Successful pet alternative with allergies...

[HappilyEvrAfter]

Is there anyone here that has both cat and dog alleriges that's been able to incorporate any other type of pet in the house?

I mean, we have hermit crabs, but they're just boring to me. I don't really want fish or birds. We've accidentally killed those water frogs. ...and it made me sad.

What does that leave? Has anybody been able to have hamsters or ferrets or something like that with a dog/cat allergy?

[meg-momto2]

it probably depends on your reaction to the animal. i have cat and dog allergies, more reactive to cats. as i kid i would get rashes and my face would swell from being in the same house as a cat. dogs never seemed to bother me to much. when i moved in with my DH 10 years ago he had a shedding dog and we adopted two cats. i went through a period of itchiness but have become accustomed to them over the years. the dog has since passed away. i do not touch the cats much these days. i'm just not really a cat person in general. i keep my house immaculate with vacuuming, animals are not allowed on bedrooms and my hands are washed immediately following anytime i do anything with the animals. my eyes will still get itchy and swell if i touch my face after touching a cat or cat hair if i don't wash my hands.

i've heard bunnies are very similar to cats as far as allergies go. does anyone know if that's true?

[HappilyEvrAfter]

Well, it's not really an external reaction we have. I'm allergic to dogs, my son is allergic to dogs and cats.

It presents more like seasonal allergy symptoms...constant headache, runny nose, muscle soreness, inflames sinuses.
I can walk into an area and tellyou if a dog has been there within the last 30 mins by the way my sinuses react.

When we rehomed our dog I had to steam clean the carpets and our cloth furniture (had to get rid of the couch) in order to calm our sinuses down while inside.

I thought at first he was just brining in stuff from outside causing a reaction, but I can go stand sit down on the grass in our backyard and not have a single problem. The I had us allergy tested and sure enough we're both allergic to dogs.

I just miss having a petable, holdable pet.

[kjbrown92]

My DH has allergy-induced asthma to dogs and cats, cats are by far worse, but we can go into a home with dogs, and within 30 minutes he's wheezing if he hasn't had his meds. If he has had his meds, he can be in there for 3-4 hours (for dogs, 2 hours limit with cats). We have an American Hairless Terrier, and he doesn't react to it at all. They're cute dogs, once you get over the weirdness. And lapdogs, very cuddly. Because people seek them out that have allergies, there's sort of a network, so that if you want one, you can visit a home with them, to see if you react. Also, we feed ours a raw diet, or else it has a "dog" odor. Otherwise, she hardly smells at all.

[emilysmama]

Originally Posted by meg-momto2

i've heard bunnies are very similar to cats as far as allergies go. does anyone know if that's true?

I think there is something to be said for that. (Entirely anecdotal, however.) I have really bad cat and dog allergies. when I was in college, I had to take a long car trip to someone's house. I checked to make sure that there were no cats or dogs. It didn't occur to me to even think about bunnies. Sure enough, there were bunnies. I was trapped. I was part of a bus group, so I couldn't just drive back home. For reasons I can't remember, I couldn't even leave the room. It was awful. Wheezing, etc.

[rhesp1212]

I was going to recommend one of the hairless breeds as well....both dogs and cats come as "hairless" now. Since it seems you are pretty severely allergic I would go that route. From my experience, I'm allergic to dogs, cats and horses.....I also reacted to guinea pigs and rabbits as well. Although the guinea pig, it was mostly due to the shavings we used in the cage I think. Rabbit hair is also like cat hair...very fine and they shed ALOT so it's everywhere.

If you're not severely sensative, some of the long haired breeds of dogs don't shed hardly at all because their hair is continuous growing (poodles, shitzu, lhasa apso, yorki, and some of the other terriers, etc.) You might want to see if you can find someone who has those kinds of dogs and go spend some time at their house to see if they bother you.

You could also try hamsters or large rats, but they're not really a lap pet. If you can tolerate guinea pigs, they can be trained to sit in your lap, etc. We had one that sat in our laps and watched TV as a kid...she was awesome!

[HappilyEvrAfter]

Sadly, I've been in a house that had a shitzhu and a poodle....reactions to both.

I'm not opposed to a hamster, guinea pig or small rats at all! Just worried about getting one, paying for all the supplies and then finding out we're allergic.

I had thought about going to a pet store and seeing if I had a reaction, but, obviously, there would be other animals around that could interfere.
...and I don't know anyone that has any of these animals.

I had bunnies as a kid with no problems, but we had dogs growing up without any reactions too.

::sigh::

[kjbrown92]

My DH also reacted to poodles and such, but no problem with the American Hairless Terrier. That's why they've got such a good referal program with people being allowed to visit their homes to see if they react.

[WuWei]

We loved our pet corn snake! Easy, clean, friendly, non-allergenic, doesn't bite, no pet sitting required for short vacations, very fun to share with friends.


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