Terrible cat allergy

Greetings fellow feline lovers!

As far as I can remember, I was always fascinated by these beautiful and amazing creatures. I remember when I was just eight I managed to convince my grandmother to adopt a kitten. We called her Maria and she was a majestic and responsible queen . She gave birth to a total of about 30 kittens and they were all treasured even though most of them had to be given away to friends and family. I spent almost every summer holidays with them and always missed them when I wasn't there.

I had this amazing bond with one of the kittens who was my favourite. As a child I often had nightmares and used to kick whilst asleep. However, this kitten always chose to stay in my room with me and sleep in my bed. He liked to hug my feet which sadly meant a lot of stress for him as I'd kick him across the room sometimes when I was asleep. Nevertheless, he just later chose to sleep on the floor by my side anyway.

The story with this kitten didn't end well; I once went outside to let him play in the playground and just watch him have fun. I ran home briefly to pick something up and upon my return found my baby missing . This cat was VERY beautiful with distinctive features that were extremely easy to spot so I kept looking for him all day. I later found two teenage girls with my cat and was relieved that I've finally found him but was very curious as to why he got lost (he ALWAYS followed me everywhere). The two 14yo girls told me it was their cat and they don't know what I was talking about. I quickly ran home to get my grandfather to talk some sense into them (they were much taller than me so just ignored me). When we rushed back out they were long gone and I've never saw my cat again.

Several years later Maria and one of her sons (the two remaining cats at home) were both torn to pieces by stray dogs. I shall refrain from any further details regarding this tragedy.

Since then, I've not been living with cats for about 9 years as I had no say in what happens at home. One summer night, by pure luck I've found a thrown away cat in my neighbourhood. The cat looked like a very old queen and by a complete miracle we were all able to convince the "man" to adopt her while he checks RSPCA etc to make sure she's not lost. Long story short, she turned out to be a young tomcat (just heavily abused, hungry and scared).
I'll skip the details but we ultimately became best friends and he helped me greatly get through some very tough times.

I'm now in my late twenties and have developed a severe cat allergy that I'm not able to control with any medication. How bad!? Well if my partner meets a cat on the street and strokes one very briefly within hours of her coming home I can sense that something isn't right. I feel extremely drowsy, my face becomes swollen etc and I get very edgy and aggressive (hormones probably). Thus, I rarely see my cat at my parent's home and have to come to terms with never being able to live with cats .

I often dream about the time I've spent with my cat but the reality is harsh and isn't going anywhere. My partner really fell in love with cats after being with me for about 1-2 years and since dreams about us having a cat together (like a family basically). So basically I'm one of those people who just don't understand how anyone might not like cats and never dated anyone who isn't interested in them. It's used to be my top question when dating i.e. "So, do you like cats?" No!? NEXT!!!

This creates a hole in my heart and there isn't anything I could do about it. But it often makes me wonder. What on earth do others do!? It's like, I could only be together with somebody who understands and loves cats and yet I can't have anybody in the house interacting with any cats.

It's 2:30am, the above might be a challenge to digest; I better go sleep on it.

Miow!

You can try visiting an allergist. They might be able to help

Oh Michael my heart aches for you!

My story is basically the opposite of yours. I didn't grow up with cats. Friends had them, and I knew a few... but I didn't "know" cats. I was allergic to them, so I didn't think about it much. I wanted a dog.

Many years later... the lifestyle and work my husband I do didn't really allow for a dog. However there was this stray cat that kept raiding the garbage cans.... My husband didn't even like cats. But somehow we got adopted. We pampered her, though she was SO independent. Spring was approaching, so we took her to be spayed, and it turns out she already was. Her spay scar was so jagged, the vet wasn't even sure that's what it was. The poor thing, what she must have gone through before she found her way to us (she'd been around here for some time ).

That summer, kittens turned up in the yard. (Obviously she wasn't the mom LOL). On a holiday here, the family of mom and four kittens disappeared - leaving one of the kittens behind. He wailed for a day before my husband went outside and brought him in. We really didn't know what we were doing, and we knew I was allergic. We figured - if I had a problem, we'd foster him and find him a home. But of course I fell completely in love, so giving him up just wasn't an option.

Our involvement with him (Lazlo, our first indoor-only kitty) snowballed. We ended up getting very involved in rescue. Now we share the home of our 8 cats! I rarely need to take medicine anymore, though if I wasn't religious about it at first, I had real problems. Not what it seems you suffer, but it was pretty bad.

My eyes turned red and would not stop watering. My sinuses plug up. I get hives all over my arms. It triggers the asthma I developed as an adult, and I had trouble breathing.

Here was our solution.

1) Zyrtec-D. I believe that's what it's called in the UK too. You've tried specifically this medication? It's a newer generation antihistamine, and I found that it was the only one that worked for the cat allergy. It has a generic available now, it's called ceterizine. I needed the version with the decongestant.

2) An albuterol inhaler.

3) Advair (the steroids you inhale).

4) Hubby would brush the kitties daily to prevent as much shedding as possible.

5) Wipe the cats down morning and evening with distilled water to pick up as much dander off of them as possible. No washing the cats, no shampooing - all that does is make them lick themselves all over, which just spreads their dander around again and completely defeats the purpose. Distilled water picks up some of the dander, but leaves all the scents in the right places, so they don't feel the need to groom again.

