I a, allergic and have a cat. She gets acepromazine ( I think it is a horse tranquilizer) one drop per gallon of drinking water, also she gets brushed and washed with cat shampoo. We have wood floors, not carpet. She is not allowed in the bedroom. She is not allowed outside. I am allergic to cat saliva, the acepromazine seems to neutralize it a lot. Brushing, bathing and indoor living reduce the amount of dander she produces for the saliva to drift around on. I take allergy shots. Some combination of all the above factors results in a total lack of allergic reaction from my cat. I still have allergies to other cats
Thanks for the responses so far. I’m especially intrigued by the products that Swallowed My Cellphone mentioned - I’ll take a trip to Pet Valu and see if they have it.
The only thing reactionwise that I’ve noticed with Emma is that if she accidentally scratches me, it’ll become a little itchy, red and puffy around the scratch, but before the test I always thought it was normal irritation to the scratch (I tend to have sensitive skin).
Otherwise though, she can lick me without any irritation, and I’ve petted her and rubbed my eyes afterwards with no noticeable reaction. She sometimes sleeps in the bedroom but I think I’ll be keeping her out now.
You could put a big “ditto” around conurepete’s post for me. I get shots, keep the cats out of the bedroom, change my clothes after they lounge or sleep on me for a while, vacuum with a HEPA vac, dust regularly, and often use anti-allergy eye drops for episodes of itchiness. For the most part I feel no symptoms at home, but other people’s cats bother me pretty quickly.
A pearl from my allergist: he says your allergic tolerance is like a drinking glass. You can be exposed to things you’re sensitive to without feeling symptomatic up until the point where the “reaction glass” fills up and runs over. At that point you feel terrible. The thing about living with a cute creature that you’re allergic to is that, even though you don’t often feel allergic, it keeps your glass near the full point, so when you’re exposed to something else that bothers you (like another person’s cat, or in my case almost any other living plant, animal, or particle), you feel awful almost immediately because your “buffer zone” is already used up by fluffy at home.
I thought that was an interesting way of looking at it.
If they don’t have it in stock, they can usually order it in for you. The liquid is clear and looks like glycerine. It has a mild, soapy, cilantro smell when you rub it onto the pet, but when it dries it’s totally oderless to humans. The pets don’t seem to mind other than the absolute disdain cats feel when you’ve messed with their hairdos.
When having cat-allergic visitors coming over, I wipe down my furniture with a sponge dampened in diluted Allergy Reilef Cats.
I am allergic to cats. My wife had them since before we got married, and I loved them dearly. I had allergy testing done 10 years ago or so and I was totally off the charts on cat allergy. I told the doc I’m keeping the cats. I had mostly sneezy-sniffly allergies, but asthma was coming on strong. The treatments were sort of helping, but I had trouble sleeping often because I, you know, couldn’t breathe. And still we had the cats.
After my 3 day stay in the hospital due to the fact that I stopped breathing, we got rid of the cats. Perhaps had I followed my asthma drug regimen more closely this would not have been necessary, but it makes life that much easier. The same day that I came home from the hospital was the day that my wife took the cats to their new home (friends of her aunt or something). I was quite happy to be alive, and was pleased that my wife chose me over the cats, but we still both cried. A lot.
'im indoors is somewhat allergic to cats. He was fine when I moved in with my lovely long-haired ginger fluffball and seemed to suffer no adverse reaction. However, when we came home with a short-haired kitten, he went into total meltdown. He had what we now know was a severe asthma attack, and since then he’s been using inhalers sometimes. I think he’s just got used to the cat and developed a tolerance but he does notice the allergy gets worse when he visits friends who have cats.
We were very lucky really, we’re both such softies when it comes to cats I don’t know what we would have done if we’d had to look at re-homing one or both of them. Strangely enough, our newest addition is also a short-hair but he seems to have had no reaction to this cat at all.
When I was reading up on allergies to dog dander, I found information that said people with dog allergies can often tolerate puppies because their skin is still supple. As the dogs age, and their skin dries out, they start producing more dander flakes than they did when young. The same process probably happens to cats as they age.
I recently acquired a fat nasty orange tom despite being allergic to cats. He showed up at my door & although I posted fliers & talked to vets no one claimed him.
I am horribly allergic to cats but he is not into being petted & cuddled anway. Normally I am a “keep cats inside advocate” but I simply can’t due to allergies & my dog who would probably get his butt kicked by this huge cat.
I took him to the vet the other day by trapping him in the carrier. He got shots & was neutered. by the time I got to the vet’s I could barely breathe and my eyes were watering. clartin didn’t work but benedryl did.
Cat is in garage for another day recuperating. I’ve taken to calling him Mary in honor of his missing nads.