Allergy to animals and want a pet

Hi all! I am allergic to all hairy animals quite badly. If I spent 15 minutes in somebody's house with a dog, I will have an asthma attack and my skin is very itchy and red and starting to blister. With a cat it takes a bit longer.

I have an aquarium at the moment, with 3 lovely salamanders as pets, but was wondering if there is any kind of hairy animal people with allergies can tolerate? I have heard somebody mentioning ferret or a mini-pig. Anybody know about these?

All info much appreciated in advance. Thanks

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

Since you are allergic to hairy pets then your chances of being allergic to ferrets is very high. It appears that people with cat and dog allergy, particularly those allergic to cat albumin, may also be allergic to ferrets. The proteins causing the allergies are found in the hair, urine, feces and bedding material of ferrets.

You can check whether you are allergic to ferrets by getting allergy testing done. Skin tests are used for this purpose. This test involves pricking, scratching or injecting hair/fur extracts of ferrets into the patient’s skin. The skin will react with redness and swelling for those extracts capable of eliciting an allergic reaction when consumed.Other test used is blood tests like RAST.

Regarding pigs,pls remember that allergies are caused by exposure to proteins that are normally present in the animal's saliva,urine, or in secretions from glands in the skin.Animal hair are not allergens themselves but can act as air borne carriers of the allergens and proteins.Hence it is not necessary that if you are allergic to hairy animals,then you cannot show any allergies to non hairy animals.

However,you can get yourself checked for any allergies to pigs by the tests which I have already described.In my opinion, a consultation of allergist will be the best.

Hope it helps.Take care and pls do keep me posted on how you are doing and if you have any additional queries.