• I have a friend with 3 cats and she’s terrifyingly allergic to their dandruff. She holds off on using allergy medications just in case she has a particularly bad reaction one day. It seems like a lot of effort for a few cuddles

    • its_kim_love@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      The danger with Allergies is that even the most mild one could someday go overboard without warning, but I’ve seen my symptoms drop considerably just from exposure. Now I just get watery eyes if I don’t wash my hands after a petting session, and touch them. That happens maybe once every few months.

      When I first started living with cats I basically had to mainline Benadryl just to stop sneezing. My eyes would get so swollen they’d be nearly closed. It definitely wasn’t pleasant, but at the time the girl was worth it, and now I just love cats too much to live without them.

      Fun fact/potential wives tale: Apparently if you raise chickens alongside cats, the chickens will absorb the enzymes in their spit that causes the allergies in humans. Somehow they break them down and the remnants end up in the eggs. Eating those eggs has been known to reduce or even prevent all symptoms of the allergy. Edit: I looked into this further and it’s not eating the eggs yourself that does it, but feeding the eggs to the cats. Apparently the antibodies the chickens create when fed to the cats stop them from making the allergins all together.