Have any of you developed allergies (esp severe ones) to cats after you get one?

I see a lot of posts on Kijiji and in shelters of how owners have to abandon their cats after a few years because they end up developing severe allergies to cats. It's not their fault that they can't physically live with their pets anymore, but I'm terrified that this might happen to me years down the road and I'll have to give Waffles up. Is this really that common?

I had the opposite reaction. My parents would never allow animals in our home. I could not be in the same room with a cat when I was younger. Probaly did not help the first thing I would grab is the cat. I would sneeze, eyes would run and swell.I now have 4 cats in my house and I do not have any reaction. I do not get allergy injections or take any allergy medication other than occassional benadryl when one bush across the road from me blooms.

Found out I was really allergic to cats, after I adopted Artie...did not come as a shock, because years ago I found out I was allergic to them. I had Pumpkin then. I was able to keep her out of my bedroom since I was living with my parents. She turned out to my my mom's cat..

Now I have asthma. I wanted a cat so bad. I really wanted one. I knew I was going to be positively allergic to one.

I have had Artie for almost 4 years  now.   I love him to death...

I have a problem if he gives me a bite scratch or a scratch.. It swells up like a welt, IF I do NOT wash it immediately, put some alcohol and peroxide on it...

He cuddles with me.. always and is always following me around.. He jumps on my bed to cuddle every night.

When I adopted him, I did end up with a really bad period of sinus infection, bronchitis, asthma---but who knows what really caused it. It was in the winter and a lot of junk was going around then; also my resistance was low, and I was working in a hospital, (sick people) and taking the crowded train into work...

I have an air cleaner in my bedroom. I use it at night.. Artie has free run of the apartment. I was unsuccessful in my attempt to keep him out of my bedroom...

I take allergy pills twice a day. just singular for my asthma at night. I hardly ever use my rescue inhaler or my steroid inhaler..

in other words...there is hope!!

some people feel we build up an immunity to our cats...

I was allergic to cats as a child and then it suddenly went away by the time I was 12, and then my parents adopted our first cat once I appeared allergy-free. However, since the past year or two, I seem to have constant allergy symptoms; either my eyes are itching, I sneeze a lot, or my nose is runny. I'm a little afraid that my cat allergy is back, but it could be any number of things like dust, some of the plants out here in the desert, or just the excessively dry air. If it does turn out that I was indeed allergic to cats again, I'd just try the allergy shots until my immunity is built up. I know that I can't handle giving up Charvone or Sakura, and it would also break my hubby's heart too.

KittyMomma1122 said:

I had the opposite reaction. My parents would never allow animals in our home. I could not be in the same room with a cat when I was younger. Probaly did not help the first thing I would grab is the cat. I would sneeze, eyes would run and swell.I now have 4 cats in my house and I do not have any reaction. I do not get allergy injections or take any allergy medication other than occassional benadryl when one bush across the road from me blooms.

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Same here! I once went into anaphylactic shock from a cat, when I was a young kid. Now I have two, they sleep with me and everything... and I'm fine.

caitini said:

 
Same here! I once went into anaphylactic shock from a cat, when I was a young kid. Now I have two, they sleep with me and everything... and I'm fine.

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My husband was supposedly allergic to everything. Pollen gets both of us out here in the desert during certain seasons but not the cats.

I worked at my local humane society for 6 years and there was only one owner surrender allergy story that I think was truly so serious that there was no other option. The rest were mostly my new boyfriend/my child is allergic so we can't keep him type things, which I don't always buy because often people just start sneezing and decide they can't have a cat anymore! But there's a huge range of allergic reactions when it comes to cats, and there are ways around many of them.

I grew up with asthma that wasn't terrible most of the time when I was healthy, but I was allergic to cats and it would get really bad if I was even in a house that had a cat in it at one point. I believed I never was going to be able to have a cat and I was just constantly heartbroken. I remember visiting my grandmother and having to stay outside while the rest of the family was in the house because she used to have a cat. It was pretty ridiculous. But I went to an allergist as a teenager-turns out I am allergic to everything that has fur or pollen, but cats were the worst-and I started getting allergy shots. They don't work for some people, but I think I did them at just the right time of life and I started volunteering at the humane society and I didn't wheeze anymore! I still got the sneezing, itchy nose, swollen, itchy eyes and everything, but if I took a Zyrtec and washed my hands a lot I could get through a 6 hour adoption afternoon pretty well. Then I started fostering, and I discovered bathing the cats, even with just a dry shampoo, really helped as well. And now I have a cat, and I think the constant exposure has really minimized my symptoms. I was gone for a week over Christmas and I was pretty sneezy the first couple days I came back, but then I soon reacclimated.

So, yeah, I'm more of the "where there's a will, there's a way" mindset. I'm sure there are some people with allergies to cats at a more severe level that it just wouldn't be safe, but I think that's pretty rare. Allergies are weird, but fortunately they're so common that modern medicine has developed lots of stuff to help us combat them! I don't think you have much to worry about.

@Molly92 Yes, that is the other thing. I do bathe my cats and they were trained from a young age and do good with baths. Only my older long hair boy tolerates a blow dry so my younger shorthair cats do not get bathed in the winter. They do line up for daily brushing while I get ready for work in the morning.

I have seasonal allergies which I take medication for nearly year round.  I've never noticed my 2 cats having an impact on my health.  Maybe so but if that's the case the Zyrtec does an excellent job of masking it!

However, years ago one of my sisters had a cat that I was highly allergic to.  It was so bad as to set of my first ever asthma attack. My other sister had 2 cats and I had no problem with hers.  Or, anyone else's I've been in contact with.  It was just that one cat. Maybe it was related to it's specific fur? 

