How to get kitten when husband is allergic?

[LuckyEarthDragon]

Hi everyone,

I am desperate to get a kitten. I grew up with cats and love them. A house doesn’t feel like a home to me without pets, and a dog is too time consuming for us just now.

However, husband is allergic to cats.

Starts sneezing / bunged up within 24-48 hours of being in the same house as one. We cat-sat for my friend for a week recently and he managed but was struggling by the end of the week, even with anti histamines. I know lots of couples where one partner was allergic but when they got a cat the allergies subsided. But have also heard that sometimes allergies gets much worse and cat has to be rehomed (which I’d never want to do and would feel awful)!

Would you risk getting a kitten? I keep thinking about it and husband is happy to try but I just don’t want to risk having to re home the cat if his allergies get unmanageable - it would feel so cruel.

Also love my husband (despite his allergy ;) ) and don’t want him to live in permanent mild suffering.

Advice?

Maine coons are supposed to be less of a problem as a pp said.

As a volunteer for a charity, we bet lots of cats/kittens handed in for this reason.
Don’t get one.

DH is allergic to cats. We have however, always had cats. Even multiple cats, when cat sitting DM's cats. Only one did we have to re-home. He takes antihistamines if needed, but does get used to them after a short amount of time. He only has to be careful not to pet and then touch his face, and no sleeping on the beds for kitties. However, he loves cats, and our current cat adores him.

His family are all terribly allergic to all sorts of things. Our Dd's are not allergic to anything.

DH used to be allergic to shellfish. By eating small amounts, he became accustomed and now eats everything. Exposure therapy is definitely a thing.

Go for it. Chances are he'll be fine after a short while.

My husband has a allergy to some cats and dogs but is absolutely fine with our Devon Rex. No cat is hypoallergenic but Devons are known to be good for folk who may suffer from pet allergies.

We also have a Siberian. DS with cat allergy is totally fine (no "getting used to cat" period). We also have a friend who has a severe cat allergy and wouldn't get cats for her cat-living DH (totally) fair enough. We usually go to their place but if they come to ours she always takes anti-histamines and we keep the cat away from her. In autumn they came and I asked if she'd had to take a lot of medicine before coming..then she realised she'd totally forgotten! She was completely fine! They then got a Siberian kitten a few months later. She is fine with the kitten, but she doesn't pick it up/have it near her face.

The allergen is in saliva, not fur (the bald Sphinx cats are actually quite allergenic!). It's also possible to get food that does something to the saliva to reduce allergens. We don't use it, but I've seen it.

Siberians are expensive but some breeders will let you come and test being with a cat if you want to test allergens. Often too they will agree to accept the cat back if allergies become a problem.

Also hypoallergenic breeds aren't zero-allergenic, but reduced-allergenic. Some Siberians, for example, have a bit more of the allergen then others, even within the same litter. But they are generally much lower allergen than normal-allergen cars.

No animal is hypoallergenic. People tend to be allergic to dander rather than fur.

Jeez, no, you can't have a kitten.

My friends DH is allergic, they got a Russian blue as meant to be low allergy and he’s been fine. He went to visit it as a kitten at the breeder before they decided to buy to see how he reacted, happily he didn’t.