Incredible pets as they are, yet should you be allergic to cats, keeping one can affect the health of some pet owners. Sensitivities to one’s cats are brought about mainly from the proteins contained in their skin cells, called dander and also in their saliva from self grooming. Pet owners will often experience some or all of the following adverse reactions from being in contact with this:-
- Sneezing.
- Runny nose.
- Itchy, red or watery eyes.
- Nasal congestion.
- Itchy nose, roof of mouth or throat.
- Cough.
In case you’re similar to others with cat sensitivities, each opportunity you draw close to a feline, you could sniffle up a tempest. Tears fill your red-streaked eyes, you’re irritated, and you want to be far, far away from the allergens. In despair you may consider giving your pet away and getting a non allergenic cat instead. However, on the assumption that you want to keep your pet, there are ways to manage your hypersensitivities, some of which you may want to try. Here they are:-
Tips for pet owners allergic to cats
By keeping an ideal household climate that lessens your introduction to feline dander and salivation, such as taking measures to monitor and control your sensitivities, you can keep your cat regardless of whether you’re hypersensitive to it or not. The following measures are suggested.
1. Keep your cats out of your bedroom.
You will probably spend a third of your day in your bedroom sleeping. By keeping your feline out of your bedroom, you will considerably decrease your general exposure to feline allergens. Keep the door to your room shut when you are gone, and ensure that your feline’s toys and food are found somewhere else in the house.
For those of you that cannot bear to be separated from their cats, even in their bedrooms, make sure you wash your bed sheets in high temperature water twice a week.
2. Clean the house consistently and thoroughly.
Cat hair, which is covered in allergenic salivation, and cat dander is shed in your home continually and everywhere. To monitor your hypersensitivities, clean your house at least once a week to decrease the amount of allergens on surface areas. Whilst cleaning wear a hypersensitivity cover or mask to shield yourself from dander and different allergens.
Certain vacuum cleaners such as the Eureka Sanitaire True HEPA and the Dyson V7 Fluffy HEPA Cordless Vacuum Cleaner, have HEPA channels, which can eliminate significantly more allergenic particles from the air. It might be well worth getting one of these if your hypersensitivities are serious.
3. Wash your hands subsequent to holding your cat.
Your cat licks itself clean, which results in its hair being covered in allergenic saliva. After you have held your cat, make sure you thoroughly wash your hands with soap and warm water. It is particularly important to do this before you touch your face, which is especially sensitive to allergens.
4. Install some allergen trapping air filters / purifiers.
If you are looking for a highly efficient way of reducing the amount of allergens in the air consider getting a HEPA air filter panel. Use HEPA panels as part of your HVAC ( heating ventilation and air conditioning ) framework and change them frequently to get best results.
A different line of safeguard is to spread cheesecloth over the vents in your living room. That way, when air blows in from another area of the house, allergens from it will be trapped in the cloth.
5. Substitute rugs and curtains furnishings.
Feline dander is tiny and can be hard to draw out of carpets, wraps, and upholstered surfaces even with normal cleaning. Wood, stone, and metal decorations are on the whole simpler to clean completely than texture surfaces. By substituting carpets for hardwoods or tile, and picking non-upholstered seats, you can diminish the amount of pet dander in your home.
6. Clean you cat at least weekly
By getting into this regular routine of rubbing down your cat’s fur with disposable bathing wipes to clean away the dander allergens you will significantly reduce your allergies from this source. This practice will prevent the buildup of dander on the cat’s skin and remove any dead fur. Your cat may hate you for this but you will be doing yourself many favors as a result! Check out this video which explains why:-
7. Use a dander-decreasing product on your cat
Certain dander-lessening arrangements and shampoos, for example, Allerpet and Nature’s Miracle Allergen Blocker, purify your cat and can eliminate some hypersensitivity causing dander. Wet a little washcloth with the cleaner and wipe your feline’s face and body, going with the heading of the hide instead of against it. While there is no conclusive confirmation that they do work and genuinely diminish the allergens originating from your pet, it might be worth trying.
8. Take pharmacy anti allergy medication
Taking anti histamine medication such as Benadryl or Claritin can decrease allergy symptoms. These medications block your body’s histamine response, which is the thing that makes your eyes water and skin irritated when affected by feline dander.
