Dog Allergy - Farmington,MI

Don't get rid of the dog yet. But before medicating your child, see what you can do to make your dog less allergenic. Talk to your vet, browse a good pet supply store, search the internet.

I'm allergic to cats and have a cat and will probably always have at least one cat. I manage my allergies by bathing my furbaby often, keeping her downstairs where we have hard flooring, vaccuming regularly and never letting her sleep with me. There are also products available that can be sprayed on her fur to neutralize the dander. There are probably similar products available for dogs.

Yes, I've been down that road. We did NOT get rid of the dogs. The dogs were kept out of his bedroom and his bedroom door was always closed. He wore clean pajamas every night and I washed his sheets faithfully once a week, usually in hot water. It can help to bathe the dog and vacuum regularly. I think it in large part depends on how serious your son's symptoms are. If the doctor said you can keep the dog, I would keep the dog and continue to monitor your son's situation and health. I had dogs taken away from me as a child and it was traumatic and has affected my outlook and attitude towards pets as an adult. I am VERY devoted to my pets, sometimes to a fault.

Our son was on allergy and asthma meds, but not because of the dogs. He would've needed them anyhow. He never had a serious reaction to the dogs we had when he was little and now that they have died we have a Poodle, in large part for allergy reasons. Contrary to my advice, he often puts his face in the Poodle's fur, but doesn't seem to have a problem. Our son is doing great--knock on wood, NO sick days from school this year, his freshman year of high school.

Some allergy specialists even say that if theallergy is mild some exposure to the allergen can help in the long run. Good luck.

Oh, my son's dog allergy is fairly mild. He has a more significant allergy to cats and we were told no cats, not even a night in a house with cats. Since my husband is allergic to cats too this was never really an issue. We do try to follow the no sleepover at a cat house rule.

Then. there's your answer. If doctor didn't say get rid of the dog....I wouldn't have the heart to. Medicine can help tons. I vote....keep the dog...he would die of a broken heart without you guys!

Oh boy I can relate to this question.

I grew up with many dogs, a cat, horses, goats and cows. I have terrible pollen allergies. I spent most of my childhood in an allergic haze (it was awful). I never did allergy shots because my mom didn't think they helped her any.

I have one son with 41+ food intolerances (similar to allergies).

I have been so afraid of my son living the way I did that, after a couple of bad attempts, we gave up on having a dog. Finally, after all these years, we adopted a mini schnoodle puppy (poodle/schnauzer combo). She is supposed to be low allergen (non-shedder).

When we first brought her home my son and I both broke out in hives. It was so heartbreaking. I sent her up to my mom in TN for a few weeks while we decided what to do.

We started seeing a chiropractor who specializes in allergies and a technique called "bio-set" (similar to NAET). We tightened up our diets again and cut out certain offending foods. We also do acupuncture. To my great surprise, when our schnoodle came home (on Christmas Eve) we seemed to be OK. I had already prepared my kids that she might have to go live with Grandma. But, here in May, she's still with us. And we don't take ANY allergy meds. For other reasons I will not allow my son or myself to be on any long term antihistamines (other than the occasional benadryl). That was a condition of our keeping the dog.

Through the years, a couple of different integrative practitioners have explained to me that allergies are a bit like a boiling teapot. It can easily handle a certain amount of water - but put in too much water and it boils over. Another analogy would be marbles . . . you can only hold so many at one time.

So my thinking is to cut down the number of allergens, even if they are seemingly unrelated to the dog (for us dairy and wheat are huge offenders, and for me - soy). I also have an amazing air purifier that I love.

So far so good. We are just nuts about our baby and she has been so wonderful for my sons, especially my younger one who had a bit of fear about dogs.

Good luck - I hope you can work this out.

How bad are his allergies? Do they cause your son to be incapacitated?

I would try changing the dog’s food and/or shampoo. Sometimes it is something they are eating (the dog) that will cause an allergy. If your son isn’t complaining about his allergies then keep the dog. If the allergies are really bad then you should find another home for the dog.

We had our son allergy tested (due to a food reaction) and they tested for a variety of things, including dogs & cats. He is high allergic to cats (which we do not have), and mildly allergic to dogs. The allergist said to keep the dogs out of the areas where he spends the most time, which we do. We have had our dogs for 7 years at the time of his birth (dogs are now 11 & 10, respectively), and are members of the family. So we opted not to rehome them, as it is manageable. However, given the reaction I've seen him occasionally have to cats, if we'd had a cat, we probably would have rehomed the cat.

My son has been on Singulair daily since he was about 18m. It has helped, and we use Zyrtec when he needs something additional (like this spring, with seasonal allergies for about a week), per the pediatrician & pediatric allergist.

It would really depend on how much the allergy affected my son. I have a friend with a son that has severe allergies, and has 3 cats.... she chose to keep the cats and her son ends up with bronchitis and on a nebulizer for breathing problems a couple times per year - the cats don't trigger it, but they contribute to and make the problems worse undoubtedy. If our dogs did that to our son, I would have to find the dogs new homes instead of keeping them, but that is her family not mine and I respect her choice.

Our allergist was pretty straightforward about the allergies. He joked, based on my son's allergy test response to cats, that if we had a cat he'd recommend we drown it (I got pretty mad about that--I thought that that was just an awful thing to say). But he then said that seriously if we had a cat, he'd recommend we find it a new home. But for the dogs, he said just keep the dogs out of his room & out of the main play areas.

sometimes there's no option. but try going to an allergist first. my younger is also allergic (mostly to pollen and grasses, but also to dogs, cats and horses and pretty much everything else), but we did the regimen of shots which made it bearable for him. poor boo, he's the last kid that should be living on a farm! the shots, medicine and routine precautions like keeping the critters out of his room, attempting (unsuccessfully) to discourage him from burying his face in kitty bellies and keeping his windows closed during pollen season were enough to keep it do-able.
there were other issues with the shots that aren't germane to this particular question. but my son, now 21, votes that they were worthwhile. now that he's not getting them any more his allergies are worsening again, though.
khairete
S.

We went through this with our youngest son. We found out he was allergic to dogs and cats (we had both at the time) when he was almost 6. Now he's 8. We have mostly wood floors in the house, so that helps. Dander catches in carpet, but is easily swept/mopped from wood floors. We got him a new mattress, and put an air purifier in his room. One of the cats was an indoor/outdoor cat anyway, so we switched her to outdoor only, and the other died about 6 months later (the outside cat died too), so now we have no cats. We were very sad about the cats, but we aren't getting any more. Our dog is a big part of our family, but we keep her out of our son's room. We also take her to PetSmart to have the furminator bath done each month. It's great!

Our son takes Zyrtek each night during the spring, but it's because he is also allergic to Timothy grass, and we live on a farm. He has a terrible time with allergies every spring, but the dog doesn't seem to bother him.

Good luck. I hope you can keep your dog!

Constant exposure to the dogs can help your son build up immunity to his allergy (that is what happened to me), or it can irritate his allergy and make it worse. Since you don't know yet which way it will go, do what you can to keep the allergen-exposure low. Keep the dogs out of his bedroom, vacuum carpets regularly (daily is best), brush and groom the dogs regularly, and talk to the doctor about medications. I think getting rid of the dog at this point is really unnecessary.