Millions of people enjoy sharing their homes and their lives with dogs, even those who are allergic to them. If you’re diagnosed with a dog allergy, you are not alone. Some people believe that once they are diagnosed with a dog allergy, they have no choice but to remove their dogs from their home.
Thankfully, there are many solutions that can be explored that relieve allergy symptoms and allow sufferers to keep their beloved dogs while successfully managing their allergies. To get you started, we’ve put together 15 remedies to living with dog allergies.
15 Tips to Living with Dog Allergies
Before moving forward, check with your physician to make sure that it is your dog who is provoking your allergic reaction. If you’re allergic to your dog, you are probably also allergic to other things as well. By decreasing other irritants, you’ll reduce our overall symptoms. For example, avoid tobacco smoke, automobile exhaust, and other irritants that can inflame your airways.
If you’ve checked and confirmed your dog allergy, here are other suggestions for decreasing symptoms from allergies to dogs.
- Buy inexpensive vinyl encasing for mattresses and box springs, and minimize upholstered furniture. Wash walls, ceilings, blankets, curtains, and throw pillows regularly.
- Buy inexpensive vinyl encasing for mattresses and box springs, and minimize upholstered furniture. Wash walls, ceilings, blankets, curtains, and throw pillows regularly.
- Replace carpets with tile, hardwood flooring, linoleum, or rugs that can be washed, especially in rooms where you spend a lot of time, such as the bedroom. If you must have carpets, spray them with a product that contains nontoxic tannic acid, which helps combat the effects of dog allergens.
- Use a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)-type vacuum—it will capture the small particles of allergens that conventional paper-filter vacuums cannot. Consider getting a HEPA-filter room air-cleaner, which removes almost 100 percent of allergenic particles. Free-standing cleaners are better than the small, table-top filters. Remember to replace the filters often.
- Use over-the-counter allergy medications, such as antihistamines, to relieve mild allergy symptoms like nasal congestion and itchy eyes. If you have asthma-related symptoms, such as wheezing and chest tightness, talk to your primary care physician or an allergist.
- Consider allergy shots to help you develop protective antibodies so that you won’t have an allergic reaction when exposed to an allergen. This process requires patience and takes up to a year of weekly injections before you convert to monthly maintenance doses, then another 3-5 years of monthly shots before you are allergen-free.
- Provide your dogs with their own comfortable beds and blankets.
- Keep your bedroom dog-free.
- Always wash your hands after petting your dogs.
- If possible, have others groom and bathe your animals. Grooming should be done in a well-ventilated area.
- Beware of dusty or deodorized cat litter, which can be as allergenic as the cat.
- Keep ducts, furnaces, and air conditioner filters clean.
- Ventilate your house. Circulate air in the house by opening windows every day.
- Feed your animal a high-quality diet that includes omega-3 fatty acids; healthy animals produce less dander.
- Be thorough in cleaning—search out dust, mold, and animal hair.
- Minimize or eliminate your consumption of common allergenic foods.
Schedule a Consultation
If you have allergies, it is important to seek the right medical help. An allergist/immunologist is a specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of allergies, asthma and other diseases of the immune system. Testing done by allergist can give you precise information about what you are and are not allergic to. If you are allergic to any substances, you and your allergist can develop a treatment plan to manage or even get rid of your symptoms.
To get you started, discuss and review your treatment options in order find the perfect option for you. Schedule an appointment with Dr. Shukla today, for treatment options.
