Allergies to rats

Hi Isabelle, might not be a great idea to post your phone number on a public forum. Probably best to chat with someone I PM a bit before deciding to talk on the phone.
If your husband is allergic to other animals it's likely the rars will give him allergic reactions as well. I found switching from aspen to blankets and towels helped me a lot. So does cleaning and vacuming often.

You should visit the breeder anyway before taking critters home, get a chance to meet some of the animals, see the conditions they come from, etc and sleep on it before making a final desicion. He could also try volunteering or visiting a shelter or rescue

I have an adopter who had a panel done her child before she adopted. She is allergic to dogs and most other animals. she is not allergic to guinea pigs or rats. So they adopted two boys.

I know this is old but thought I would share and I agree on the phone number I would let people pm you!

Oh my gosh, I didn't realize how old the thread was. I'm embarassed ;_;

Deer said:

Oh my gosh, I didn't realize how old the thread was. I'm embarassed ;_;

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Allergies to rats are so common, this thread and similar ones are found in searches and revived a lot.

Sorry I previously misinterpreted as "allergies within rats." I bathe my rats every 2-3 days with castile soap to manually remove the allergens, and brush them to remove dead cells. This oil-based soap also adds moisture to their skin, which shavings suck out . This also reduces sneezing where rats may have allergies to eachother. My caging is simple, so I can quickly hose out every day, and wipe out with a Lysol wipe. I also wash their little paws before I take them out of the cage , so they dont spread their pee proteins around.

I used to have rats and im just getting back into it, I used to get hives wherever the claws touched me and sneeze after holding them, it went away gradually. Stopped keeping rats and now I'm getting back into rats again and I'm getting the hives and sneezing again, It will probably just go away like before, if it doesn't I don't care it's just a minor inconvenience, worth it

Tylerwaugh do you have adults or babies? I find my babies always give me hives but once they become an adult I don't get hives anymore. I think for me it's the prick of their little nails. Most of my adults walk on me as opposed to scale with their nails. lol

trihkal said:

Tylerwaugh do you have adults or babies? I find my babies always give me hives but once they become an adult I don't get hives anymore. I think for me it's the prick of their little nails. Most of my adults walk on me as opposed to scale with their nails. lol

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Maybe that's why, I have babies.

Neutering boys and to a lesser extent spaying girls, will decrease the amount of allergen.
To my knowledge, people are more likely to be allergic to boys.

People are also frequently allergic to the type of bedding used.
Air purifiers with permanent hepta filters and replaceable carbon filters are useful for airborn allergens (and odor).

Jorats can provide a great deal of info re strategies you can use/ things you can do if you have allergies to rats

I get welts from their claws but nothing else, and I tested negative for rat allergies. My mum however got full on hives. I've found Benedryl pills and hand sanitizer help the itch. In fact benedryl is the only medication I know that works on allergy itches, and i don't just get them on my hands, i get them in my mouth.

Although it won't help breathing and definately won't help the allergies themselves, I use reeds extra strong ginger brew ginger ale, fisherman's friends lozenges and altoids mints to keep the soreness caused by coughing down.

For asthma I take singulair and advair and have an air filter. Advair is a maitenence inhaler, but it was so strong that after a week of agony caused by dust mites in my building I was well enough to walk home from the doctor's office 20 minutes after just one puff.

There are also allergy shots that can desensitize you to rat allergens, rats are part of the pet and pest panel in the allergy test. I got the full workup for animal allergens and only tested positive for cat allergies, they did rat, mouse, guinea pig, rabbit, hamster, gerbil, dog, horse and cat. If you work with farm animals or have exotics, the doctor may need to work up a special allergy test for those that could take awhile, but those are the standard pets they test for.

I have all year round allergies that are from dust and pollen. Animals have never bothered me. The male rat urine does bother me though. The smell and the actual droplets. I take Claritin D, clean the cages ever other day (Even my females), I wipe their feet whenever I take them out of the cage, and I use an allergen reducer spray in the living room. I made the bedroom a rat room. So they don't come in contact with the spray at all. (My boyfriend and I sleep in the living room on our couch bed.)

I also try to keep their shelves clean all the day. So about every 2-3 hours I go in and wipe them down with non scented non-alcoholic baby wipes. If I don't wipe down their feet, I get a red rash that will welt up after a minute and become very itchy. I also keep the rat room windows open when it is a nice day, I shampoo the rat room carpet about once a week.

If I do not do this, I will go into coughing fits until I cough up a hard matter of something and my doctor's said it could be due to the rat's urine. She isn't 100% sure, since I have all year round allergies and people smoke in our apartment building. I don't have any inhalers or anything like that…yet. xD