In the event that your sensitivities are extreme, it may be advisable to see an allergy specialist to determine whether other forms of treatment should be considered
9. Consider having immunotherapy injections from a medical specialist.
In the event that you have your heart set on keeping a cat regardless of your allergic reactions, a course of immunotherapy shots can really reduce the severity of these reactions. Each shot injected into the upper arm by the allergy specialist contains a tiny amount of the feline allergens that trigger your allergic responses. Steadily increasing dosages are given over a set period of time to improve your immunity until your allergic reactions have greatly diminished.
10. Choose having a hypoallergenic cat.
This option is really for cat lovers who don’t presently own a cat but know that they are allergic to them. In considering which cat to buy they may opt to look for buying a hypoallergenic breed of cat, which is a cat that is relatively unlikely to cause an allergic reaction to its owners. The following article details the choices that are available to such cat lovers:-“The 15 Best Cat Breeds for Allergy Sufferers”
IMPORTANT:-
Your Feedback Matters to me!!! I can’t answer if you don’t ask!! Any Questions?? Use the comments section below and I will respond.
Hello there! Thank you very much for sharing this article on important useful advice for pet owners allergic to cats. This is a very detailed article and also information filled. It’s very sad that I love cats but I’m allergic to them. Because of this allergy I’ve not been able to buy any. However, coming across this article is reassuring me that I can get a cat. Although it’s sad that it won’t get to be in my bedroom but I’ll have it any way. Thanks a lot, I’ll follow these steps and come back with feedback.
Thank you Sophie for those comments and I do wish you a lot of happiness with your new pet when you get one. Jim
I can really relate to this article because I have some friends that love cats but seem to be allergic to them. The fact that their cats make them sneeze yet, they can’t get rid of them is what really bothers me. However now I have got a few tips on how to control the sensitivities, I can’t wait to share the information with them. They will be so happy, as all they just need to do is to get the pet away from their bedrooms, cleaning thoroughly, washing of hands and so on.
Thank you Maureen and so pleased that you found the article to be interesting. Hope your friends implement the ips. Jim
Getting such situations where you are allergic to a cat surprised me until I saw online that it really happens and I had to accept it. It’s cool seeing there are options and ideas on how to help yourself in such situations and these are very simple means. Installing allergen trapping air filters / purifier would be a perfect idea and I hope it works for everyone.
Thanks for your input Reece and pleased that you got some useful information from the article. Jim
Actually i used to be allergic to cats and never wanted to own one. My daughter was going to give away another animal, it was usually a dog but this time around it was a cat. He was actually 6 months old so my husband and I said we will have him. My landlord wouldn’t let us have dogs. I actually used to get those itchy eyes and running nose as allergies but I wasn’t giving him away and decided i would keep him. That was about 8 years ago, Currently we have 5 cats and my allergies are no more. I play and nuzzle with all of the five cats. You actually will get used to the hair. I only speak certainly from my experience. The lady who always takes our cat rescue is also allergic and she takes medication to combat those effects too.
Those were great comments Joshua and thank you for sharing your experiences with us. Jim
Personally, I wouldn’t have considered keeping a pet cat when I know I’m allergic to one, because it’s just like me putting myself in more danger, but we have some people who are very much in love with having a cat and they are allergic, it’s good to know that here are ways around It, it’s very thoughtful of you to share, it’ll be very helpful.
Thanks for your input my friend and good to hear from a dog owner! Unfortunately for some cat owners they may not relate their allergies to their cats as allergies can come from many sources within a household. Jim
Wow . This was an interesting read. For an ordinary person like me, if I were to advise a cat lover with allergies, I would have simply told him or her to bite their nails and stay away from cats!. But I am learning everyday that there is a way around things. I loved most of your recommendations but I guess the last one is the best – Choosing a hypoallergenic cat
Great to receive those comments from you my friend and yes there are many cat lovers who would have chosen that option. Jim
This has been a useful post. There were some points I was not familiar with. But there are others that I had not been considering till now. I will substitute rugs and curtain and I’ll keep my cat out of my bedroom.
I believe these points should be shared among our families and friends. They can make a difference. I enjoy cats very much. But not knowing some of these points was affecting me.
