Cat for someone allergic to cats?

Smithy7876

Ive always had cats in the family and always had an allergy. When I moved out of home to rental for a few years I obviously couldnt have cats and everytime I went home the symptoms were worse. Last year brought a house and got myself 2 kittens with the opinion I love having them about and my body WILL deal with it with the help of anti-hystamines. All is better again now and I can go home to the family house without suffering. I guess im one of the lucky ones who can train my body out of it to a point.
Of course this wont work for everyone and its a hard one to try as a pet is for life you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences of not being as fortunate as me.

calicocat

Smithy7876 wrote: »

Ive always had cats in the family and always had an allergy. When I moved out of home to rental for a few years I obviously couldnt have cats and everytime I went home the symptoms were worse. Last year brought a house and got myself 2 kittens with the opinion I love having them about and my body WILL deal with it with the help of anti-hystamines. All is better again now and I can go home to the family house without suffering. I guess im one of the lucky ones who can train my body out of it to a point.
Of course this wont work for everyone and its a hard one to try as a pet is for life you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences of not being as fortunate as me.

I'm like that, and always have been since a kid. I was allergic to my current one for the first few weeks and then gradually I was fine. I'm also allergic to most other people's cats and have to try and remember not to touch my face/eyes and wash my hands after handling them, but assume if I lived with them i'd get used to them as I have my own. Same with bunny's.

However being asthmatic is different, and it wouldn't be fair to get one and then have to re-home it knowing this would be the likely outcome.

lindens

i've got cats and am allergic to most things with fur, but as i've lived with cats and been exposed to them, my allergy has reduced. i have recently got a moggy with alot of Russian blue in him and he doesn't moult at all and i get no problems petting him, compared to my other cats. they have a special coat and its quite common to get on with this breed when you have an allergy

meritaten

I don't think many people have noticed but in the original post it didn't just state that his wife was allergic to cat fur, but also to cat saliva! this is potentially the more serious problem as all cats produce saliva! and it would be impossible to avoid as cats lick their coats to clean them - therefore depositing saliva on them.

it is worth getting re-tested though, every couple of years as allergies have been known to disappear over time! not much consolation to the kids. but I am sure they would much rather mum be alive than have a kitten!

moggymutt

Years ago I worked with someone who bred Cornish Rex cats and successfully homed many as pets for people who were normally allergic to cats. Which is puzzling as cat allergies are more to cat saliva from grooming their coats than length of hair.

Arachne_2

I second WestonDave's fostering suggestion - my mum's allergic to cats, but over time visiting me and my mog, he hardly has any effect on her now.

I also am mildly allergic (puffy sore eyes, sniffles etc), but I'm fine with my boy now.

What about one of those bald cats?

meritaten

Arachne wrote: »

I second WestonDave's fostering suggestion - my mum's allergic to cats, but over time visiting me and my mog, he hardly has any effect on her now.

I also am mildly allergic (puffy sore eyes, sniffles etc), but I'm fine with my boy now.

What about one of those bald cats?

Arachne, OPs wife is asthmatic and allergic to both fur AND saliva - to me that spells trouble. if it was just fur it could probably be managed for a time with antihistamines until she built up natural immunity. but by being allergic to saliva if the cat licks HER she may end up going into anaphylactic shock. This is exactly what happened to my son and he ended up in Intensive care. he could easily have died if the emergency services hadn't been so fast for a change! I do not want that to happen to OPs wife.

Arachne_2

meritaten wrote: »

Arachne, OPs wife is asthmatic and allergic to both fur AND saliva - to me that spells trouble. if it was just fur it could probably be managed for a time with antihistamines until she built up natural immunity. but by being allergic to saliva if the cat licks HER she may end up going into anaphylactic shock. This is exactly what happened to my son and he ended up in Intensive care. he could easily have died if the emergency services hadn't been so fast for a change! I do not want that to happen to OPs wife.

Ooops, I missed the saliva bit as well!

@OP - how is your wife with things like rabbits, guinea pigs etc? Maybe an option if you have garden space?

Slinky

Bluebell1000 wrote: »

My husband is allergic to cats. We sadly had our cat put to sleep yesterday after 4 happy years with us. How did we manage his allergy? We used Petal Cleanse. It seems to work for most people - though not all. And not all cats would tolerate it either. We had to pretty much soak Bessie in it once a week for the first few months. After that hubby became tolerant enough that we didn't need to.

When we got her it was on a fostering basis from Cats Protection - if it didn't work they would have rehomed her. We have found that neutered females are much less allergenic than others - un-nuetered males seemed to set off hubby's asthma most.

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My husband's cat allergy was also cured with the use of Petalcleanse over several months. Gradually kept forgetting to clean the cat each week, so the gaps between cleans got longer and longer and eventually we were able to stop using it.

Our cat was a boy

I'm sorry for your loss,

Smithy7876

calicocat wrote: »

I'm like that, and always have been since a kid. I was allergic to my current one for the first few weeks and then gradually I was fine. I'm also allergic to most other people's cats and have to try and remember not to touch my face/eyes and wash my hands after handling them, but assume if I lived with them i'd get used to them as I have my own. Same with bunny's.

However being asthmatic is different, and it wouldn't be fair to get one and then have to re-home it knowing this would be the likely outcome.

I am also heavily asthmatic, to the point where I have been hospitalised with no heart beat:eek:. However my symptons to the allergies are not as bad as they could be