The first rule in allergy treatment is avoidance. Stay away from that which triggers the allergy.
Medications are for when avoidance is not feasible, or sufficient.
Severe allergies may require very strong meds with undesirable side-effects.
It is not unreasonable for a person to choose avoidance over having to use stronger measures to control the symptoms. I certainly would not enjoy taking sedating antihistamines multiple times a day to control my symptoms (the sedating ones are more effective than the newer, non-sedating ones.) Studies have shown they do cause some cognitive impairment, especially while working and driving.
Nor would I want to go on chronic systemic prednisone, which raises blood sugars, softens bones, and causes sleep disturbances just so I could co-exist with a pet.
Fortunately, most allergic folks can co-exist with pets by use of less impairing/problematic drugs. But I see patients regularly whose allergies are so severe that they just can’t stand being near their triggers.
ETA: Misnomer, if he needs periodic prednisone to control his symptoms, I would not describe his allergies as mild.
QtM, treater of allergies, haver of cat allergies, and cat owner.
Not like QtM needs a non-physician backing up his medical expertise, but as someone with a history of environmental allergies, including a mild dog allergy - and I grew up with dogs - I have to strongly second everything he said. My dog allergy produced post-nasal drip/mild stuffiness, and we treated with mild antihistamines as needed and lots of vacuuming plus keeping the dog out of my bedroom. It was worth it.
The only time I ever heard anything about prednisone was a couple years ago when I developed a food allergy (chicory root). As exposures produced a deep spreading redness to my skin all over my body and rapid heart rate, I was provided with an epipen, instructions to avoid that food, and a prescription for just shy of a week’s worth of prednisone in case I ever had a serious episode. (Fortunately, I’ve not had to use either item.)
I work in ophthalmology and we have a number of patients on prednisone for longer terms, and this is not a drug to be taken lightly. It can do wonders but generally when it’s used, from what I’ve seen, the situation is not to be taken lightly. For instance, my allergist said that my first step in a reaction that led me to end up taking the prednisone would be to call 911 while gulping down a dose of antihistamine.
In my not-really-medical opinion, if that reaction was caused by dog exposure, he does not have a mild allergy. Not by a long shot.
I’ve been allergic to dogs my whole life and have also owned dogs almost the entirety of my adult life (my parents even bred/showed dogs when I was growing up.)
The few times in my life where I had no dogs, my allergies were the most noticeable and problematic when I would see dogs after those times being away from them. But they’ve always become extremely mild after a few weeks of living with a dog, to the point where the Allegra I take means I get through seasonal allergy season (which also afflicts me) and all year round living with a dog without any real allergy symptoms.
Is chronic systemic prednisone what allergy shots are?
I completely agree with all of the above, which is why any talk of further medication would need to originate with him; it would need to be a decision he makes with his doctor. To me, the worst case scenario (that doesn’t involve us breaking up or me giving the dog away) is that we wait out the dog – 10 years or so – to live together. Him being miserably medicated is not an option.
Oh, I also forgot to mention that he thinks some of his reaction might have been complications from the medication he was taking: he had his meds adjusted two weeks ago, and has been feeling generally better since then. So some of the heart-raciness, etc., may have been due to that. He hadn’t been around a dog in a while until he was at my place the other week, plus the pollen counts around here are worse right now than they’ve been in the past, so there seem to be several variables at play.
My current understanding is that the dog/cat allergy is (relatively) mild; it’s the tree pollen allergy that isn’t. And I don’t have the impression that the prednisone is something he has to take regularly, or that exposure to the dog is what led to the recent prescription: he recovered from that within 24 hours. His other allergies are what sent him to the doctor two days later (after he’d recovered from the dog). It seems that we won’t know how severe his allergy to my dog really is until the summer, when he’ll only be dealing with one allergen at a time. We’re also both curious to see the results of this summer’s allergy testing.
Isn’t that possible? That the dog allergy is mild/moderate, and only intolerable when combined with other allergens?
Hopefully you guys realize that I’m doing a lot of thinking/speculating at this point. When I wrote that first post I hadn’t seen him in a week (and was less inclined to consider that alternative), but I spent the better part of last night with him and this morning I’m more inclined to consider all sorts of things. I alternate between “we’ll figure it out” and “there’s no way this will work,” sometimes several times in the same day.
