talkhealth forums

I visit families in their homes for work, and a lot of them have pets. I had allergy testing years & years ago & am strongly allergic to most typical household pets. Even when families remove the pets from the room I can still react to their shed skin & previous presence. I have running nose & eyes, and skin rashes.

I'd rather not take antihistamines simply as a precautionary measure (I was on astemizole for years, I'm reluctant to go back onto anything like that), what are my options?

if you are a vet or a lab technician you could be desensitised to animal allergens on the NHS; if you are not then you might need to consider private desensitisation ('anti-allergy injections') but only once it is clear what animals you are allergic to and only if you cannot really avoid them. Long term use of modern antihistamines is safe (cetirizine, loratadine, fexofenadine etc) in addition to steroid nasal sprays