Hi, welcome to the forum, as you are having pet allergy avoiding further contact would be best measure.
If you are planning to keep the pet then follow certain measures:
- Thorough house cleaning and the use of room air cleaners (use an air filter).
- bathing pets more regularly at least twice weekly will help.
- avoiding use of carpets, reduce upholstered furniture to a minimum, replace drapes with blinds, or/and vacuum clean weekly will help.
I suggest you to consult skin specialist/immunologist for detailed evaluation. Take care and regards.
As for the antihistamines, if you have any degree of insomnia, avoid the second generation of anithistamines because they have anti-drowsiness components that will keep the touchy sleeper awake. One that is particularly bad in this regard is Allegra and it kept my daughter without sleep for three nights. Zyrtec is OK and of course Benadryl is too.
There are several things you can do/take. Of course any antihistamine will help. Second generation like Zyrtec and Allegra are better than Benadryl and Chlortirmaton.
After that:
1) KEEP the dog out of your bedroom. We put a baby gate up in our door way when we got the puppy. I knew I was allergic to dogs and had just been diagnosed with asthma. Keeping the dog away from me was a priority. The dog rarely comes past our daughter's door. He is now 10.
2) Wash your hands well after handling the dog.
3) Vacuum and clean regularly. Bathing the dog often will help keep pollen off of his coat from bothering, but really does little for true dog allergy. Bathing too often can actually dry his skin causing a bigger problem.
I hope that helps.
Go to a kenisiologist/MD and get rid of your allergy. I got rid of lots of allergies that way - much more efficient and light-years faster than going to an allergist.