It looks like ds is allergic to dogs

[Jean in Newcastle]

We have two English Springer spaniels. One of them is an indoor dog and the other is half outdoor and half indoor. Any suggestions of what I could do to mitigate the effects of having the dogs for ds? He was doing really poorly with allergies but is doing somewhat better with diet changes and environmental changes. At this point in time, rehoming the dogs (10 and 6 years old - one disabled) is not something we are even considering.

 

P.S. - We have carpet. We have looked into replacing the carpet with laminate or hardwood floors but if we do, the disabled dog literally will not be able to walk. As it is, she cannot really walk in the kitchen but skates with her legs splayed. If she had that throughout the house she would be seriously impacted.

[AngieW in Texas]

I would probably pull the carpet from your ds's room and also get him an air purifier. Make his room a no-dog zone.

 

You probably ought to bathe the dogs every week or two. Just make sure that you don't use a lot of shampoo when you do so or you will damage their skin. I get a squirt bottle and fill it almost all the way to the top with water and then put in about 1tbs of shampoo and that is what I use to wash my dog. This way, concentrated soap never touches her skin, but she does get clean.

[celticmom]

If you do decide to go with noncarpet flooring you could put rugs and runners down for your dog to walk on. The rugs and runners would be much easier to thoroughly clean periodically.

 

I would definitely put an air purifier and remove the carpet in your ds's room as a previous poster suggested. I would also put at least one or two if not more air purifiers elsewhere in the house. Wash dog beds at least once a week. Wash dogs at least every two weeks. Brush dogs regularly.

[RoughCollie]

http://www.bhg.com/health-family/conditions/allergies/dealing-with-dog-allergies/?page=2

[Melissa in Australia]

personally I would get rid of the dogs. I know how hard it is do deal with allergies, and I know how it can completely change your life. MY DH has Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. We had to completely gut our house, change flooring, cooking, etc etc. leave our church, DH had to leave work, We had to live a recluse lifestyle etc. etc. etc. just so Dh could function as a human. I realize it is hard to get rid of dogs, but if it is making your child sick ..........

[Pawz4me]

Bathe them frequently. As often as every two or three days is not too much as long as you use a mild shampoo and lukewarm water. As best I can tell, the idea that too frequent bathing will dry out a dog's skin and coat originated many decades ago when all shampoos for dogs were extremely harsh and drying. That's no longer true at all. I have an allergy dog, and at times I've bathed him every two or three days for months at a time (to remove pollen from his coat). I've had nothing but good results from bathing that frequently.

 

Brush them every day. Outside, of course.

 

Try this and this. You can also experiment with that dander removing spray and just a damp towel. I'm not sure the dander remover would really work better than just wiping them down with a damp towel.

 

In your shoes I'd make sure my dogs were on the highest quality food I could afford and a good fish body oil supplement. I don't know for sure that those will help, but I'm guessing the healthier you can keep their skin the less dander they may produce?

 

Make the allergic son's bedroom a "no dogs allowed" zone.

 

And ditto the suggestion to wash all pet bedding weekly and use an air purifier.

[JustEm]

i second all the above suggestions except getting rid of the dog. That certainly doesn't have to be an option right away. Your son may find enough relief after taking the extra steps above where getting rid of the won't be necessary. My dh's dad is allergic to dogs but they had one while my dh was growing up. They just took the necessary steps to make sure it was under control and my fil was not miserable.

[Karen in CO]

When our dogs were still allowed in the house, I vacuumed the carpet and furniture daily. The dogs were never allowed upstairs where the bedrooms are. I also have an air purifier in each of the main rooms plus one in dd's bedroom. It helped for a time. When her allergies were the worst and the dogs were also bringing in pollen from outside, I closed the doggie door to the basement. The dogs now only go in the basement which has a dog door to the yard. I still vacuum the basement and the rest of the house almost daily, and dd with the dog allergy doesn't go into the basement. It isn't ideal, but dd's allergies became overwhelming. The dogs still get lots of loving, but they don't get to sleep on my feet all day.

[J-rap]

My son used to be very allergic to cats, as well as spring in general. He went on a very strict paleo diet about three years ago (in sum: meat, eggs and veggies, although there's more to it than that), and is no longer allergic to cats. In fact, he and his wife have one that sleeps on their bed. His spring allergies are mostly gone, too. The first thing that starts kicking in his allergies again is dairy, even though he is not technically allergic to dairy. It just seems to lower his defenses.

[datgh]

If you can get your son's room as allergen free as possible at night by eliminating the carpeting, stuffed animals, curtains, etc. and adding an air purifier, it will give your son's body a chance to get rid of the allergins he has accumulated in him during the day. Our son's allergy doctor told us to think of his body as a garbage can. :glare: The garbage can is overflowing by the end of the day with allergens and your son is miserable. Over the course of the night in an allergy free environment the body can empty the garbage can so it is empty in the morning. The body/garbage can can then accumulate so much allergen again before it starts overflowing at which point the body starts reacting to them again. If you can give the body a chance to rid itself of allergens at night it can be exposed to more during the day before it reacts versus if you never get the allergens out your body just reacts and reacts and builds up. Clear as mud?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Thank you everyone. We have been starting to do a few things:

He has an air purifier in his room with a nice clean filter. He has a special mattress casing and pillow cases. The dogs don't go in his room. We have another air purifier in the living room but I'm waiting for a new filter to come in any day now.

 

I will work on these other suggestions once we get back from a mini vacation.

[Anne]

You've gotten great suggestions. A note about the flooring: I have an elderly, rickety Standard Poodle, and a lot of laminate and hardwood floors. I bought a bunch of runners from Costco and laid a path down for the various places he needs to go. It works pretty well! Obviously, changing your floors would be a big deal - I would definitely start with the easiest changes and work up!

 

Anne

[Chris in VA]

I would also have him remove shoes/socks before entering his room and make it a room that he doesn't traipse in and out of all day.

But I'm extreme like that. Lol.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We already don't wear shoes in the house. And no socks for him until he's running around the house looking for socks before we go out the door.

[Spryte]

:grouphug:

 

We have a similar situation. I haven't read all the replies, and suspect that most of what I'll suggest has already been mentioned. Plus, we've done so much that it's hard to say what really worked.

 

So I'll just mention a few things: our kiddo has greatly benefited from getting the dogs groomed every 2 weeks. We found a great mobile groomer who gives us a hefty "frequent flyer" discount, and it's affordable for us. But you could just bathe the dogs if that's not an option. Our groomer has done a lot of research, and came back from a dog show with some good options for allergenic (for humans) dog shampoo.

 

We did replace flooring, but I wouldn't do that to your elderly pup. We waited till our older dogs left us :( to replace flooring. Maybe you could just do DS's room, as an alternative?

 

The air purifier is a great option - make sure it's rated for dog dander. Just giving DS clean air for 8 hours a night will help.

 

If he has other allergies, working to reduce those will help, too. Lower his overall allergy load.

 

For us, DS didn't really show great results until he gave up dairy and wheat, the dogs were groomed every 2 weeks, and some supplement changes happened. This all happened at the same time, so it's hard to tell which thing had the most effect. We've spent several years working hard on cleaning up our space (lowering VOCs, etc), but this spring we saw the most dramatic effects.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Oh yes, ds has given up dairy and is having excellent results from that both for his allergies and his acne.