Many animal lovers (and some Vets too), are allergic to animals.

Most people believe these allergies are connected to mammals fur, but this is not always true. Most cases are caused by proteins coming from saliva, urine or dead skin cells. What happens exactly is those proteins get distributed through the skin of the animal, and when the hair falls, it carries and spreads everywhere those allergenic proteins, so they reach our eyes, mouth and nose.

Cats wash themselves all the time, so their coat always have traces of saliva. In addition, cat hair is very light and gets disseminated very easily, so this is the reason because allergies to cat hair are so common.

Recent researches have proved that one of these allergenic proteins, which is the cause of approximately a third part of allergies to dogs, is coming from dogs prostate. The protein comes out with the urine and it may remain at the skin of the dog.

Obviously, female dogs and neutered males won’t produce this protein, so, one of the solutions the scientific article proposes for allergic people is to have a female or a neutered male. This is supposed to reduce about 30% the odds of suffering an allergic problem caused by the dog.

Another solution for these people would be, of course, to choose a breed which doesn’t moult, such as Poodle. In this case, the allergenic proteins would be on the dog, but not spreading everywhere.

There are available at the market some sprays and lotions that neutralize the allergenic proteins remaining on the skin of the animal.

And, of course, there is always the option of choosing a breed of dog or cat, without hair such as Sphynx cat or Xoloitzcuintli dog, but normally they are rare and expensive.

Another thing we would like to mention in this article: for the first time in our History, Spanish Government is going to have a Ministry with powers in animal protection (Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda). It looks like step by step we are going to improve our relation with animals, and we hope this is just the beginning.

Clinica Veterinaria, Calle Holanda 9, MASA Square, Gran Alacant T: 966 698 569