Horrible guinea pig allergies!!!

juliefurry

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#1
HELP!!! We have discovered I have HORRIBLE guinea pig allergies. When we had just the one it was ok but than after all of them came in it got to the point now where I can't even breath out of my nose and haven't been able to for awhile now. We clean cages every day, they are given baths, I vaccum their area twice daily, and nothing helps. I thought about getting an ionic breeze but those are really expensive. Does anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to rehome all of them but I have someone coming to look at the male and they said they would be interested in 2 of them if not all 3. I love Penny though but it sucks that I can not even touch them without my eyes itching and my nose getting worse.
 

dogsarebetter

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#2
first off, go to a specailist and make SURE its you GPs
usually it is bedding that people are allergic to.
i am not trying to scare you but after have rats for over seven years i developed a sudden allergy and took medications, and tried everything. i had to end up getting rid of my babies.
you can wipe your pigs down daily with a natural baby wipe to get off some of that dander.
i actually kept my rats until my noes bled. my rats where my life and my loves but i have to admit, i forgot how great it felt to breath.
good luck!!
 

juliefurry

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#3
We've tried a couple different beddings that are suppose to be good for allergy sufferers. We'll have to see a doctor but we're almost certain it's the pigs. My symptoms always seem to get worse when I have them out for their floor time and I am holding and snuggling them. It was the same way with the cats we used to have as well.
 

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#4
try some allergy medications before you give them up.
i was on flonase, and i took over the counter clartin
these helped a very very small amount, that that is all i could take that helped at all
i even had some shots for allergies. basically a steroid shot every so often, and that didnt even work for me.
for most people there are many options. you should check around with your doctors and over the counter medications
 

juliefurry

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#5
yeah I take generic claritin but will look into other stuff as well. With the cats I was using a nasal spray and pill that was doctor prescribed twice a day and that helped for awhile but not much. I still want my ionic breeze. I'm wondering if it's from living down in a basement as well. I mean my nose didn't bother me though until we got the pigs but I wonder if that has something to do with the dust in the basement being kicked up or something.
 

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#6
maybe so!
are the pigs in your room? when you clean the cage do you wear some sort of mask? do you wash your hands after?
after playing with them and cleaning their cages try to take a shower and wash your hair.
i even had specail clothes for cleaning cages and playing with the rats.
all of this helped... but not enough for me, but my case was extreme
 

juliefurry

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No we moved the guinea pigs into the laundry room to see if that helped, and it did some. I don't clean the cages anymore, Mark has to do it. After I handle them though I will take a shower. We'll probably just go to a doctor's about it soon. We need to know what I am allergic to anyways because I'm allergic to so much stuff but we don't find out until after we get it.
 

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#8
maybe your immune system is weak from living in the basement with all of those allergents and the pigs are making you sneeze because of you weaken immune system?
this is just a crazy guess, but we can always hope its not the pigs.
 
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#9
Cute babies! I've never experienced allergies with mine, But have you thought of keeping a pen outside, and letting them in part of the day for playtime? I keep mine in the barn with the rabbits, and have heat lamps out there for cold weather. It's a nice place out there, and they love the fresh air and grass to nibble. Also, if you're thinking of selling them,if you have 2 different sexes, and they are housed together in the same pen, you're going to want to sell them all together to the same home.
Guinea pigs tend to mate for life, and if they get seperated,they could start dying off.
Hope any of that helps..p.s. We have a few air purifiers in our house when we had the ferrets inside. They do help with the dander and pet hair, but not so sure about allergies.You could get a reasonable one at walmart.
 

juliefurry

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#10
well right now we don't have room to keep them outside (we're staying with friends). My females are housed together but I have the male seperated. I thought about getting him neutered and seeing if he would be able to live with the females. I'm just gonna deal with it because I really don't want to get rid of my girls. I'll try the air purifier and we'll go to the doctors to see what they have to say about it.
 

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#11
Aww! I'm so sorry. I hope you don't have to get rid of them! I have really bad allergies too, as does my dad. What we do is keep the dogs really clean. We bathe them 1-2x a week with a mild shampoo, and brush them daily. We try to keep the brushing outside when the weather's good. That helps when the hair comes out, it doesn't come out inside. The girls are hypo-allergenic, but they still have some hair and dander. I couldn't even imagine having a shedding dog inside! :yikes: I get frequent headaches from my allergies, and they were significantly worse when we had our German Shepherd. I hope you guys figure something out!! Good luck! :)
 

Kathy29

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#13
Do you think it could possibly be the hay you're allergic to? I have bunnies and I know of people who are allergic to Timothy Hay so they use other kinds.
 

juliefurry

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#14
Do you think it could possibly be the hay you're allergic to? I have bunnies and I know of people who are allergic to Timothy Hay so they use other kinds.
We don't use timothy we use either alfalfa (for the young ones) or orchard grass for all of them. My husband will bag it all in seperate paper bags and then we will ziplock those bags and I will take out a bag and put it in their cage that way I don't have to deal with the hay dust or whatever flying all over when I go to pull out a handful. The piggies like playing in the paperbag as well so it works both ways. Also all their bedding is stored in a closet and we vaccum daily and Mark will clean cages (outside) daily. I got this allergen stuff that you wipe on the pigs and have been using that for about 2 weeks with some success.
 

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#15
GREAT!
keep it up and maybe your immune system will come around and fight off the allergies.

are you taking and allergy meds yet?
 

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