pet allergies and guests

[momz]

We are having a guest visit for a weekend soon. He has allergies to cats (and maybe dogs but not sure). We have 2 cats. What can I do to decrease the allergens in the home prior to his visit. One of our cats stays in a fairly limited area of the home, but the other is a wanderer.

 

[Tuffcookie]

Invest in a large room air purifier! That, and, while your guests are there, contain the cats to a closed off room. I have a large room purifier in our livingroom. Youngest DS came home from college last Fall. He is working toward his PhD. He is allergic to cats. (I have 2). The purifier works wonders!

TC

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Depends on how allergic. In all honesty pet dander and hair is just something that is around a person's house. You could never fully clean it and quarantining the animal doesn't really do a whole lot in the grand scheme.

I am allergic but don't have much issues these days with cats (I live with one lol) though I have issues at times. My sister-in-law's boyfriend is much more reactive to cats than I am at this point in my life (I was a lot worse when I was younger) and while he can stand our house for longer periods of time it still affects him. My mother-in-law has 7 cats and he usually cannot be over there as long.

I would honestly not suggest to have a house guest, especially for an overnight stay especially for the weekend at least if the person knows their level of reaction would be decent enough. At least if they are just visiting for a few hours they can escape if there is too much reaction. If they are actually staying there they have no escape.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I, too, was going to say he might be better off getting a hotel room. It’s hard to get rid of pet dander on demand like that when it’s all around the house. If he does come he should probably have plenty of antihistamines on hand.

 

[Mango7100]

My SIL stays with us and is allergic to cats (mild allergies). We always have the guest bedroom closed so the cats never go in there. We do have a portable HEPA air purifier and use the higher grade air filters for our air intake. DH is also allergic to cats but 2 sleep with us and they don’t bother him. My friend had a cat that he could not be I in the same room with—his allergies were much more severe to her cat.

 

[Earstou]

Steam clean your carpets!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

IMHO this is not a good idea. I'm allergic to cats and dogs and I wouldn't be comfortable staying in a home that has either. Even just visiting for a couple of hours tends to be uncomfortable since there is residue even when the animal is not in the room. I agree with the above comments that your guest would be more comfortable in a no-pets-allowed hotel room.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

I grew up severely allergic to dogs and cats. As an adult I have had both and currently have two cats. Honestly there really isn't much you can do. Vacuum for sure. But really they just need to take allergy medication and be ready and willing to get a hotel room if the reaction is terrible. I could go to my neighbor or aunt's house for hours and be fine and sometimes after 30 minutes I would be scratching my eyes out and sneezing like crazy. There was really no rhyme or reason to it that I could ever figure out.

 

[momz]

Well, the weekend went fine. This was my daughter's boyfriend who was visiting. They are college students and getting a hotel is not in the budget, plus I'm not willing to tell them they can't stay with us. So I will try to mitigate it as much as possible. I will look into the air purifier, upgrade to the allergy filtering air filters, vacuum and dust like crazy and maybe even hire a house cleaner before their next visit to help me. Plus will keep the cat out of the room where he sleeps. Our downstairs is entirely hard floor surfaces which I think is better, but our upstairs is carpet that can trap the allergens.

Anyway, thank you all for the suggestions, I will incorporate these ideas and hope it helps.

He did ok btw, had some watery eyes when he first arrived, but he took antihistamines along with some eye drops that made it less bad. Still, I feel bad about it.