Hi. I’ve had my cat since August. He sleeps in my bed every night and has done so since I’ve got him. I’ve always had an incredibly mild allergy to cats…mostly when they scratch me I sometimes get very itchy (but not always), or if there are a metric buttload of them in the room (as in a shelter), my throat and eyes will be a bit scratchy. Otherwise I’m fine.
In the past several weeks, I have been sneezing a fuckton and when go to bed and wake up in the morning my nose is entirely stuffed up and runny. It goes away once I’m up and moving, but I’m still periodically sneezing whenever I’m at home. The litter boxes are NOT in my bedroom.
Any tips??? I don’t want to kick him out of the bed. :(((
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The toxicity is in the dose. If you’re actually allergic to your cat, it could be a seasonal change in his grooming regimen resulting in more saliva on his fur, which means more allergen proteins in the dander.
Another possibility: seasonal change has resulted in something blooming to which you’re mildly allergic. The combination of things might have tipped you over the edge of allergic response.
There are a ton of factors that could be in play, and only an allergist can tell you for sure what’s going on.
Allergies can change over time, and also can become more severe with repeated exposure. You can consult with an allergy specialist to get tested and some advice, but there are a few suggestions here already that should help alleviate symptoms. The biggest one is probably to change and wash your sheets frequently (like at least weekly). And use a wash cycle with hot water.
There are lots of options for allergy medication, too. I have really bad pollen allergies, but I’ve been using Nasacort daily for many years now, and they hardly bother me at all except a little at peak season.
If you think you can manage it, regularly bathing your cat will reduce the amount of dander in his coat. At the very least, try to brush him at least a few times a week with a de-shedding brush, in a different room. I find the Furminator brand brushes work really well on most cat coats.
Brushing him could help, as could vacuuming and changing bed sheets more often.
Changing pillow cases more frequently at a minimum. Maybe keep several extra pillow cases and change then every other night?
Also putting his mattress and pillows into an allergen case.
Has the cat’s diet changed at all? My understanding is that the allergy has to do with a protein that some cats produce, and it ends up on their fur through the saliva. Certain diets can reduce or eliminate the protein.
I don’t have any brands to recommend, but here is the study if it gives you something to go off of
Do you have good air filters to filter the cat dander and cat hair? What about how often you brush the cat or wash bedding?
It could be that you’ve finally gotten enough cat hair building up at home that it is starting to be a lot.
Making sure you have and change the air filter on your HVAC system or getting auxiliary air filters can help remove airborne cat dander or cat hair. This will also help if it’s a combination of cat and pollen or other things, air filtration is great.
If the cat is shedding all over your bedding at night then washing it regularly will likely help with that aspect. Get a furminator comb and use that to help remove loose hair from your cat and be able to dispose of it without needing them to shed it wherever, that can also help reduce hairballs.
First of all, wash your sheets if you aren’t doing it regularly. Then have a quick look around fo mould. Lastly, minimise laundry left on the floor and vacuum more if they’re carpeted. A third of our time is in our bedroom, so things can get blocked up if stuff is in the air.
If that’s all good, okay, time to start considering the cat 🥺 The most common allergy is from their saliva on themselves from cleaning, or skin falling off from cleaning. If they’re cleaning themselves in your bed or shortly before coming into bed, that’s most likely it.
There are apparently cat foods that reduce the production of what humans are allergic to, but I struggled a bit to find an article about it that didn’t read like a paid advertisement. I guess here:
https://www.aaoallergy.org/hypoallergenic-pet-food-myth-or-magic-solution/ This looks real? Would love info from someone who knows more on this.
According the an allergy doctor I follow on several social media places, this is legit. It also comes in a powder you can sprinkle on any cat food. The protein is found in chicken eggs where the chickens have actually been exposed to cats food most of their lives. It won’t work for everyone but from what I can tell the science shows it’ll at least improve things!
Oh, neat! My cat gets special food cause of her own allergies, so a powder would be way nicer if one of the humans here developed an allergy.
Anecdotally, but one of my cat-allergic kids spent the entire day at a friend’s house with their cat who was purportedly fed this kind of food. Now, my kid pre-dosed an antihistamine early in the day, and their friend vacuumed before, but this was allll day in a studio apartment, and they didn’t have a single symptom at all. Based on prior experience, that’s unusual.
You know, an anecdote still seems like more legit data than some of the articles I saw. Unless… you’re also sponsored??? (joking) There does seem to be a lot of potential in targeting the allergin cats make, so I’m genuinely hopeful about these kinds of treatments.
Ha, no, just something that happened recently that lined up with the current topic. Like I said, just an anecdote, there wasn’t any science involved, just something I took note of.
Joke: bois the plague is back
It do be like that sometimes, since you do actually have allergic to cat. Sometimes my allergic reaction is so severe i couldn’t breath through my nose and have to rely on antihistamine, other times i can hug them all day and it barely itch. One thing that helped me is to clean the room often, and vacuum the floor helps a lot, since the allergen do linger in the air and vacuuming trap it inside the vacuum. I got a robot vacuum exactly for this reason, so i can sit back and rest while the robot do the vacuuming for me.
Change your sheet and wash your duvet/blanket more often could also help, since you’re letting him in your room and that increase the amount of time you’re exposed to allergen.
But the best thing for both of you is to not allow him in your room to decrease the exposure time.
I heard it has something to do with your body immune system, so being healthy also helps with it.
Also if you have access to 5 big piece of hepa filter and a box fan, you can make a Corsi-Rosenthal Box, a DIY air purifier that works significantly better and cheaper than the one in the market, and this thing is invented to reduce indoor infection risk of covid19.
Brushing, trimming their hair. I also have air filters going with specific animal filters.
Just take an antihistamine every day