Who knows what our options will actually wind up being…
To the best of my understanding, prednisone is taken in tablet form for this indication. Allergy shots are, IIRC (I never underwent them) dilute versions of the allergens in question in the attempt to spur one’s immune system to deal with it.
I wouldn’t suspect he’d be on long-term prednisone for this. Prednisone is to deal with the effects of a severe allergic reaction here, not to suppress allergies or their symptoms. If taken for longer than 7 days, your adrenal gland basically stops doing its job, and you must be weaned slowly off the prednisone dose to allow your adrenal gland to “kick in” again properly. To the best of my recollection, my prednisone prescription was written for 6-7 days worth of medication.
From what I understand, in general, no (as someone having to deal with bad cat dander allergies since I was little – severity depending on the cat).
But it might depend on the allergy; I’ve read about slowly building an immunity to peanuts buy introducing infinitesimal amounts into the bloodstream over a period of time. I should look into it again, as my son has a nasty peanut allergy.
Allergy shots essentially introduce small amounts of the allergen via injection over a long period of time to try and build up some resistance, I believe under the theory that by continually exposing the body you can reduce the body’s response to the allergen.
I’ve heard some people respond so well to allergy shots that after a period of treatment with them they can go off the shots and have minimal to no allergy symptoms.
My mother on the other hand, who loves cats and is deeply allergic to them, received the injections for what seemed like 4-5 years and once she stopped it hadn’t provided any lasting decrease in her symptoms.
I know it’s not ideal, but are there a couple rooms at your place you can keep pooch-free? It might help stave off an attack if your boyfriend limits himself to those rooms/areas if you can religiously keep your dog from entering.
Allergy shots don’t involve prednisone, they involve exposing the person chronically (3 years of shots is considered the minimum) to the allergens/antigens, which are proteins. Said chronic exposure is done to build up IgG antibodies for that specific protein, instead of IgE. IgE antibodies reacting with the antigen are what trigger allergic symptoms. IgG antibodies can generally neutralize the antigen without triggering the whole allergic cascade.
And it’s certainly possible that he’s only mildly reactive to animal dander at this time, and more reactive to pollens. However, those relative sensitivities can change over time, going up or down.
Allergy shots are generally considered effective for both pollen and animal dander allergies, but they’re not equally effective for all people. Some folks have great results, some see a small reduction in sensitivity to some of the allergens, some get no benefit, and a rare few seem to get worse.
Allergy shots can help those with mild or moderate asthma to reduce their attacks. Said shots are not advisable for those having severe asthma, due to the possibility of them triggering a severe attack.
Are you speculating here, or has he told you that his allergies are better during the summer? Mine are at their worst mid-spring and early fall, but they’re still pretty bad during the summer too. But not only am I allergic to trees, I’m allergic to many flowers and grass too, so maybe he’s really only suffering due to trees. I’m curious because his allergies sound so much worse than mine that I’m surprised that he’d get relief from them before winter.
This being the SD and I posted a site to a good study, it should be assumed it is the saliva of the individual dog. I know a dog guide school that is now testing their Labs and matching low allergy ones to those with dog allergies. In the past, often Poodles worked.
Forget ideal, it’s simply unrealistic: I only have one bedroom (that I sleep in), one living room, etc. Unless I lived in a mansion with wings, I have no idea how that would work. Maybe when he comes over we restrict ourselves to hanging out in the upstairs hall bathroom?
Ok, that’s what I thought, but since I know nothing about this stuff (I’m one of those lucky people with no allergies at all) I didn’t want to assume. Thanks!
Which is another reason why I think of them as kind of a “last resort” thing: there’s no way to know if they would ever actually work for him and my dog.
Thanks. I think this situation is one that he and I will just have to deal with one day/season/allergy at a time.
He told me: he said that his outdoor allergies typically go away in both summer and winter, and that fall is usually worse than spring (though I have a hard time imagining his reactions being any more severe than they have been this spring).
I’m glad to hear that, and not just for your sake. My left eyelid is bruised from rubbing it at the moment because mine are so bad right now. I’m glad that the guy with even worse allergy reactions gets some relief over the course of the year!
