>From:    Megan Irvine <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: allergies
>
>Can anyone tell me if it is common for people who are allergic to cats
>are most likely to be allergic to ferrets?...
 
Hi, Megan.  The long and the short of this is that everyone is different
and won't necessarily react the same way as anybody else, but I wanted to
let you know that my fiance, who is HIGHLY allergis to cats (gets to the
point where he hs tourble breathing with many of them, red, runny, itchy
eyes, congestion, painful lungs) but our ferrets rarely bother him.  He
occasionally has days (usually days when the pollen count is high or he's
feeling allergic in general) when if the ferrets get near his face they
bother him a little, but it is minor and he just keeps them out of his
face.
 
My cat-allergic aunt was similarly not bothered by them.  But everyone is
different and someone else may also be higly allergic to ferrets.  You'd be
better off havign the person in question hang around someone else's ferrets
for awhile and seeing how they react.  You could also get your doctor to
do a ferret-specific allergy test; here's a wuote I took from someone on
the FML awhile ago about this test:
 
"They have to draw blood and send it to the Mayo Clinic It costs $68 and is
covered by insurance as any other allergy test.  The test was labeled as
'1 Allergen Specific IGE, 86003'."
 
Hope this helps!
 
-April and kids
[Posted in FML issue 3513]