Background : A friend is crashing at my place while she finishes her degree. I am allergic to cats, and she owns one. We arranged a temporary other home for him, but agreed to try letting him live at my place subject to rubber claw caps and Allerpet. We brought him in last Saturday.
My hope was that my body’s reactions would adjust to the cat - sometimes allergies can kind of recalibrate, it seems. No dice. I’m taking daily Claritin, he’s getting Allerpet-ed and brushed twice a week, and I still have fairly constant low-level respiratory symptoms, plus contact dermatitis.
I love cats and this guy’s a sweetheart (a neurotic, clingy, agoraphobic sweetheart, sure…) but I’m thinking we’re going to have to find another temporary home for him until she’s done in January. And then clean everything, since his primary hobby is mashing his face into everything in the house he can see.
I used to have cat allergies that included hives wherever I touched one and the sneezing, coughing, runny nose bit. My eyes would swell shut.
I got allergy shots and no more cat allergy. Something to consider if you do like cats.
In the meantime, you might try doubling your dose of Claritin and/or using a different medicine to see if it works better. Many people swear by Zyrtec. You could even do Claritin at night and Zyrtec in the morning, or something similar. (Yes, I have checked that advice with my doctor. If you have any concerns, please talk to yours.)
I’m very allergic to cats and horses, along with seasonal allergies (pollen, etc.).
After I moved to New England, my seasonal allergies got so bad that I started going to an allergist. I then got semi-weekly or weekly allergy shots for about 7 years. My allergist refused to treat me for the animal allergies for two reasons:
[ol]
[li]He stated that animal-based allergens were far more likely to cause an adverse reaction after an allergy shot, and the risk of going into anaphylactic shock in his office was not worth it.[/li][li]He stated that animals, unlike tree and weed pollen, can simply be avoided.[/li][/ol]
To be honest, I only saw a marginal improvement in my allergies, even after years of shots. What really seemed to help was him prescribing me Zyrtec and Flonase. I’ve taken both daily for the last 20+ years.
The shots started off weekly and then started tapering off. I think they also start off at small doses and then moved onto higher doses. The shots were covered by my medical insurance. I think I had a $10 co-pay.
I would check with a local allergist and see what your options are if interested. It was very effective for me.
I work in a feline rescue. Several coworkers are allergic and get the allergy injection treatments. Seems to work for them, as they also have cats at home. I’m not sure whether they’ve acclimated to a low level of histamine reaction, too, though. Seems worth looking into, anyway.
My insurance may not cover allergy shots for animal exposure - I think I asked about it years ago, and the coverage has not gotten better in ten years of constant budget cuts.
Have you tried Flonase? It’s OTC now, and makes a real difference for me on bad allergy days. There are also other OTC anti-histamines which work slightly differently from Claratin, I have the best success with Allegra/fexofenadine, which is, of course, the most expensive. Sigh.
Do you have a Roomba? Reducing hair and dander level has got to help, right? I run mine daily when my dogs are shedding.
I worked in a zoo for several years, and was always curious which animals would trigger my (fairly mild) allergies. Guinea pigs, yes, capybaras, no. Goat hair, no, goat saliva, yes. Skunks, yes, a lot. Porcupines, especially their urine, yes, very much. Ferrets, no, rabbits, very slightly over long exposure. A few times, when we got a new species in the collection, I’d scratch up the inside of my forearm and rub it on the animal, like a home-brew scratch test. Then if I had a reaction, I’d know to take extra meds when I would be working with that critter.
Good luck to you and your furry friend. Allergies are miserable.
I actually had Flonase in the mix, but it doesn’t help with asthma or contact dermatitis… just congestion, as far as I can tell.
We found another friend to watch the little guy for the next couple of months - my allergies elevated to asthmatic breathing on Friday, so I had to relocate him to the basement. Sunday, we handed him off to the friend, and did some sweeping and wiping-down of the furniture.
