New kitten, now have allergies

[redqueen13]

Hello, so I have always been mildly allergic to cats. Sometimes I would get a stuffy nose and itchy eyes if I didn't wash my hands after touching the cat. I have had cats my whole life and only had minor issues. We have one cat that we adopted a year ago and about a week ago we adopted a kitten. I am having so bad allergies all of a sudden. Constant stuffy nose, sneezing and itchy eyes. I'm not sure if it's just suddenly having two cats that's the issue and I will adjust or there are other issues. I'm not against taking meds for this, I'm just confused as to why I suddenly have worse allergies. What do I do? I love my cats.

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

I feel for you. We had the same problem when we added a second cat to the household. The allergies got worse over time, until we figured out the problem was the cats.

The cats had to be either rehomed or moved outside. We had an existing fence, so we purchased The Cat Fence In System. The cats were moved to a pet cage in the garage at night.

 

[AbbysMom]

Your options are either rehome the cat or learn to live with it. If you decide to live with it, this article has some options -


http://www.thecatsite.com/a/living-with-cat-allergy

Good luck! I'm allergic and have a cat.

 

[Kat0121]

Your options are either rehome the cat or learn to live with it. If you decide to live with it, this article has some options -

That's a nice case. Don't tell my cats that yours have an Ipad Air 2 or they will want one also. 

 

[jcat]

How old is the kitten? Is it good about grooming itself? Several people who work at our shelter complain that 3 or 4-month-olds make them sneezy or itchy. It's that period when they still have a bit of a fluffy baby coat, but mom's not always there to groom them thoroughly. Have you tried pet wipes?

I don't want to get your hopes up too high with the above. A lot of people can tolerate one shorthaired cat provided they do a lot of vacuuming, but two really aggravate their allergies.

I used to be very allergic to cats, so the only way we could have one was by doing away with rugs, drapes, and upholstered furniture, cleaning a lot and having a HEPA air filter system installed.

Oddly enough, my allergies almost disappeared after I started working at a shelter several days a week and being "overexposed". Within a few short months I went from several asthma attacks a day to occasional sniffles. That's not to be recommended though. My brother died from a cat-induced asthma attack.

 

[AbbysMom]

Your options are either rehome the cat or learn to live with it. If you decide to live with it, this article has some options -


That's a nice case. Don't tell my cats that yours have an Ipad Air 2 or they will want one also. :lol3:

Yikes! Thanks, I fixed that. :lol3:

 

[donutte]

Wow @jcat  that's awful about your brother, I'm so sorry.

I think some cats can make people have worse allergies than others, and it can even change over time. My mom is allergic, but over the last year or so, Sara has been REALLY setting off her allergies. She takes several Benadryl a day (to the point it doesn't even make her sleepy anymore) to deal with it. And does not allow Sara on her for more than a minute. Of course, she always decides to shake her hair all over when she's by her.

I think with her, after she started taking meds for her hyper-t, her hair really started growing in. It's very thick now whereas it was quite thin before.

Also keep in mind, allergies can change over time, for the better or for the worse. Or even form when they weren't there before. Have you tried bathing the kitten?

 

[molly92]

I've noticed that I'm just more allergic to certain cats than others. And maybe once or twice in my life, I've met a cat I was not allergic to at all! It's definitely interesting. The first couple weeks I'm around a new animal, I get the worst allergy symptoms and they die down afterwards, so it may get better with time. I've also noticed that for some cats, I can give them a waterless bath with one of those foaming cat shampoos, and my allergies will be much better for the next few days. Most cats will not take kindly to a bath every few days, though! So I usually take an antihistamine and leave it at that.