# Severe allergies, give up cat? Need advice.



## Shelly (Jun 16, 2011)

Hi everyone! My name is Michelle and I am new on CatForum! I am 26, almost 27 years old and live in Toronto, Ontario. I still live at home with my mother in a 2-storey apartment and currently looking for a job. I stumbled onto this forum through searching Google as I was seeking information about cats, as I am a first time owner to my beautiful baby named Whiskey.*

Whiskey was born on March 28th, according to the vet (at the Annex Animal Hospital, for the people who may be familiar or from the Toronto area). He is a cute domestic medium hair brown tabby with white. I adopted him on May 19 through an old high school friend that currently works there and was asking around, looking for people to adopt the stray kittens that were found up north somewhere and were pretty much barn cats that were found by one of the vets that work at the Annex animal hospital. There were three kittens, all got tested and got their first vaccination, as well as their first dose of kitten Revolution and were safe to adopt. One of the three my friend adopted herself, she chose the alpha male (because she has a fairly large dog herself and figured that he has more of a chance to get along with her dog). Whiskey's brother showed signs of being alpha male because he was the one that would stand on top of his siblings, hissing at people in the cage, trying to protect them. Whiskey looks almost exactly like his sister, but he is slightly bigger and was told she is the runt of the litter.*

At the time, I wasn't too sure if I wanted to adopt a cat since I knew my cat allergies are bad, but I didn't think it would be as bad as if I were to have Asthma attacks (more of that in a bit). I have always wanted
a cat, I like the longer fuzzier haired ones and was hoping to get an orange tabby in the future, but I heard it could be worse for allergy sufferers. Anyway, when I got to the vet, I was immediately inlove with them. Seeing the fuzziness of the cats, their sweet little faces, their pattern and colour and just how tiny and cute they are! I chose the remaining male cat because he was much more docile compared to his sister and didn't really meow as much or loud as his sister. My boyfriend told me that kittens are usually less problematic in terms of allergies and the whole time I was there, I didn't have much of an allergic reaction. I was also told that my body could get use my own cat and it eventually won't be as bad. My boyfriend wanted to take the sister, but he already has a cat of his own who in genereal isn't friendly, let alone bringing home a baby cat.

So I took Whiskey home and semi-kitten proofed my small bedroom. I didn't tell my mom about my baby because I don't really get along with her and had a feeling that she wouldn't accept a new pet into the home. I felt bad and still feel bad that's he's always confined to my tiny bedroom, but that's the best I can do for now until I get a babygate installed and clean up the whole apartment. My mom hasn't cleaned any area of the apartment, including her own room in years, so you can imagine the build up and my concern. There is a medium sized bedroom, but that is partially used as a storage room. I am currently planning on cleaning that room up some more (I cleared out a lot of things a few weeks ago) and even though it's for my mother's benefit as well, she had to put up a huge fight with me over some items that she thinks has value, but obviously forgot about and doesn't even use if it's been collecting dust deep in the storage room for many years. She only found out about them again because she decided to stick her nose in my activities. I clean my room quite regularly, not only for the sake of my allergies but because a dirty place truly bothers me. I have cleaned her room and the whole lower floor in the past, but it is extremely difficult to keep up with since my mom always complains about the smell of detergent, things being messed up or "thrown out" and having to always tidy up after her since she's an extremely sloppy person. She hardly cleans the dishes or even look after her own old and sick dog! It's really difficult living with her because I always have to be the responsible one but yet I hardly even have much time for myself, let alone work for 7-8 hours a day. I am not rich but have a few hundred dollars saved up for the time being for changing the storage room, install a baby gate, to live on, for cat supplies, etc.

I can't move out because of my financial situation, although I dread being at home, I really do hope things will get better soon. I hope to find a good job so I can provide more space for my cat to run around in and just be independent and live a clean and mess free happy life.

