Who knows lots about cats and asthma?

[swiperfox]

DD has been referred to a paed for what the doc thinks is asthma. I'm not 100% convinced. Doc says it has to be her cats and they have to go. I'm not 100% convinced!!
Anyone had experience of this? I dont want to get rid of them un-necissarily but if it is them they'll be looking for new homes!!!

[MunchedTooManyMarsLady]

apparently they don't mix doll!

[jane313]

Cats cause me to get mildly asthamtic. Also lots of dust and I get hayfever. Sorry but I don't know if this is true for everyone.

[swiperfox]

She starts off coughing really badly if she gets a cold. She didnt cough for about 6 months thru last summer so my argument was if the cats were causing it she'd cough all the time. But the nurse said that the cats could be a very mild cause then when she gets a cold on top it brings it out. I'm just worried that they are too quick to dish out inhalers and steroids tyhese days - I dont want to be pumping her with the stuff if she's just susceptible to bad coughs!!!

[swiperfox]

Also does cats causing asthma mean dogs would be the same?

[jampots]

cats definitely make my hayfever much worse and make me wheezy but im not asthmatic

[iota]

I am asthmatic - very slightly - comes out if I get a cold, so I use Becotide only at these times.

I have a cat and don't react to him - I react to things like gloss paint fumes and frying chillies. I also don't react to other people's cats.

Different things trigger different people's asthma.

[oooggs]

I'm a chronic asthmatic and I am alergic (sp?) to cats, but not rabbits, chinchillas or any other furry animal and not dogs.

As Iota said different things affect different people with asthma.

[jackeroo]

my DH is allergic to cats - it's developed and become worse over the years - he's not allergic to anything else, but cats give him asthma, puffy weepy itchy eyes and sneezing. he's not allergic to anything else. antihistamines help short term but there's nothing he can do about it which is a real shame as we're both cat lovers... my sister used to get asthma from cats as a toddler too but she's now in her 30s and not allergic to anything so you can grow out of it...

[dangirl]

it is true that asthma attacks often are brought on by colds. Whether or not the cats are the problem?? Good thing you are referred to paed. Perhaps you could ask them to test specifically for cat allergy (this is possible. Good luck.
Dangirl xx

[nutcracker]

Dd2 (5) is asthmatic and is fine with cats. Her triggers are extremes of very cold or very hot weather and colds, oh and also occasionally exercise.

[dolally]

my dd has mild asthma (mainly lots of coughs and tightness in the chest with exercise, and sometimes without) and cats are one of the triggers. We had cats for years but never thought they might be a problem. We then got a new kitten and that very night at bedtime DD had little red bumps on her eyelids and itchy eyes. Didn't immediately get wheezy or anything but it was obvious to me that she was allergic, we then went through months of trying to keep the cat confined only to the kitchen, until it ran away/got lost... who knows, sad for the kids but secretly I was mightily relieved. My dd who's 9 by the way only takes her preventative inhaler from October to May (as prescribed by the specialist) I also don't understand what difference the summer should make but maybe because it's asthma mainly triggered by virus/colds, I agree there's no point in kids taking more medication than they really need. Her asthma may not have been caused by the cat but I certainly feel it's better not to have one.

[Aero]

Ds1 has mild asthma - infection induced mostly and occasional chest tightness if he over-exerts. We have two cats and he doesn't react to them at all!
Having said that, my sister is asthmatic too - more so than ds1, and is totally allergic to both cats and horses! They don't cause her to wheeze though - more runny nose and red puffy sore eyes and sneezing etc. So not necessarily your cats.

[bensmum3]

Ds gets puffy,weepy,itchy eyes an wheezy when he has contact with cats or in a room where a cat has been. But he has no problem with our dog (a labrador). He also reacts to woollen clothes, face paints and most aerosol sprays.

[swiperfox]

As far as I can see, she's not 'allergic' to the cats - they dont make her sneeze or anything - I'm more allergic to them than she is! If they scratch me it puffs up around the scratch and itches like mad, but she's fine. I get asthma but I get it mostly with hayfever - so far she has only had this terrble cough in december when a cold has started and it's dragged on for the next 3-6 months, then cleared up.

[mummylonglegs]

How old is she swiperfox?

Asthma and allergies don't work in the same ways with kids as they do with adults. I'm asthmatic, as is dp and dd, now 2 1/2, has also recently been diagnosed as asthmatic. As her asthma seemed so utterly different to my own experiences of it I was also very sceptical at first of the diagnosis. She, like your dd, got a bad cough with a cold that just went on and on and was always worse at night. But she never seemed wheezy like I get, apparently they don't.

I am extremely allergic to cats. For years from when I was about 14 until I lived in my own place around 19 my asthma was virtually non-existant. In my own place I ended up with 3 cats and without doubt it triggered my asthma to start again. They still make me very tight chested etc. so that even though I LOVE them I can never live with them. My asthma also flares up every time I get a cold. Asthma can be fairly dormant but get triggered by various things like allergies and colds.

[swiperfox]

She's 3.3. Her 'asthma' is totally different to mine as I also get very wheezy and short of breath - especially at night and during the summer. Hers just sounds like she's got a bad cold with a cough. If she has got it then she's got totally different triggers as hers seems to kick up in the winter.
I'm thinking more and more about just getting rid of the cats and seeing what happens. She'll be devastated though - I guess thats why I'm looking for reasons for it to be something else!!

[swiperfox]

I'm currently doing a daily peak flow chart to see what mine is like as my previous doc prescribed me the totally wrong inhaler and, much to the nurses shock and disgust, told me never to use an inhaler while i was pregnant! So she's re-assessing me as well as dd.
We're such a healthy family!!!!

[Newbarnsleygirlsinsaneknickers]

Ooohh yes I'm allergic to cats and have Asthma.

It's not nice. After about 1 hr of being in the same house as one my chest starts to tighten. After a while I really have to fight for my breath, my face itches and my eyes puff out.

[Catbert]

Cats carry an allergen which is most likely to set of allergic reactions in those sentitive. It's nothing to do with their fur, but rather their saliva, which dries on their coats and then flakes away into the atmosphere.

There are varying schools of thought which say either living with cats will build a kind of immunity to this allergen.

I suffer from mild asthma and it's made worse by such things as dust mites, grass pollen and cats. I live with three cats, but they are mostly outdoor cats. I did notice when I went away for 6 weeks once upon a time, that I suffered very badly when I came back into the house where cats had been. But then I "got used" to it again.

It might be the best thing in the long run for your DD to live a cat-free existence however.

[Newbarnsleygirlsinsaneknickers]

Forgot to add my mum and dad bought me a kitten when I was younger thinking I might have outgrown my Asthma but after a few weeks we had to give her away as I was so poorly. Ended up taking Steroids.

[suedonim]

It's very difficult to sort out the wheat from the chaff re allergies. My severely asthmatic ds was allergic to so many things that it would have been almost impossible to eliminate every allergen. He didn't seem to have an allergy to cats but even if he had, and we'd got rid of them, there was still the allergies to dust, fish, feathers, elephants(!), colourings, trees and so on to contend with, so the cats may just as well stay. Now he's grown up and no longer lives at home, he does seem to have developed an allergy to our dog, though. My nephew is allergic to cats but only if he touches them.