Salt Lamps for Pet Allergies?

Are you allergic to your cat? To your dog? Or simply to the pollen, dust, mold and other “stuff” floating around that we breathe?

I’m told that if you do not have allergies, you’ll develop them if you move to Texas. Sure enough, after living here 20+ years, I do have my share of stuffy nose/sinus headaches. But nothing compared to my husband. And although in my world, getting “rid of” a pet as an allergy cure would never happen, I know that other pet lovers have had to make this awful choice.

While he’s not specifically allergic to Seren or Magic (thank goodness!), the extra hair and dander on top of other allergens probably doesn’t help. Also, pets act like furry dust mops that collect and carry around pollen, dust and other allergens. The dust or perfume in cat litter sets off many allergies. People with pet allergies react to the protein produced by the skin and found in the saliva and urine.

So what can a pet lover do? Well, you can reduce the exposure. Think of it like a bucket. If allergens fill the bucket past a specific line…your individual tolerance level…you sneeze. But if you can keep the level BELOW that threshold, you may not have symptoms or at least reduce them enough to tolerate. If you react to pollens, dust, and cats, for example, reducing the dust might reduce the bucket level enough that you can tolerate the cat. Help empty your allergy bucket in several ways:

• Make the bedroom off-limits to pets, so that you have at least 8 hours of non-exposure.
• Rinse your dog or cat with plain water several times a week (or wipe down your cat with a wet cloth). That gets rid of the dust-mop effect and can help enormously.
• Allerpet products, one available for cats and one for dogs, are available at many pet supply stores. Wiping Allerpet-C or Allerpet-D onto your cat or dog’s fur helps neutralize the dander that causes allergic reactions.
• Salt lamps seem to help some people. Heating these natural chunks of salt release negative ions that are said to cause particulate matter (like allergens) to fall out of the air so you don’t breathe them.

Since my husband got his salt lamps from Paloma Studio (www.bitofsantafe.com), he’s breathing much easier. I particularly liked the shop because the owners bring Molly, the blue heeler, to the store each day. In fact, the owners say that once they started using the lamps at home, even their bulldog stopped snoring. Now, that’s an endorsement!