Allergies

solace

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I am in a huge amount of distress. 4 Months ago, my girlfriend and I moved into our new apartment. Prior to even recieveing our furniture we adopted two absolutly beatiful kittens from North Shore Animal League in New York. My grilfriend new beforehand that she was allergic to cats. At first it was nothing.. she would sneeze a bit and sometimes get a rash if she was scratched.

2 months ago, she started working at a pet store. Around the same time, she started having non-stop congestion of her nose. Since then, she hasn't been able to taste any of her food, and keeps both of us up at nights because she can't sleep. She is always complaining about hwo annoying it is, and how she never has any relief.

The doctor gave her 300mg samples of Allegra, an allergy medication and she thought that it cleared up her symptoms. After the samples ran out, the symptoms started all over again. We went out and bought an actual prescription of Allegra from the drugstore. Now she's taking that, and it doesn't seem to be working at all.

I know your first assumption is going ot be that it is the pet store and not the cats so much. She already thought of that and said that even if she is allergic to the pet store, she wants her home to be a place where she can get away from the allergens, which I totally agree with. However, I wish there was some way to keep the cats from causing her all this pain. She is decided that we have to get rid of them.. and I just can't stop thinking about ways to keep them. I've checked out a lot of web sites that talk about what to do. Many of them suggest:

* Buying an air purifier
* Bathing the cats once per week
* Vaccuuming the house and furniture every day, after putting a special filter on the vaccuum.
*Adding a treatment to their cat food that makes them stop shedding

I don't know what else to do. Any sugegstions at all would be helpful. Thank you.
 

elinor

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First of all welcome. I myself have some allergies to cats but not as severe. The filters do work and bathing the cats regularly helps but maybe once a week is a bit much for drying out their skin. There is something called Allergy Relief from Cats and its a liquid you wipe them down with and it gets rid of dander. There is something called Kitty Wipes as well that are supposed to be quite good.

Also I dont let my cats in my bedroom. We cant sleep with them anyway but I keep the bedroom door closed so they cant even go in there. It keeps any dander out of the room. You should not let them sleep with you at all. Its one room I can go if my allergies act up. Also you do build up immunities after some time and the allergies are not as bad.

I think if she is working in a pet shop she is getting kind of "overkill" as far as allergies go. Birds are supposed to be the worst for allergies. I had one and couldnt breathe at all. If she started to get worse since the job maybe thats a big part of it.Hope this is of some help Good luck and keep us posted.
 

studio224

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Hi,

has your girl friend actually been tested for what kind of allergies she might have?

My son had severe attacks of asthma and since we have 3 cats, we thought he was allergic to cats. His allergologist tested him for about twelve most common allergies and we found out that he was allergic to dust mites and showed no allergies at all to cats. So before getting rid of your cats, maybe you have to make sure to what she is exactly allergic?

Is is not enough to take allergy medications, the most important is knowing exactly to what she might be allergic. And then avoiding the allergen if possible.

As far as I know, bathing the cats, and using allergy relief will not work for someone severely allergic to cats...

Anne-Claire
 

krazy kat2

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I also had cat allergies. Then a set of twin kittens decided I was going to be their person and would not take no for an answer. I sneezed and itched for awhile, but after a few months it slowed down and eventually stopped. I may just be lucky to have outgrown my allergies, but my doctor said it was not at all uncommon. That was 13 years ago and I am fine now. I even still have 1 of the kittens.
 

dtolle

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Whenever my son would go into someone's home with a cat he would immediately start stuffing up w/ his nose and his eyes would itch. When we got our cats, he also had the same reaction. Over a period of about 4 weeks it completely stopped. I researched it on the internet and discovered a lot of people build up an immunity to their OWN cats after a while. My son still reacts when he is around other people's cats, but not ours.
Maybe your girlfriend will get better with time. You also may want her to check out an allergist who will undoubtedly suggest something that will work . Good luck to you. I know how frustrating it can be!
 
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