Nice to hear from you Ann and I was very pleased that you enjoyed reading my article and learned something from the points I raised. Yes for sure keeping one’s cat out of the bedroom is a top priority if you wish to avoid becoming allergic. Jim
Thank for this article, I have gained one or two pieces of knowledge about cat allergy from this article. I like cats, but do not fancy having a cat as a pet. To me a dog is preferable. Also, I am not allergic to cats. But I will definitely share this article with my friends and family members, and as many people I can share it with, so they will get to learn what I have learnt from reading this article
Thanks for those comments Kelvin and thanks for your offer to share the article with others.Jim
Thank you for this information. My son is allergic to cats although we only got to know this long after I had bought one I had to later put it up for adoption to a new family. However I really love cats and I wished there was another way to go about things. I really like what I have read here and appreciate all that has been shared by others. Thank you
Thank you very much for that feedback my friend. I hope the information in this article will help you in your decision whether or not to introduce another cat into your household. Jim
So, I was reading your post and I felt like it will be a lot of work for an allergic person to own a cat. Because it will not be easy to remember doing all of the tips above.
Until you talked about the hypoallergenic breed of cats. I think that is the easiest solution, it may also be the most expensive but at least you will not endanger your health by forgetting to clean your hands or to keep your cat from your bed.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for those comments my friend. Yes there are in total 10 tips that I have suggested but readers don’t have to apply all of them. Take those that you are comfortable with and see whether they make a difference. Some are more easier to implement and less costly than the others. Jim
I enjoyed this post as I’m a cat owner, but thankfully not allergic:) However, I do have a sensitivity to house dust and find a vacuum with a hepa filter works well. You are right about dander being a problem for those who suffer from pet allergies. My cat insists on sleeping next to me, but I always do what you suggested, and wash bedding regularly. Yes, there are certain breeds of cat such as the Russian Blue that produce less amounts of the allergy causing protein. Thank you for sharing:)
Thank you Kathy for sharing this with us and good to hear that you are not allergic to cats. Yes house dust is also a problem and I am frequently sneezing from it even though our house gets regularly cleaned. Jim
I love my cat so much, but my allergy is severe, and I’m having a hard time living at home. I don’t want to give her away, so I might as well try to implement some of the things you said and see if I feel any better.
Thanks for crafting such an amazing post, James! I had a blast reading it:)
Thank you Gorjan for those comments and sorry to hear that you have severe cat related allergies. I was very pleased to note that you enjoyed reading the article and I do hope that you will find some relief from your allergies soon after implementing some of my tips. Jim
Hi James, I was curious about your article, because I really love cats (more than dogs), but indeed am very allergic to them. If I visit friends with a cat and they know about my allergy, they usually put in a lot of effort to make sure it won’t bother me that much, but it depends highly on the season and the weather. Winter is the worst of course, because everything is tightly closed.
Do you know if there are less drastic measurements I can take myself to prevend me from having red eyes and sneezing all the time? And by less drastic I mean that I don’t want to take medication for it. Maybe that is an ointment on plant-basis or food that helps?
Thanks for your informative article!
Hello Hannie and many thanks for those interesting comments. You didn’t actually say whether you own a cat or are considering getting one. However I did include in my article some very simple steps ( points 1-3 and 6 ) which should prevent most exposure to the cat allergens. Not mentioned in the article is a further simple measure of taking an anti inflammatory nasal spray such as Flonase or Nasacort which treat nasal allergy symptoms. Hope this helps. Jim
I laughed like crazy after seeing the first image with cats on the bed 😀 If I show this to my cats, they would hate me till the end of their lives. All jokes on side, I find this post to be extremely useful. Having a love for a cat and having an allergy could be a big bummer for all cat lovers and I’m sure they will find this post as useful as I did. Thanks a lot for sharing and keep up the good work with your site!
Thanks very much Ivan for your feedback on my article and so pleased that you found the ‘cats on bed’ picture funny. Also pleased to hear that you like my website. Jim
Avoidance is best to prevent the allergies in the first place. I personally find High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters are one of the best defenses against cat allergies. They reduce airborne pet allergens by forcing air through a special filter that traps pet dander, as well as pollen, dust mites, and other allergens.
Great to hear from you Satz and many thanks for those comments. Best regards.
Jim