I’ve had allergies to all kinds of stuff (trees, grass, mold) since I was 6. I get regular injections for them. Today I went for my bi-annual allergy test, where it showed that I am newly allergic to cats. I have a cat, who’s lived with me for a little over a year.
If the skin test hadn’t indicated it, I wouldn’t have known. She rubs up against my face, etc. with no sneezing or wheezing from me. My other allergies cause an almost immediate reaction upon contact. But according to the test, I’m moderately allergic to her. Consequently they will be adding cat to my roster of serums for injection.
What I’m wondering is, is there anyone here who is allergic to a cat who lives with one? Has your allergy become any worse over time, or better? What things do you do to minimize your reaction?
My allergist’s stance was to get rid of her, but he’s old and stuffy and from what I understand, that’s a rather archaic way of thinking when it comes to most allergies these days (excluding foods, of course).
I used to, and my brother does. It took me awhile to get acclimated once the cat moved in (it was my ex’s cat) but I seemed to develop a tolerance. Same thing happened to my brother. I’ve been cat free for 11 years now, though, and when I go to my brother’s house, I can feel the allergies kick in again.
I’m allergic to dogs too, though, and I have one. I’ve decided that the joy he brings our family is worth the sniffles for me.
I’m allergic in a contact dermatitis sense to most cats (cats rubbing under my chin, while I love it, will make me break out in huge welts and hives all over my chest and neck and face) as well as congestion-and-sneezing allergic. The skin thing is pretty easy to deal with, I just don’t let them rub on me much - I can still enjoy scritchings with my hands and even a moderate amount of petting before my nose starts to clog up.
I have one friend with 6 cats and poorly attended litter boxes, and it’s much harder for me to go to her house than the other friend with 5 cats and well cleaned litter boxes, so I suspect there’s something about quantity of cats and cat waste going on here, as well. My two with well cleaned litter boxes don’t affect me at all except when in direct physical contact.
It’s definitely gotten worse over the years, but I still don’t take allergy medications or get shots.
I am – my allergy developed when I’d had two cats for about a year. One has since passed away, but I’ve had the other for nearly 8 years now, and my allergic reaction has stayed the same throughout: I get itchy eyes and a little sneezy sometimes.
I use Allegra, and recently discovered Patanol, which is a little eyedrop miracle. Check into that if your eyes bother you – it’s fantastic.
I have always had seasonal allergies, the usual mold and dust allergies and also dog/cat allergies. My dog allergies don’t seem to bother me anymore at all. My cat allergies had still been in full force with my girlfriend’s last cat which died a year ago. In october she adopted a stray kitten. I live with this kitten and my dog. I am usually on claritin/loratidine. With the old cat, even on the meds, I would still get hives if she licked me or if I touched her and then touched my face. This does not happen with the new kitten, who is male. I don’t know what the reason is. The most severe reaction I get is when he licks me on the lips, and even then it’s just a little tingling, no swelling, no itching, no redness. We haven’t changed anything in our daily routines, we don’t use any special products. I am stumped. I should be clawing my eyes out. I am quite happy this is not the case. I can only guess that it may have to do with individual animals or that I have gained some tolerance. I have no idea. I still, out of habit, wash my hands after playing with the kitten and I never touch my face after touching the kitten. I’ve read in the past that sometimes the animal’s diet can affect people’s allergies to it. There are also on the market, shampoos and bathing wipes for cats to help reduce the level of allergens.
I’ve been allergic since I was a wee bairn. Always have had a cat around, so exposure didn’t cure it. Welts with excessive contact, scratches swell and redden, eyes puff alarmingly (did you know there is a membrane over the white part of your eye that can puff out several millimeters from the rest? Not an attractive sight).
If I remember to wash after petting the little hellion, I’m ok.
I’m somewhat allergic to cats, and use Flonase during the winter. It works very well. The allergy hasn’t gotten any better or worse, as far as I can tell.
I’m allergic, too, and have slept with cats for years. I’m more allergic to dogs. But my allergies only manifest themselves if I touch my eyes after petting, or after being licked. So if I’m careful about washing my hands, and not rubbing my eyes, I’m okay. But if I forget? The same thing that happenes to bobotheoptomist. The eye thing is creepy! If I start to feel itchy and get to an antihistamine in time, I’m good. I spent almost a week dogsitting for Lillithfair’s dog, who slept with me, with no problems. Wash, and don’t rub.
I’ve been allergic to cats since I was a kid. I had a cat for a while in my early 20s and was miserable the first few days, then I got acclimated. My symptoms had been of the sneezy/watery eyes variety.
So in my mid 20s after being cat-free for a couple of years, I got a cat again. Same story, same types of symptoms.
Emboldened, we added a second cat to the family. Turned out to be a big mistake. Over the 2 years we had both cats, my asthma (dormant since childhood) reared its ugly head and gradually worsened to the point where I was a fairly sick individual. I guess the two together overwhelmed my fragile immune system.
We wound up sending cat#2 to live with relatives, a month or two after cat #1 passed away, but things didn’t improve. To this day I live with daily asthma symptoms. In hindsight, I regret the second cat (he had been abandoned and needed a home, but we could have taken him to the shelter instead of keeping him ourself).
YES!!! I’m so glad someone else has had this reaction! I didn’t become allergic to cats until I was in college. I went home one weekend with my roommate and the family had a Siamese cat. Not knowing I was allergic, I let it sit on my lap and petted the hell out of it. All of a sudden, my right eye started itching horribly and felt really odd. I went the bathroom and almost had a heart attack. That membrane had swollen horrifically all around my contact lens and I looked like a circus freak (no offense to any circus freaks out there.) It took almost three days for it to go down. To this day, I’m much more allergic to Siamese cats than any other breed.