I've known people that were almost extremely allergic to cats that learned they could live with them if they just bathed them once a week. My mom is allergic to cats and especially to Sara (yes, some cats can elicit allergic reactions more than others). Always has been. And somehow we have a bunch of cats. I suspect I may have a mild allergy to the, not sure. Never been tested because I'm prone to hives and twice had tons of false-positives (when being tested for other things). Plus, it just wouldn't matter to me. If my allergies act up for whatever reason, I take something for it. I know people will sometimes say they don't want to have to live with taking medicine every day. I take 9 pills a day for epilepsy, another couple won't faze me.

But yeah, I wouldn't really worry about that. If it happens, you will deal with it. And I'm sure you love your kitty and will find a way to make it work rather than giving it back. If I worried about everything that COULD happen, omg, I'd go crazy, lol.

Adding to what i had said previously; because I knew I was allergic to cats, I wanted to adopt an older male. Somewhere I read that the allergen is less potent in their saliva. 

I also decided to take him to a groomer once a month for a good brush out and a  bath...kind of like a bath without water, (to get the dander off of him), and a nail trim. 

I was afraid of trimming his nails. I also tried to wipe him down once a week with the pet allergy wipes.

Well, that was all good, at least in my mind for a several months. Then I finally realized that Going to the groomers stressed Artie out so much; I really felt bad for him.  I finally decided to stop the baths. I kept up with the nail trimming. I think it was at the 8 month mark, when I decided that: "I can do that", so now I do.

While it is not the best way of doing it...it is a real fight, I feel it is much better than carting him out of the house; getting him scared to death...

I think the bathing did help at first.. it did clean him up and we kind of started that from scratch by doing that.

When I had really bad asthmatic  bronchitis, my doctor told me to get rid of my cat. I refused---flat out refused....not an option...

I still have him to this day. 

This morning, Artie cuddled with me in bed at 3:30-4:00 am and also sleeps on my pillow.....he is my guy and I will never get rid of him.. I will always have a cat...regardless of my allergies...

I am another one who does not care much for allergy testing.. Example: I know I am allergic to dust, mold, ragweed, and spring grassed. Spring is my worst time. Well, the allergy test said that I was NOT allergic to any of them!!! 

The allergist(?) supposedly a well know one, insisted that I had a "sensitivity" to them, but not an allergy....pure bunk as far as I am concerned.

We had a cat that lived in the house with us about 9 to 10 years. No problems. Then we decided to add another cat. At that time, my husband got sick, real sick with what we thought was a cold. It hung on and he got worse. We finally started to think it must be the cats. I ran the vacuum cleaner on the carpet very day. It had a Hepa Filter. I bought ionizers with Hepa Filters. My husband took every kind of over the counter allergy medicine that we could find. None of it helped. He was finally prescribed Singular, Fexofenadine, and a steroid nasal spray. We finally realized there was no choice but to put the cats outside. We had a fenced in area behind our house and we bought The Cat Fence In System to attach around the top of the fence. Every since then, the cats we have had lived in the yard. We moved and the same system was put up for the cats again. We now have a screened in porch and a heated and cooled garage where the cats would sleep at night. We missed having them inside and especially sleeping with us. But this system enabled us to keep our cats. The only thing my husband didn't do is the allergy shots. His doctor said he would not recommend the shots as they didn't always work in older people.

The steroid nasal spray he used for so long now has him going to the eye doctor for monitoring of the pressure in his eyes. Long time use of steroid nasal sprays can and do cause this. The last time he went he was told things were some better so he isn't having to do any eye drops for this and we pray that he won't have to.

I think I might be allergic...my mom and her sister are, but I'm not sure. I've been sneezing a more than usual lot lately (since I got Felix) and my hands break out in itchy bumps. I have sensitive skin though, so it might be a variety of factors...

Anyway, short of death, I'd never give Felix up because of an allergy. 

Well, I am not sure if developed was the right word for me. I knew I was a little allergic to cats...

But after I adopted one that was starving under my shed last September, my allergies got a little worse every day. Not enough for me to really notice, but they compounded and got terrible. I already take prescription antihistamines for regular pollen and such like Allegra-D.

My Cousin is also allergic to cats and has been taking the allergy shots for years. She started to have seizures a couple of years back. The rest of the family (with no proof) suspects the allergy shots.

Three weeks ago my boss pulled me aside and said I was not the same person he hired, and I needed to fix whatever is happening to me. So, faced with the idea of possible seizures if I went the allergy shot route like my cousin, or something happening at my job, I had to surrender my cat to the shelter.

So, that was three weeks ago. Physically, I am better then I have been for months. I came out of a depression that I didn’t even know I was in! I finally got over a sinus infection that I contracted in November that I have been on three rounds of antibiotics for. However I am still not over it, and I am sad and think about her a few times a day. 

So anyway, not real happy with what I had to do, and wish it could have been different. I did the best I could. I know her chances at the shelter are bad, but she got medical care, and gained 8 pounds, and maybe I am the link to her getting a forever home. If not, at least I didn’t let her die cold, alone, and starving under the shed.

We have had cats for years. Never had a problem. And then we got Banshee (who is now a Rainbow Baby). For some reason, I developed some kind of allergy with her and we don't know why. The inner lining of my nose started to shred out. Sneezing, snotting, etc. The doctor said it was an allergy and probably to The Queen B. Doctor said to get rid of her or, at the very least, keep her completely out of the bedroom. Neither of those was a true option; I was not getting rid of The Queen and she was not staying out of the bedroom either! So he suggested I start taking Claritin D. And I took it for about 3 years. Eventually, whatever it was did go away and Banshee and I were fine. She was the only cat I developed an allergy to, that we know of.