. Some days I could mush my face in their fur and not twitch; other days I had to leave the house for a few hours to let my lungs and head clear out.
Thanks everyone! Great input! I'm going to send her the link to this thread. I know that City-Data members will always be full of ideas and understanding.
I learned several years ago that I have a slight allergy to cats, but I never really noticed it. Since I learned it I noticed that when my cat sleeps near my head I get a bit stuffy. I think I had noticed that before the allergist told me I'm allergic but I never attributed it to the cat. So basically when the cat wants to sleep near my head I brush her aside.
I started becoming allergic to cats a long time ago.
At first I took a homeopathic, BioAllers Animal Hair & Dander. This helped a lot.
But what really worked for me was changing the cats' diet. I took them off cheap cat food and put them on raw meat. Voila! My "allergies" disappeared.
When I thought about it, I recognized that I had an intolerance to GMO corn - not exactly an allergy but something that I tried as much as possible to avoid. I guess there was enough GMO corn in the processed food to change the cats' dander and create an allergy in me.
When I got my current cat, she had been eating cheap cat food. My "allergy" started up again. I switched her to a high-quality canned food and the "allergy" disappeared.
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