Pet Allergy Impacts On Your life

Pets are a joy for most people. But if you have a Pet Dander Allergy, a simple visit to friends or families with animals can be a nightmare with anxiety over visiting. Or not being able visit due to your situation can be cause for mental stress and stressful relationships with those who have pets. Or having to tell your child they can’t have pets can be heartbreaking for you both.  So not only do pet allergies make you feel miserable physically, they also impact your emotional well-being.  Cat and Dog dander allergies are the most common. And it is estimated that 20-30% of the population have some allergic reactions to pet dander. Cat allergies are the most common. The symptoms of the allergic reaction can range from mild to severe.  If you are looking for ways to overcome or at least reduce the symptoms, it is important to understand what causes pet allergies, what the symptoms are, and what things you can do to reduce the exposure and symptoms.

What Causes Pet Dander Allergy

Understanding what causes the allergies to occur will help you in resolving or at least combating the things that are contributing to it.  The first thing to understand that having allergies to pets is really about your immune symptoms reaction to certain substances found in an animals urine, saliva, or in the dead skin of the animals.  Our and all living animals constantly regenerated / grow new skin. In that process the old skin is continually flaking off and dying. This flaking off of the dead skin is what pet dander is.  The dead skin cells that have been replaced by the new living cells. 

The dead skin has proteins in them and these proteins are what can cause allergic reactions by some people. And this is what is called the allergens. These proteins are what your immune system is responding to.  When you breathe these allergens in or they settle on the soft membranes of your eyes and nose, your super sensitive mucus membranes detect and your immune system kicks into gear causing the reaction.

Pet Dander Characteristics

Since pet dander is small in size; average size is 2.5 microns, it is very lightweight and behaves like regular dust in your home.  That is it moves around in the home with airflows caused by opening/closing doors and windows, the air condition or heat cycling on and off, and any movement in the room by people or animals that stir them up. They behave like common household dust in that they tend to settle on surfaces. So a dusty counter top may have animal dander in it. It will also settle on fabric like couches and rugs.  So the simple action of walking across the floor or sitting on a chair or couch will stir them into the air for you to breath. People that come in contact with the allergens can have it settle on their cloths and therefore carry it to wherever they go. That is why a person with pet allergies might react when they are out and about even though there are no pets at a particular place they are at.

Recognizing Pet Dander Allergy Symptoms

So, now you know what causes the allergic reaction and what the characteristics of the dander is.  It is important to understand the symptoms as well. These can vary from person to person, but the most common are itchy eyes, sneezing, and coughing/wheezing from them settling into the mouth, nose and eyes.  Since these symptoms can be the same for many difference conditions and for different allergens, we always recommend seeing your doctor to confirm the diagnosis and get sound advice and recommendations on medically approved remedies.

How To Reduce The Pet Allergens in your environment

There are 3 main approaches you can use for reducing pet dander allergy in your home

1. The first is to have Hypoallergenic pet. While there is no truly non allergenic animal. There are certain breeds that produce proteins that you may not react to as much or not at all.
2. For your own pet(s) you can purchase products to apply on them. This is good to use with cats since most don’t like to be bathed. You can bath them more often to keep the dead skins washed off and down the drain so they are not released in the air.
3. The third way is to keep your environment cleaner. You can do this by wiping surfaces down using a damp cloth so the particulate on the surfaces isn’t stirred up. Vacuum often with a good HEPA vacuum. Vacuum your carpet, rugs, and floor surfaces, couches, chairs and any other surface with fabric. Use an air purifier to capture the free floating dead skin in the air before it settles to your surfaces.  We recommend a unit with a medical grade HEPA that captures 99.97% of particulate to 0.3 microns.  The Airpura R600 Air Purifier is a great unit for most homes and businesses. You can order units with a Super HEPA, but the regular medical grade HEPA is sufficient.

We at TheAirPurifierStore.com understand how difficult it is dealing pet dander allergy and other issues. We are here to help. Visit our site and take a look or reach out to us and we would be glad to assist.