Living with a cat and having allergies.

[2crazykittens]

Okay so my friend has a 6 year old resident cat and happens to be in a relationship with a guy that has severe cat/dog allergies. My friend is feeling the pressure to try to possibly re-home her cat so that she and her new guy can move forward in their relationship. She also admits that she is not home a lot and feels bad for not being able to spend time with her kitty. She does not want to give up her cat to just anyone, so she has asked me if I can take in her mature cat. The only problem is I already have 3 pets in my 2 bedroom apartment.

I don't know what to tell her. I think she should not get rid of her cat at all, especially considering that the relationship is only under a year old, and who knows what might happen yet. I feel bad for the cat possibly being shuffled around from home to home but I can't take on another cat at this time. My cats already have a room of their own, and my friends cat tends to be on the scared side and seems to hide a lot. I can't see her cat taking to having 3 new animals and 2 new humans on all at once.

Is there anything that I can suggest to her that might help with this allergy issue? Cat wipes or something? I feel so bad for this little cat.

 

[datagrrl]

Vacuuming everyday. I use the Febreeze spray for allergens. I also bought an air cleaner.

I use hypoallergenic wipes, but my kitten hates them.

If he is severely alletgic I am not sure if anything will work. Also he has to be willing to take meds or get shots. She doesn't sound committed enough to the cat to make that work.

My husband has a daughter he would have to face if he wasn't willing to do his share. My husband's allergies have lessened over the years. He had sneezed a few mornings, but seasonal allergies ares pretty bad her right now.

 

[catbuck]

I found my cat on my doorstop almost dead when he was about 8 weeks old. Took him in because my GF promised she would take him. Later she said she couldn't and I was stuck! I am allergic to cats and was really panicked as to what to do. A couple things I did was I bought a HEPA air purifier, some allergen pet shampoo and allergen laundry detergent all in hopes of coping with my allergies.

A weird thing happened though and somehow I became desensitized to him and now have zero allergic reaction to him. I mean I can rub my nose in his fur and no reaction! Pretty amazing.....

 

[raintyger]

I heard that pet allergies are usually due to the dander and not the fur. Bathing can help a lot.

I forget the exact reason, but my friend had a cat and thought she was allergic. Turned out it had to do something with fleas, so if she treated the cat with Frontline or Advantage she had no allergies.

What about treating the boyfriend? Can he take Claritin or Zyrtec?

 

[datagrrl]

I was getting my cat spayed and this woman told me her mom used drops in the cat's water and it worked. I had to google it.

I think she meant something they talk about on this site.


http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/allergic-to-cats/

 

[2crazykittens]

Thank you all who replied!

I will have to let her know this information. I did tell her to get a hepa air purifier and a good vacuum with hepa as well. Her BF  has been getting the allergy shots which has not seemed to help yet and he does take claritin and the like and she says it really does not seem to help him to cope with his allergy to cats.

Sad thing is, if she does plan to marry this man, all her friends and family have pets and mostly cats. Seems to me that life will be difficult for her if she plans to bring him along for visits to peoples homes. I for one have 3 pets and I know there is no way he would want to spend too much time at my place.

I have mentioned to her about cat bathing, she said something about shaving the cat but I told her not to shave the cat. I mentioned that I heard about pet wipes for pet allergies. She complained that they were expensive. But I figure if her BF's allergies are that bad that anything would be better that nothing at all.

Hopefully exposure to his allergy will help desensitize him over time. Fingers crossed for her sake and his and this poor kitty.

Thank you for the link to that site about drops @Datagrrl I will send that to her.