Are you allergic to any animals?

[Nebulous]

Are you allergic to any animals?

If so, which ones and how does your body react when you meet them?

[Mr EliteL]

I'm currently not allergic to any animal, but I have not come across every animal in the world, so perhaps there could be one that may affect me in a bad way out there somewhere. I suppose I'll know once that happens but I'm not much of a traveller, so chances are slim in my coming into contact with that but still possible, unless I stay holed up in the UK for the rest of my life...heck the animal could be here too.

[Moonface]

Not that I'm aware of. The worst I get is my skin getting itchy from a cat scratch but I think that's just a normal thing everyone experiences with that.

[ShiraNoMai]

There's a chance I may be allergic to bees. My mother is highly allergic, but I've yet to be stung to be able to tell if I've inherited that.

Other than that, I'm free of other animals as far as I can tell. Specific pet dander can bother my nose sometimes, but it's nothing full blown. I'm grateful I didn't get to inherit a pet allergy from my great aunt (though the genealogy in that would have to be so unfortunately unlucky for me to get that) because she literally can't even be in the same room as a cat. I couldn't live without my fur babies 

[Dragon Lord]

I used to have an extremely bad allergy to cats when I was a kid, but thankfully at some point in life it went away. For the longest time I couldn't even think about owning a cat due to it (I couldn't be around a cat for more than a minute or two before my symptoms got so bad I had to take medicine), which was really hard as a kid because I adored cats. Thankfully it's not something I have to worry about any more and I can enjoy as much time with my four buttheads as much as I want.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah my brother used to have some problems being around cats, I think if his skin touched them too much he'd get a rash (hands might've been OK because of frequent hand washing or at least palm side was fine), or he'd sneeze around them a bit but wasn't too hindering, as he did spend some time with our past three cats. He has one himself now he's not bad with.  I can't imagine myself having a bad reaction to cats too, no that cannot happen!  So glad both DL got over his and Shira avoided her great aunt's condition. 

[Moonface]

After the party I hosted today, apparently a lot of people have issues with cats. I think out of the 6 people who came over, half of them had issues with cats and there were others who didn't come who have issues with cats too. Yet oddly none of them have problems with dogs, which I find weird only because with how many people have a cat issue, you'd think at least one would have a dog issue but seemingly no.

[ShiraNoMai]

So, having been curious myself, I was sure there was a scientific answer for that question: Why is it that cat allergies are more common than dog ones?

Pet allergies occur in about 1 in 10 folk, with cat allergies being twice as common as dog allergies. In kids, that's 1 in 7 (aged 6-19) allergic to cats. Of course, like any allergy, you can grow out of them (or grow into them). But yeah, why cats over dogs? No, it's not the fur. It's actually a cat-specific protein called "Fel d 1". All cats have it, and its the size and shape of this protein that makes it a tricky one.

The protein enters the air on bits of cat hair and skin, and it is so small and light — it's about one-tenth the size of a dust allergen — that it can stay airborne for hours. "Dog allergens don't stay airborne the same way cat allergens do. The particle size is just right to breathe deep into your lungs," Larché said.

The Fel d 1 protein is also incredibly sticky, readily glomming onto human skin and clothes and remaining there, making it ubiquitous in the environment. It has been found in places where there are no cats — classrooms, doctors' offices, even the Arctic, Larché said. Source

It's also apparently more prevalent in male cats, particularly so if they're unneutered, due to the fact that testosterone increases glandular secretions (where these proteins secrete from).

[Moonface]

@ShiraNoMai: Interesting. Given the number of people with cat allergies and how I never hear of any of them being able to alleviate the problem with regular allergy medicine, it makes me wonder if there's actually a drug out there to properly deal with this or if people just don't bother to buy/use it.

[Heatman]

Yes of course, I'm allergic to snakes. I can't seem to understand how a human being can have a snake as a pet. Snake that's capable of killing you at any moment unless they have a way of getting rid of its poisons.

[ShiraNoMai]

I mean, to be fair, not all snakes are venomous, and even the ones that do have venom are not always problematic (deadly, if you will). You'd also have to be antagonizing it to cause it to want to strike.

Being allergic to them stinks, though. Gotta be careful walking in fields of grass.

[Nebulous]

I am not but I feel for those who are *hugs*