I struggle with this and yet will still accept face snuggles with my kitty.
Do antihistamines work?
Not OP, but they do.
I have severe cat allergy and a pretty bad dog allergy, but gen3 antihistamines, when taken in advance, take care of it fairly well. Whatever I feel is usually just psychosomatic, and goes away with the first beer. Context: Christmas parties at friends houses who have dogs & cats.
Several years ago I had no idea I had developed a cat allergy. The way I found out? Stopped by the apartment before a first date for a woman who had over a dozen cats. Didn’t stay there long before realizing my eyes were swelling shut lol. Let’s just say I took that as a sign to:
- Avoid being inducted into crazy cat lady harem
- Begin allergy shots.
Wow, yeah, for me I stayed over at a friend’s house who had cats. It was the most painful night of sleep I ever experienced. But I endured it. 😵
You had it worse then! While there were so so many cats, this was a first date where we didn’t really click and I was happily able to escape as soon as I realized I was in for a bad ride with allergies.
For some reason, I don’t have much of a problem with cat hair, like it just causes itchiness after several hours, but if a cat licks me, I quickly break out in hives.
That makes sense, it’s usually not the hairs that people are allergic to. It’s a protein in their saliva, urine and skin flakes. Hairs could be covered with saliva and/or skin flakes, so in that sense I guess people might still react to the hairs, but a naked cat can trigger an allergic reaction too.
My girlfriend has the same issue. Her doctor told her she was allergic specifically to cat saliva, and since they groom themselves with their tongues their fur has little bits of saliva on them, which triggers a less intense reaction than direct cat licks.
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Thoomp
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I know Germany-Germans who are allergic to cat hair. Though that doesn’t mean that east asians can’t have a higher prevalence than europeans.
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