I seem to have an allergy to my cats - what can I do?

[OrangeAndPurple]

Over the past 3 months I've acquired two gorgeous adult rescue cats. All is going beautifully except that i seem to have an allergy to them. My throat is tickly much of the time and I'm forever coughing and coughing and coughing until I'm almost sick

I'm sure its the cats rather than because I'm ill.

What can I do? Rehoming my precious cats is not an option I'm prepared to consider.

Would antihistamines help. Piriton or something?

I had this when I moved in with my ex who had two cats. For the first few months I was like you and had tickly throat, coughing and itchy skin. I used anti histamines on occasion but found one day that my defences had grown used to them and I no longer had the problem! Other than that , plenty of hoovering, washing hands after petting them and I believe you can buy wipes which alleviates some of the dander that can cause reactions.

Hope you get this sorted

Thanks for your replies. Thought I was the only one awake and coughing

Nope, there's loads of us still awake out here.

You can buy lotion to put on your cat. It's called Petal Cleanse I think.

I'm allergic to cats too but see my user name! Both times we got a cat I had to use antihistamine tablets and creams but after a month or so I could stop as I became used to them. I still have to use the cream sometimes if the catch my skin with their claws. I also get wheezy sometimes. All worth it though!

You might have asthma, dh got it when we got fluffy cat.

He has a preventer & rescue inhaler now and it's not a big deal really.

You can get essential oils to burn that may help. If you're brave enough / have thick clothing, face guards etc regularly bathing cats can reduce symptoms until you hopefully adapt to them. If you do go down this line try to get someone without allergies to wash them. I used to alternate bathing with petal cleanse when treating my older two moggies. We just sucked it up with the kitten though because he's a scrappy, neurotic psychopath and we value our lives.

I'm allergic to new cats - I always get over it after a few months. A hay fever nasal spray really helped.

It can go one of 2 ways- either you will get used to them or your allergy may get more pronounced. I have a friend who lived with cats during her childhood but developed a bad cat allergy when she got a cat later in life. She developed really bad asthma and now if she even comes into any sort of contact she starts to wheeze and sneeze and her eyes go all red. If you're allergy gets worse then really the sensible thing maybe to rehome the cats.

you shouldn't take antihistamines every day, or at least that's what the gp told me. Somethng to do with becoming immune to them and also potential liver damage.

you may get used to them and be ok, but you may get worse or continue with the symptoms. I grew up with cats, we had cats at home all my childhood. I moved out at 17 and after a couple of years every time I went home to visit I would get really itchy eyes and a tickly cough, and sometimes a rash to.

DD1 has become allergic to our Labrador, we've had him 6 years since she was 2. I have always been slightly reactive to him, in that if he licked me or rubbed his jowls against my skin that I would get an itchy rash, but dd has never had an issue until the last 5 or 6 months. She has a brown inhaler morning and night but still needs a blue one several times during the day so we are having to make the heartbreaking decision to return him to the rescue that we got him from as a puppy.