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The Symptoms of Dog Allergy

Are you one of the many people who love dogs but can’t stay near them because your body feels uneasy? Or you just don’t like dogs mainly because your body reacts whenever you are close to one?  If any of these are true, then maybe you should check if you have dog allergy.

Contrary to the popular idea that dog hair causes allergic reaction, the real allergens are the dander (flakes of dead skin), urine and saliva of the dogs. Can f 1 is the major dog allergen. It is present in a dog’s saliva. Another allergen is dog albumin which is present in the blood.  Dog dander is continually shed off without really being affected by the length of the hair. All of these indicate that dog allergens can quickly spread even without really making physical contact with the dog. For example, a dog can just sit on the center of the room while dander is being shed of, and allergen can be spread throughout the entire room just with the help of circulating air.

Dog allergy symptoms occur fifteen minutes to one hour after being exposed to the allergen. Sometimes, it might even take longer. Immunologic reactions will be visible through:

• Your eyes turning red and/or itchy
• You have difficulty breathing (wheezing)
• You experience constant coughing
• You sneeze a lot and continuously
• Your nose become runny, itchy, or stuffy
  

These symptoms may appear very similar with other reactions such as allergy to dust mites. It is very important that you determine what exactly causes your allergy. If you notice that you experience these symptoms whenever you are in an environment that has dogs, try avoiding that kind of environment first then see if you still experience having these symptoms.

If you have your own dog, try putting your dog only on one specific area of the house, then clean the entire house to get rid of dander and other dog allergens, and try to avoid him/her first for a few days. Observe if symptoms still occur. If not, there is a high probability that you are indeed allergic to your dog. Then, for example, you stretch your little experiment and allow your dog to roam around inside your house again and you start to have those symptoms again, then it is probably time to deal with your dog allergy.