How to find out if allergic to rabbits

[Randomuser9876]

I'm allergic to dogs and cats (confimed by pick test 2 years ago) but DCs would love a pet and there's 2 rabbits locally that need a home.

Is there a test I could do via post or similar to see if allergic? It seems to cost £££ to have tests done privately and the tests I have previously were NHS but were 9 months from referral.

You go along and cuddle the rabbit and you’ll know within the hour if there is a problem or not.

my parents did this with me and a cat. It ended in tears.

Best bet is to spend an afternoon volunteering at a rescue that has rabbits. Also the allergis reaction can take a few hours to show up - e.g rashes, sneezing
, struggling to breathe etc.

how old are your children OP?

In all honesty rabbits are not the best pets for children. They live between 8-12 years, smaller the rabbit - the longer they should live. As prey animals they don’t usually enjoy being handled, need cleaning out pretty much every day and are classed as a exotic pet so vets bills can be more expensive and there’s not too many rabbit savvy vets considering what a common pet they are. They also tend to hide being sick until it’s potentially too late or it’s a really really expensive vet bill to try and put them right. Also most kids get bored of them after a few months.

have a look at www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk before the kids convince you 😆

I didn't know I had a reaction until I was working with a rabbit hat

You really need to spend time with rabbits to find out. Exposure is the best indicator. Allergy tests are prone to false positives (plus postal tests are usually pseudo-science) so can't be relied upon and are generally more about confirmation in combination with clinical judgement.

Get thee to pets at home and loiter in the rabbit section for a while. My throat and eyes start up in about 30 seconds...

Yes to spending time with rabbits, DH reacts almost instantly to lots of small furry animals with sneezing and itchy eyes

Spending time with rabbits would be the best way to see. As other posters have said, tests aren't conclusive. With rabbit allergies it's not always the rabbit themselves people are allergic to, but the hay can be a trigger too. I have hay fever and find my symptoms get worse when staying with a friend who has rabbits.

I had several rabbits but only allergic to one very fine coated one

Yes, I was going to suggest nipping to Pets At Home, should find out pretty quickly. People use it as a family petting zoo anyway.

Good advice! I'll get to.pets at home.

Dc are 12 and 9.

It's odd as tests said I was allergic to dogs and cats but we had dogs and lots of friends have dogs and no reactions. Cats do make me sneezy but have lived with them before and if house is well cleaned I'm fine.

It's just seems a big commitment if I have to remove them in a week. Argh I don't know!