My husband is fairly allergic to cats (well, anything with fur, including cats), so we joke about limiting ourselves to two. He never wanted a cat, but he ended up with one, then he met me, and I had a cat, so now he lives with two. Once he acclimatized to them, he’s pretty good, but he does have asthma and allergies, and takes steroids for his asthma daily. I don’t know why he doesn’t take something like Allegra when his allergies get bad.
It would probably be better for him if we were clean freaks and didn’t have drifts of cat hair in the corners, but, what can I say? He knows where the brooms and mops are, too.
Cat allergies can be really horrid, featherlou. Allegra doesn’t do diddly and I, too, have to take steroids whenever I’m around felines. Your husband is lucky - even with the steroids, I can only tolerate the cat for a week max. And, yes, cleaning up the cat hair tumbleweeds does help but actually doing it makes the allergies worse! Take pity!
I’m allergic to any cat but mine. Mine I react to if I’ve been gone for a week or so. Even with daily contact, I still react to scratches from my own cat.
The spouse is allergic to cats. Several years ago when we first got married we got a cat (he thought he was over the allergy–his family had never had cats). It lasted about eight months and eventually he got to where he was having trouble breathing, so we had to find the cat a new home (the cat had other issues too, which made it impossible to keep him, but fortunately we were able to find him a good home).
Flash forward several years, when we bought a house. I had always wanted cats, so the spouse agreed to get treatment for his allergies (he wanted the cats too). It took awhile (I recall it being a year or so) before he was ready. We got two cats. Aside from some initial runny nose/puffy eyes issues, he was fine. We got another cat. The cats sleep with us and we’re not as careful as we should be about dusting/de-furring the house, so it’s pretty allergicious around here. Still very little trouble.
We now have five cats, all of which sleep with us. Spouse still has to go for shots periodically (I think he’s down to once a month now) but aside from that, everything is great.
YMMV, of course, but it worked out well for us. Our cats are all shorthairs (two Singapuras, two Russian Blues, one tabby DSH) but I don’t think that’s really an issue, since the dander is the problem rather than the hair.
I am allergic to cats and dogs. I have two cats, Lenny and Squiggy, and my fiancee has a dog, Rufus.
There is a product by a company called Outright called Allergy Relief Cats You can rub about a capful into the critter’s fur once a week and it work VERY well to substantially reduce allergic reactions. It works by chemically neutralizing the pet dander. It is virtually odorless and does not harm the pet.
The pet store here says that they have combined the cat and dog versions into one product. Allergy Relief Pets It’s a availabe in Canada at Pet Valu, I’ve no idea about who carries it in the U.S. (I think Outright and Simple SOlutionn are teh same people, I could be wrong)
My ex girlfriend (we co-habitated) was horrifically allergic to cats, but within a few months seemed to adapt to Lenny. During those few months he was slathered in the above mentioned stuff once a week. I guess she got used to him because we stopped needing it. When she visits now, her allergies go all out when Lenny comes to say “hello” and she’s instantly stuffed up.
I rarely have problems with my cats or my fiancee’s dog. If I am away on holiday for long enough, I do get stuffed up for a few weeks again when I get home. Sometimes Squiggy tries to suffocate me. having that little bastard up by my face sometimes makes my allergies go haywire.
yep, like a wierd eye blister… oooogy.
i’m very allergic. take tons of allergy meds. i would have to take the meds even if i didn’t have 2 cats, so i figure why not have the cats.
i will react to cats i don’t live with, i get a tad sniffly. if i don’t add something from the arsenal then full facial meltdown can occur.
I am allergic to cats, and I am currently living with 13 of 'em (plus three dogs to whom I am slightly less allergic). I suppress the worst of the allergic reactions with OTC antihistamines, and if things get really bad I have a prescription asthma inhaler that I can use. The joy that my husband and I obtain from our pets far exceeds the unpleasantness of the allergies.
(Please, no responses about excess cats and mental illness. I’ve argued my case before, and none of the accusers has ever been convinced that it’s possible for a sane person to have a large number of healthy, happy, well-cared-for pets.)
My allergies to my own pets have become milder with the passage of time. But whenever a new pet is added to the household (or if I handle someone else’s pet), things are back to square one: an immense amount of snuffling, sneezing, itchy eyes, wheezing, and facial puffiness.
I’m like you. I developed allergies in my 20s and apparently was allegic to cats all my days. Lived with cats almost continuously since I was a kid. I never noticed a difference between being away from home (sans cats) and being home with cats because the other allergies wallop me anyway. I’m not a sniffer or sneezer or watery eye person; I’m a cougher. Eventually I quit being allergic to cats and became allergic to horses and birch (I figure I became allergic to Calgary, which has both ). Anyway, the allergies did me no harm. I suspect if you don’t have any reaction to the cat and if you’re getting shots as well, it won’t become an issue.
I had an SO for a while who was asthmatic. He had exactly one asthma attack in the couple of years we were together and it wasn’t caused by the cats. He was actually better when he was with me than he’d ever been.
I’m also allergic to cats but tolerate our calico, Sophie the Slut, well as long as she doesn’t try to sleep near my face.
I’ve noticed that I only have an allergic reaction to cats old enough to reproduce. I can play with young kittens all day long with no ill effects, but once they reach 5-6 months old I have to be careful to wash my hands before touching my eyes or nose or I’ll puff, swell, sneeze and wheeze for hours.
Anyone have a similar experience or know what it is about a cats dander that changes once their reproductive hormones kick in?
). Anyway, the allergies did me no harm. I suspect if you don’t have any reaction to the cat and if you’re getting shots as well, it won’t become an issue.
