Of course the sensible thing would be to give away the cats. There is no such things as an allergy -free cat, and cat allergen [actually dried saliva] is particularly resistant to clean up even after the cats have left the house. Getting cat allergen out of the house can take many months after the cats have gone. I presume by your question, you want to explore other alternatives before giving the cats away. If you go to your allergist, you can get immunization shots especially designed for cats. They will take a while to take full effect, up to 2 years, but have about 80 percent chance of success. We have three cats ourselves and I have allergies to cat allergen, which register 7 on a 9-point scale- so my allergies are reasonably severe. I coexist very happily with our cats. Here is what I have done but cannot guarantee the same program will work for you.

1. No more cats sleeping on the bed. Sorry, this is a small price to pay for allergy relief.

2. No more cats in the bedroom- ever. Your bedroom should be a sanctuary from allergens.

3. Wash all bedclothes in 140 degree water at least twice monthly. This eliminates both dust mite and cat allergen.

4. Vacuum up cat allergen with a high grade hepa vacuum cleaner twice weekly. Vacuum walls, carpet, flooring, chairs, and furniture...everywhere. Use the hand tools on the vacuum. We use a Miele vacuum cleaner, details in our store.

5. Use a high-end hepa filter in the bedroom. Since cat allergen is so difficult to remove a good hepa filter is essential. We have a large selection of air cleaners in our store, but Austin, CARE and Blueair we think are excellent choices.

6. Use a Grossan irrigator and clean out the allergens in your nostrils on a daily basis. This alone will reduce your absorption of allergens by at least fifty percent. The Grossan irrigator has been the subject of a great deal of research and has been found to be extremely effective assisting with sinusitis and allergen reduction. Irrigation is an innocuous procedure and sounds much worse than it actually is. Breath-Ease, a new natural nasal spray, is also available at a special price for members directly from the manufacturer. Initial reports from users are very encouraging. Information can be found at http://www.sinus-relief.com.

7. If you ever pet the cats, wash your hands afterwards to remove allergens and no rubbing your eyes afterwards.

8. Some people wash their cats to reduce cat allergen in the air, but the research seems to be conflicted on that issue. A well- known brand of a liquid which you can be applied to your cats' coat is Allerpet, available from your local veterinarian.

9. Even if you do all this you probably will not reduce the allergen in your bedroom more than fifty to seventy five percent. One way to monitor your efforts would be to do some "before and after" allergen level testing. We are going to announce consumer home kit testing in our store soon for this very purpose.

In conclusion, keeping a cat when you have allergies takes a concerted effort , and is only for those people like myself who are nutty enough about their cats to go to all this trouble. Good Luck!

Mercia Tapping, President
allergybuyersclub.com