Home > Cat Health > Allergic to Cats?

Posted on December 28, 2011 by WayCoolCats

Being allergic to cats involves one type of allergy — the allergic reaction to the cat’s saliva and urine, and anything associated with them. This involves saliva and urine on the fur, dander, droppings, dead skin cells, and cleaned fur.

Cats could give lessons in dog or cat grooming schools or courses, as they are obsessive compulsive grooming freaks; if they are not cleaning themselves or another animal, it will be you. However, their saliva builds up on their fur, removed dead cells and so on, which causes problems with those who are allergic to cats.

In winter and cold weather, most cats prefer to remain indoors if they have a choice or any indoor warm location. This time of year, people who are not allergic to cats will develop sneezing and watery eyes, just not as much as those with cat allergies have.

Where cat dander story comes into play is when a person with cat allergies pets the cat; they are in the close vicinity of shedding cat fur or dead skin that is all saliva-based.

With dander the most common source of  people who are allergic to cats, the affected person with cat allergies quickly becomes miserable with standard symptoms. Most often, pet allergy is triggered by exposure to the dead flakes of skin (dander) a pet sheds. Any animal with fur can be a source of pet allergy, but pet allergies are most commonly associated with cats, dogs, rodents and horses. ( Mayo Clinic)

Cat allergy symptoms year-round in children

• itchy & watery eyes
• a rash
• a runny nose & nasal congestion
• sneezing
• coughing & wheezing
• tightening of the chest
• chapped lips

The symptoms may even occur when your toddler isn’t in close contact with the cat, since the allergen can be found throughout the indoor environment.

“With chronic exposure, symptoms, once triggered, can occur for days after the exposure is removed,” says allergist James L. Sublett, vice chairman of the indoor allergens committee of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI). “Even more important, it’s likely the allergen will be transported to the new environment on clothing and other items.” (Baby Center)

 Choosing the right type of cat

Even though no studCic cats. But studies have shown that light colored cats and female cats have lower levels of allergens in them.

Alternative to giving away the cat for those allergic to cats

According to Science Daily, “McMaster University researchers have developed a vaccine which successfully treats people with an allergy to cats.” This is an alternative for society’s 10% of those who are allergic to cats and are forced to get rid of their pets.

The man in charge of the latest research is “the work of immunologist Mark Larché, professor in the Department of Medicine in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and Canada Research Chair in Allergy & Immune Tolerance.” He has worked on the research for ten years in Canada and Britain. Based on his studies, a cat allergy vaccine has been developed to be effective and safe with almost no side effects. (The research is published in a recent (January 2011) issue of the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.)

Known as “peptide immunotherapy,” a low dose of the vaccine is given into the skin. Initially, four to eight doses a year may be required, but the side effects of the traditional allergy shots do not arise, Larché said. The optimal dose will be determined in phase three clinical trials which are getting underway with a much larger group of cat allergy sufferers.

The development of a vaccine to treat people allergic to cats is the first in a line of vaccines developed with Adiga Life Sciences, a company established at McMaster in 2008. It is a joint venture between McMaster University and Circassia Ltd., a UK-based biotech company.