For my entire life, I have been severely allergic to dogs, cats, birds — you name it. Not only do I get asthma from being in contact with animals, particularly in dusty, dirty houses, with no air flow, but I also become extremely itchy. What’s worse you ask? It’s a toss up!

As a side note, I have been working remotely for the past 1.5 years due to the global pandemic, and have purchased 95% of what we buy for our house on Amazon, so I am sharing all of the links to the products I use on a daily basis. Hope it helps!

Over the years, my asthma has gone from needing to be hospitalized every time I got the common cold to never needing an inhaler. Instead, I double up on Vitamin C, have anti-dander and dust mite pillows and blanket covers, and do everything in my power to reduce any asthmatic flare ups.

I’ve lived with it for so long that I have become an expert on preventing asthma attacks. One of our best purchases is this Blueair purifier. In fact, it was so powerful in preventing my asthma, that we ended up buying two — one smaller and one bigger one.

Even so, I have the double dilemma of severe eczema and asthma. Technically, I have the trifecta of hay fever, asthma, and eczema. But the latter two have always been worse and more worrisome, so hay fever has taken a backseat.

And fortunately/unfortunately, both my husband and I are dog lovers. In fact, he splits the care of his dog with his parents, which helps alleviate a lot of my suffering.

We have a Shitzu / Lhasa Apso mix which is technically hypoallergenic, but I’m still very allergic too. And we dog-sit my friend’s bichon frise, which is also hypoallergenic, but I still get minor asthma and itchiness from her saliva and dander.

An important side note — there is no such thing as a truly hypoallergenic dog. Google it, if you don’t believe me.

In the rare event that we have either dog at our house, we take the necessary precautions of:

1. Covering our sofa with clean fresh blankets,

2. Keeping her in only 2/3 rooms,

3. Bathing her in hypoallergenic dog shampoo before she comes over,

4. Washing everything she touches after she leaves, and

5. Spraying the hardwood floors and couch with anti-dander spray.

And we have the great fortune of having hardwood floors throughout our house as well as a handy-dandy robot vacuum cleaner. Both of these help tremendously.

To mitigate the effects of dander, I also:

• Bathe in lukewarm Japanese onsen bath water as often as needed

• Take Benadryl

• Wear long-sleeve pants and shirts to reduce itchiness

• Meditate

• Take alpha-lipoic acid and vitamin C supplements daily to improve my immune system

• Apply hydrocortisone anti-itch cream for my skin

In summary, there are a multitude of things that we do to reduce dander, mitigate itchiness, and increase my quality of life with dogs. It’s definitely not a long-term solution, but I’m grateful that we can have her over sometimes.

I hope this helps someone with similar allergies to occasionally live with dogs or cats. After all, my husband and I really enjoy the companionship and unconditional love that dogs offer.