I have severe asthma and allergies. I was allergic to animals growing up ... everything from mice to horses. I had a very stubborn mother who firmly believed that I should still have a normal and enriched childhood despite it all and so I was raised on a farm. I'm both grateful and mad at that. Anyway, the only animal I found that I was not allergic to was the ferret! I thought that was very bizarre, but there you have it. I have owned ferrets off and on for over 30 years now. I was fine around them as long as I kept everything tidy and most of all if I kept the other allergen factors under control. I had to control the dust and pollen to a ridiculous extent otherwise the domino effect would come into play. If I was exposed to things I was truly allergic to (smoke, molds, etc), then the things that rarely bothered me became a real issue. I was fine around ferrets until about 5 years ago. I noticed I started to react to them. Soooooo, I did more baths, more total gutting out and bleaching the ferret room and changing out ferret bedding every other day. Most importantly, I got my main allergies under control with a lot of effort. Exhausting. But it worked. In more recent years, my allergy to ferrets has been out of control and I've been devastated over this. Ferrets cannot be a huge part of my physical life anymore at this point. I think a combo of things happened with me. Number one was as Sukie said, years of exposure just did me in. Number two I went from owning 1-2 ferrets to 8! Number three was 2 years ago, I got into birds. I'm not allergic at all at this point (tests show negative). But I have to wonder if the tests are wrong and maybe I'm not realizing a mild allergy to them. I wonder because as a small child I was very allergic to them. That would be another domino in the domino effect. Lastly, but this also might be most important ... I went from a mild-moderate allergy of dogs ... to severe in a short period of time ... right before my allergy to ferrets developed. My tests were said to be the most violent reactions that allergist has seen to date (for dogs). As Sukie said ... there is a connection. As others have noted, your nephews event might just be a huge coincidence. It's possible but I'd think it'd be a bit unusual for the reaction to have come from a ferret if he has never developed welts, eczema, sneezing, and itchy eyes when holding them before. I could be wrong about that. I remember that you live in a part of the Northeast that is just hideous for asthma and allergies. There is a pollution factor (I don't care where you are up there) as compared to much of the U.S. Your molds are out of this world. The worst in the country. The spores are everywhere. I was told I couldn't even have potted plants in my home up there because every little thing we could do to take away exposure helped. The tree pollen is year round! It's tough. And you can wake up allergic to that suddenly. Its possible. Lastly, yes, yes, yes, and quadruple yes, people can react to whole hobs and adrenal ferrets as well. People who barely have an allergy, if any, to ferrets. It's common. I remember before I developed allergies to ferrets the first time I held a whole hob at a shelter. Oh boy did I react. It was horrible. I was stunned. I had no idea about the whole hob/allergy thing at the time so it made no sense to me. Same thing happened with my first adrenal ferret, just not nearly as severe. I wonder if reactions to both of those precurse a future general reaction to ferrets. I wonder if a sudden allergy to food can do this? First thing is first, with asthma (which is dangerous) he must be taken to an allergist and tested for everything under the sun so you know what you are dealing with. Then you can go on from there. I'm willing to lay down my life... that he is not just allergic to ferrets (if he is allergic to them). As I said, allergies work in a domino effect. Often when you control the major ones, the mild ones or short exposures to triggers will no longer be an issue. It's pointless to bath, gut out your home, take plants outside, the whole sterilization process before you know what the problem is. It might just be a major reaction to one thing, making him overly sensitive to Caff -Pow. Or maybe it has nothing at all to do with ferrets. Actually, its much more likely that he developed an allergy to Sterling than it would be to a ferret. I'm a pro at allergy control, I promise you. It comes not just from doctors, reading, etc, but a life time of experience due to a stubborn mother and my love of animals. I also could not seek help and treatment for a good portion of my life due to several factors. Either I didn't have enough money for a doctors care and meds,?I was taking care of more serious health issues,?or something else. A?good bit of my life, I could not afford the time and emotional energy to think about myself while raising my autistic son, Sean. I have?moderate OCD. So given those factors, I had to learn to do the best I could and?I'm absolutely fanatic about allergy control. Find out what is going on with Figbash with a doctor if you can, then I'll come back and post a mind-boggling plan for his mom, and one for you and your home (without altering it too much). I'll do it on here in case anyone else can benefit from the tips. [Posted in FML 6377]