Dog allergies: Living with allergies when you’re a dog lover
I love my dogs more than anything in the world--unless my wife is reading this, in which case I love her the most and my dogs after that. We basically let them rule our house. They sleep in our bed, sit on our couches, and eat anything that I’m not actively guarding with my life, and I love them enough to put up with it all and let them lick my face even though I know they were probably eating poop just a few minutes ago.
Like a lot of people with dog allergies, my adoration for my furry buddies isn’t always what’s best for my health. I’m only a little allergic to the dogs themselves, but I’m extremely sensitive to dust and pollen, and even the cleanest dogs are always bringing in allergens from outside and stirring up dust that’s already in the house.
Among the obvious solutions to this problem are things that are quite simply never going to happen in my household: stop cuddling up with my dogs, stop letting them in the bed, severely limit their outside time, wash them all the time. I love my dogs too much to do many of the things that might seem like low-hanging fruit to people who aren’t dog lovers. And even if I didn’t, I’m pretty sure my wife is more of a dog lover than she is a husband lover, and I suspect that any kind of ultimatum would result in me sleeping in the guest room while a chihuahua sleeps on my pillow.
So what is a dog lover with dog allergies (and dog-related allergies) to do? Here are some things my wife and I do to try to keep my allergy symptoms at a tolerable level.
I know what you’re thinking: My house has way too much dog hair for a Roomba to handle. And maybe you’re right. You might have to empty the Roomba’s bin and clean out its gears every day or two, but you know who else can’t handle cleaning up all the dog hair in your house? You can’t handle the hair.
Look, if you have so much dog hair in your house that you have to clean out the Roomba every day, then you have way too much to clean up yourself every day. Managing the Roomba will be less work than doing all of the cleaning yourself any way you shake it, and you really need to get that hair and dust out of there if you are going to control your dog allergies.
2) Ask your doctor about rotating allergy meds.
One useful tip that a doctor once gave me is to rotate my daily allergy medicine. As he explained it, there are three major types of daily allergy pills: Cetirizine (Zyrtec), Fexofenadine (Allegra), and Loratadine (Claritin). I’ve been switching from one type of daily pill to a different one about every month, and I’ve experienced some symptom relief. It didn’t fix everything, but it seems to have helped a little.
3) Consider a nasal rinse.
It looks unpleasant because it is, but pushing water in one nostril and out the other is actually a reasonably effective way of washing out both mucus and the allergens that cause it.
If you’ve never done it before, maybe have a look at some YouTube videos to make sure you’re doing it right. I use a ten dollar bottle that I got from amazon, but you can dump upwards of a hundred bucks on on high end stuff if you want.
4) Stay cool, man.
If you get hives or itchy skin, stay away from the hot showers and baths. The heat just makes the symptoms worse in most cases. When skin symptoms get bad, try to keep your shower as cool as you can take it. Or if you are the kind of person that just has to have a hot shower, then try to make it quick.
5) Try locally sourced honey?
Heck, I don’t know. I don’t even like honey, but people say it works as long as it’s produced by bees that actually live near you. I’m not sure I buy it, but dog allergies suck, and you’re desperate.