Your Signal
Pet Hair Allergy
11 min read
Also known as: allergy to animal hair · cat hair allergy · dog hair allergy · animal allergy · reaction to fur · allergic to pets · pet allergy · sneezing around animals · fur allergy · animal dander allergy · animal hair hypersensitivity
Your Body Is Speaking
A dog lying beside you. A cat curling around your legs. A horse whose coat you touch. A rabbit, a guinea pig, a budgerigar — somewhere nearby there is an animal, and your body reacts. Your eyes turn red and watery. Your nose runs or blocks. Your skin itches. Your throat scratches. In more severe cases, your breathing falters, your bronchi narrow, your whole system sounds the alarm.
Medically the explanation is simple: your immune system regards certain proteins from the animal's skin flakes, saliva, or sebaceous glands as a threat and mounts a full defence. But this explanation does not answer the real question. Why does your body react to something so harmless — to a warm-blooded, breathing, usually trusting creature that means you no harm? Why the animal of all things?
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