Question:
My 6.5yo son has had asthma troubles for 5 years
now. We have done fairly well with various preventative
medicines, albuterol by nebulizer, and prelone when needed.
He has never had any classic allergy symptoms, just the asthma. Until J was 2 1/2, we had a cat, then we had a dog for just
over 2 years. For almost 2 years we've had no pets, because
during that time we moved to a new house and had a new baby.
Our family has been looking forward to getting kittens next
year. I felt that perhaps now was a good time to get J allergy
tested, in case there was an issue with cats, though he's
never reacted to living with a cat or visiting a cat. I was
also hoping to get some insight as to what may bring the asthma on.
Last week J had round 1 of his allergy testing and was tested
for 40 things. His reactions were a 3 to dog and horse and a
4 to cat. The allergist wants J to stay away from cats.
My parents have a cat, my brother has a cat and a dog, the
new babysitter has 2 cats and a puppy. J has spent two whole
days at the new babysitter's with no reaction whatsoever to
the pets, and not even a lowering of his peak flow results
(always 175 for his best try).
Is it possible to test positive for an allergy to cat, but have
no reaction to exposure to cats? Because of the allergy test
results, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to get cats.
Where do I go from here? I see on the web that a cat allergy
vaccine is being tested but not yet approved. That would be the
perfect solution for us.
My son's health is definitely more important than pets, but
we really miss having pets around. We've had some frogs and
fish, but those can't begin to compare to having a larger
furry pet.
Answer:
It surely is possible to have a positive skin test to cat in the
absence of clinical cat allergy. Unfortunately, it is often
premonitory. The positive skin test means that there is a high level of
IgE antibody present, and it would not surprise any allergist if your
son would develop symptoms around cats at almost any time. As a child I was very allergic to cats but dogs never bothered me. As a
teenager I had allergy testing and had more of a positive response to dogs
than I did to cats. Dogs have never triggered either my allergies or
asthma. As an adult, following the re-occurrence of my asthma after many
years absence, I had allergy testing once again. This time I again tested
positive for cats and dogs. Again, dogs have never bothered me and I have
had multiple cats in the house for over 15 years with no problems. My
allergist did tell me once that one could become desensitized to their own
pets.
This is exactly what I don't want to happen -
no current reaction to cats, but getting a cat causing him to
have a reaction to that cat and then possibly all other cats.
That would be a pretty bad problem. The allergist doesn't want
him exposed to cats at all, despite the fact that he has never
once had a reaction to cats. Your story sure is an interesting one. That would be great if
my son never will have a reaction to cats, as he never has so far.
In a way, it seems it would be worth it for us to go ahead and
get a cat, with a back-up plan in place in case my son has any kind
of reaction. I'm just worried about the possibility of major exposure
to cat actually causing my son to react to all cats in the future,
when he never has so far. That's great you've been able to live with
cats in your house and no adverse reaction despite the allergy test
showing positive for cats. If I hadn't had the testing done, I wouldn't
even know this is possibly a problem for my son. I just don't want
to cause a problem...
This might be because cats are a common trigger and often a severe one.
I was OK with cats until I was about sixteen (I had one, and had had
several in the past). Then, over the course of a few weeks, the reaction got quite severe, and
at this point a few hours in a house with a cat will put me in the
hospital. Even a few minutes will make me miserable. :-\
Your experience is not uncommon, unfortunately, and illustrates another
of Sherry's concerns: that once prolonged exposure should make one
allergic to a cat one would then be allergic to all cats. This is the
experience of a large number of people who take jobs in animal labs,
become animal sensitive, and then cannot live with their household
pets. I am not anti-house pet, and I personally would probably take the
gamble, but would not do so if another member of my family were the
person at risk. Intersetingly enough, my daughter will have a severe reaction to some cats..and
dogs and not another. We got a cat and she was not allergic in the
beginning..but got bad in 6 months and after a yearcouldn't tolerate being in
the house with it. Her friends have 2 dogs...i doesn't bother her while the
other makes her whelp up and wheeze if she touches him..or gets close. I have
heard that some animals have more of whatever it is that causes allergy(don't
really understand what this is but understand the theory)