The situation with my allergies: when I first brought Whiskey home, I had all the symptoms you can imagine. I had an extremely difficult time with falling asleep for the first few weeks because some of the over-the-counter medications I bought didn't work enough for me to calm down my stuffy runny nose and constant coughing! It is worse at night. I felt like I have asthma, with wheezing (with kind of bubbly sounds in my throat) and as if my throat was closing up! It's pretty severe because I think it's the dander that I breathe in because everything else, like hives, itchyness, pink itchy watery eyes, is pretty much contact-to-cat only. I have bought a small HEPA air purifier for my room but it's debatable whether it's really working for me. I am thinking that it could be because it's a small one and I need a better one too. They are quite expensive and I find that the replaceable filters are expensive and difficult to find as well. I have a humidifier in my room as well and I really have no idea whether that's helping and I very recently got a window air conditioner installed as well (mostly for my cat since it's usually the hottest room during the hot summer months). I discovered that Allegra-D works the best, in terms of coughing, breathing, stuffy and runny nose... it's still not like it's a full antihistamine for me, but it helps calm the more annoying symptoms and helps me get some shut eye. I went to an allergist to see what else can be done, but all he said was to get rid of the cat. I also have allergies to dust, which I kind of figured anyway but I do try to keep my room clean and change my bedding twice a week. I heard that taking antihistamines for too long may eventually make me have health problems, so I really do hope I get to get use to my cat soon, like other people. I have a feeling that they had an easier time with dealing with their allergies to than I do mainly because they probably don't live in a shoe box sized room (I guess it's close to being 9 feet x 7 feet) and the allergens aren't as concentrated.

I do wish that I could move out, but it seems that the cost of rent is always going up and averages around $1000/mo for an okay sized place. Considering my financial situation and the field I graduated from school in, it requires a lot of long hours, including weekdays and weekends. It's an unappreciative industry and the salary is very low.*

I believe that finding others just like me and my situation is far and few in between, because that would be the kind of advice that I would take to heart the most. Any kind of advice that can be given, though, I would appreciate nonetheless.

Have a great day everyone and I hope to meet you all soon!

Michelle


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## granthar (Jul 4, 2011)

*I understand*

We have one long haired cat and have never had any problems, we have just got a short haired Savannah and both myself and my wife have all the symptons you describe. I have never suffered from any breathing difficulties but am now having to use an inhaler to get through the day. The doctore assures me that we will get used to it over time ut if it wasn't so adorable it would have been long gone.
I have bought one of those grooming gloves, looks like a rubber massage type device, this removed a lot of fur and I am hoping this will help. Will let you know how we get on.


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## neko13_3 (Jul 4, 2011)

Over time, your system should adapt. It's a commonly used method for allergy treatment, usually used via allergy shots to gradually build up your resistance to it. I know it works though, just by normal exposure, because I am more allergic to cats than I am to dogs, but any time I am in a house with dogs kept inside for more than a few hours, my eyes water, my nose itches, my eyes itch, I sneeze. This is even on allergy medicine. Not the same thing with cats.


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## akane (Jul 4, 2011)

Allergists think the only solution is to get rid of whatever you are allergic to. You can get allergy shots if you have insurance. Make sure your vacuum has a hepa filter so it doesn't throw all the hair and cat dander in to the air and vacuum very frequently. At least daily. Spray everything with febreeze anti allergen. We cover the couch and other furniture with blankets that can be removed and washed often unlike the actual furniture. Feeding good quality food (not grocery store brands) will improve the health of the skin and coat so less dander and hair is released. My husband's allergies went down a lot when I convinced him to switch his cats to better quality food. You can also break capsules of vitamin E or fish oil over their food to help even more.

What helps the most but you probably can't do is to get rid of carpet. We spent $4000 replacing the carpet with laminate so that we could keep our cats despite my husband's cat allergies and my slight allergies. That pretty much eliminated the problem. Now there are only issues if cats sleep on something like clothes or on the bed while we are gone and those situations are easy to fix by closing the bedroom door or running stuff back through the dryer. If you don't mind having cheap linoleum you could probably tear out the carpet yourself (that part is easy) and lay down linoleum for $50-$100 in that size room.


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