6) Cover our furniture with throw blankets that get washed weekly. When I want to sit on something, we folded up the blanket.

7) Vacuum daily.

8) We have carpet, but removing the carpet and having wood floors works even better.

9) Sleeping. It's recommended that if you're allergic to not allow the cats in the bedroom. That wasn't an option for us. Instead, I'd put a cover over the bed (then just the pillows) so it was at least cat-hair free when we got into it.

Over time I definitely developed immunities. I did start the allergy shots, but didn't have enough money to see it through. But our oldest cat is nine years now, and I only need the zyrtec sometimes, and we don't use the throw blankets anymore - and the cats sleep in my face and on my head and it doesn't trigger a reaction.

I am very allergic to two of our kitties when I pet them and they drool on me. I usually just grab a brush to pet them instead of using my hand.

You may think I'm crazy... but we have an immuno-compromised kitty with allergies that our regular vets weren't able to properly treat. So I looked into a vet also trained in Chinese medicine. She had him fixed up inside of a couple of months. I am now definitely of the opinion that where western medicine fails, chinese medicine can help. If I were you, I'd consider looking into finding a doctor that knows chinese herbs and acupuncture. They may be able to help.

I sure hope you find something that will let you have a cat in your life again!

And thank you for sharing your life with your cats with us.

Wow so there are people out there who won't take no for an answer

I think it's important to first recognise that the cat allergy thing is actually i.e. almost always an autoimmune reaction to the protein that is found in cats saliva. If I remember correctly the maximum distance from which our bodies can pick up and react to this protein is 5-7 meters.

I do suffer from hay fever so have tried most of the medication mentioned but I've not looked into Zyrtec-D so will do so when shopping next. Unfortunately my body has become quite annoyed with allergy medication i.e. initial month of taking them results in heavy symptoms of the allergy itself. Basically I'm allergic to the allergy medication which gives me plenty of nasty symptoms .

In my situation it's becoming very dangerous to take such medication. I sometimes get back ache simply from taking a cetirizine pill which is definitely something to focus on. However, the first 2 years I was on it everything seemed fine.

The interesting thing is that although the allergy pills seemed to have worked rather well for most things, they did nothing for the cat bit but I've only tried two different pills so maybe it might be worth risking and trying the Zyrtec-D even though it sounds evil and seems to have the same ingredient.

I'm very surprised about you becoming more tolerant of your allergies; mine just seem to get worse. Maybe there is still hope though but I'd hate to imagine a situation where it gets worse and a cat is already with us. My cats tend to live approximately 180 years (9 lives) so it would be risky to commit for that long if the allergy makes me sick and sleep all day. :|

Thank you very much for letting me know your experiences. I shall now go and start reading up on the various medication before drugging myself silly though.

Oh and here is my friendly hero!!! Sadly I only see him once or twice per year now....used to be about 16 hours per day:


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I don't have any allergy advice for you, but I just wanted to say what a GORGEOUS cat!!!

Originally Posted by MichaelV

Wow so there are people out there who won't take no for an answer

I think it's important to first recognise that the cat allergy thing is actually i.e. almost always an autoimmune reaction to the protein that is found in cats saliva. If I remember correctly the maximum distance from which our bodies can pick up and react to this protein is 5-7 meters.

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It can also be cat dander.

I have allergies to cats that results in pretty much non stop sneezing, itchy/watery eyes, runny nose, itchiness, and an asthmatic reaction.

When I was growing up I couldn't have a cat or dog because my Mom had severe asthma and animals triggered it.

I vowed that when I got old enough to move out on my own that I would always have a pet. As I live in an apartment cats fit my lifestyle. I've had a cat in my home for the last 30 years. And I can't imagine my home without a loveable kitty!

As I said, I do have allergies. They were not always apparent and really didn't come to light until I was in my 30's in the mid 1990's.

I found that having a really good vacuum helps. One that has super excellent suction that will not only pick up the surface hair, but also suck out the cat dander. I particularly love the Dyson Animal.

And I found that frequent brushings help with the cat hair shedding.

On days like today where I am having a particularly bad day with allergies, I will take a Benadryl. But so long as I maintain vacuuming, I'm usually ok.

Michael, since you have such problems with the allergy medications, I really think you should look into alternative medicine. It certainly can't hurt. Chinese acupuncture and herbal treatment tend to do very well with immune problems such as allergies. But given the medications themselves cause a problem, I think it's worth exploring!

And Hero is absolutely gorgeous!

IMO, its not smart to intentionally expose yourself to allergens, and all medications have side-effects, short and long term.

Solution... watch cat videos online! Its the latest internet fad, so jump on the bandwagon, and don't forget to stop by http://icanhascheezburger.com

There are plenty of other animals that can be loads of fun and make great companions, so I would just investigate that. Surely you can't be allergic to them all.

Cats were a great fit for me, but I love all kinds of animals and I've seen an African Grey that was so cool. Lots of personality, and IMO they are actually more intelligent than your average cat when it comes to problem solving and understanding their owners. A great thing about them too is that unfortunately our feline friends have much shorter lifespans than ours, however, parrots have human-length lifespans so if adopted young are likely to outlive you.