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Allergies to rabbits one of the common exscuses to rehome the bunny yet rarley right

T

Tonyh

Young Bun
Hi all,
I thought i would share this with you as i bet a lot of people dont consider it when taking in a rabbit.
I had a woman recently knock on my door because she had 4 rabbits that were her grandchildrens. Now she asked if i could help her find homes for these rabbits. My first question was why as she had only had the rabbits for 6 months. Im allergic to them she said. Being synical about the Phrase "im allergic to em" I asked if i could go round and see her with them i also took a grooming comb with me which will be revealed why in a second.

We got to her house and i asked her to get me a bunny out to see what happened to her when she held one. Sure enough she scooped this bunny up into her arms along with all the hay that was stuck to the little darlings fur and immediatly she started streaming with tears and sneezing. I told her to put it back and she offered to make me a cup of tea, so while she was doing that i groomed the rabbit she had just held getting rid of all the hay and bits of grass and took the rabbit to sit down with me. She brought in the tea and we sat there chatting. once i knew her mind had been took of the situation i passed her the bunny.
Guess what -
Hey your right no allergy she had hay fever and not a reaction to the poor little fluff balls as i suspected.

I recomended she get herself some dust masks from b&q or somewhere and that was that.

Her and the bunnys are now living a playful life together and she promises the buns are now there for life.

Tony
 
Its a difficult one this.. I love bunnies that much that i wouldnt, but if it makes you that uncomfortable, surely it is not fair on either the owner or the animal.

IMO tho.

but she shouldn't have said she has an allergy if she doesn't as that makes genuine people look fake.
 
Yep, there are definitely some people that use it as an excuse but must be some genuine ones out there too. I guess people don't think to check if it's the bedding.
 
Now that she uses the dust masks she is fine with them she is actually medically diagnosed as having hay fever but i didnt ask her that first as i wanted to prove it wasnt the bunnys
 
My hubby is very allergic to some of the hay we have used in the past... good job it was after we had the buns for years. If that happened when we first had them, our natural instinct would think it was the fur!

Was easily solved when we changed hay though :thumb: It is definitly worth considering that it isn't the animal but the hay/bedding.
 
I am allergic to hay but I couldnt not keep bunnies. I wear gloves and a mask when it is hay fever season :D
 
i have a minor allergy to hay.. i sneeze a solid 20 mins when i top up the hay for my pair....

im more allergic to work tho and cant give that up so my buns stay too :lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
I have mild hay fever or whatever but i take liquid piriton (I don't need a whole dose so the tablets would be too much) all year round to combat it and I never have any problems.:D

Besides, I knew this and checked and checked again before taking on the responsibility of owning a rabbit.

Works for me!

K x
 
Our GP once told my Mum that she was allergic to rabbits and that we should think about moving him (Mum was gutted as she adores Tango and said she's rather sneeze and cough). I decided that her symptoms only started when I changed Tango's bedding to megazorb so changed bedding and guess what Mum not "allergic" to Tango anymore!
 
Indiechic said:
Its a difficult one this.. I love bunnies that much that i wouldnt, but if it makes you that uncomfortable, surely it is not fair on either the owner or the animal.

IMO tho.

but she shouldn't have said she has an allergy if she doesn't as that makes genuine people look fake.
Click to expand...


In this case she probably genuinely believed she was allergic though.

My housemate is highly allergic to my buns, he sneezes if he sits on a sofa they've been playing on, although interestingly he's found its become less acute with repeated exposure.
 
Its rabbit dust that sets me off I have always had it since a was a child we had 28 rabbits when I was younger and the docs said to my mum you have to re home your rabbits its the dust that causing her problems and mum said to me well the doc says its the rabbits that are making you feel this way so shall we find them new homes darling I said no no no mummy I just live with it and that was that I did and I have sort of grown out of it but sometimes I get it really bad but no way am I re homing any of my fur babies.Gosh some doctors what planet are they on?
 
My husband says he is allergic to rabbits and I tried to prove that it was the hay. He WON'T have it to be. I had the rabbit in while he was at work - and he came home and was fine.... Then he came into the garden and yes, there was hay etc around and he touched the rabbit and suffered an acute attack - brought on his asthma and had to be nebulised. He is CONVINCED! it is the rabbit. I am not...

He has been away this week and I let the rabbit in. Yes, he poo'ed and ran around, climbed on hte chairs etc but I hoovered and opened the windows before DH came home. He hadn't noticed anything. I stupidly told him and he went off on one - how I had broken my promise not to bring him in the house etc, I said I didn't think it would matter with you not being here! He said The hairs would still be in the house and he'd be ill - but he wasn't. But I can't get him to change his mind....
 
i think lots of people use that as to why they cant keep there pets ect but some times its true and some times not of course the hay ect i wouldnt of thought of that :lol: my boyfriend has hay fever but seems to be ok at the mo
 
I'm very allergic to cats, but not to buns (I think it's an allergy to their dry saliva).

I went to a big family farm near us a couple months ago - they have around 50 breeds of rabbit in this barn conversion - I got VERY allergic and came out with ichy blotches all over my face. I've never had a problem with my own buns, as you say, it's more of an allergy to dust or hay than bunnies :D
 
I am allergic to the Timothy hay I feed Bobbin and Roo.... I sneeze like a mad thing and my eyes itch every time I get another handfull out for them, so 4-5 times a day! :shock: But I wouldn't change it for the world and have a couple of masks on hand for when it gets bad :lol:

Oddly enough, it is only Timothy hay that makes my hayfever react :?

Well done on showing her that it was not her little babes that were getting up her nose! :thumb:
 
It is actually the RABBITS that I am allergic to. I suffer quite badly with allergies and hay fever and even with a fully brushed and groomed bunny they still make me sneeze and my eyes get all irritated...

But even knowing its the rabbits and not the hay, I would not get rid of the rabbits. They are outside and I can tolerate them in the fresh air.
 
You may think this is mad BUT I am allergic to un-neutered male buns. Now everyone I know thought this was mad as well - and that I was making it up - especially when i added that i was allergic to other male animals if not neutered (esp mice, but including cats).

However . . . the other day I mentioned this in passing to my vet (as we happened to get on to allergies), and she was really interested and said that there were often studies done of some kind of scent nerve in humans that was often claimed to be underdeveloped or wasted away that specifically detected pherenomes in other species etc. Turns out that if you do have this developed or present or whatever then you WOULD be allergic (or at least react) to animals that were more hormonal.

I am also allergic to the poos that the males leave when they think there has been another rabbit in their area - (even if they are neutered males) and she explained to me that these particular poos go via a special area in the rear of the bun that coats them with extra smelliness (NOT caecals).

Apparently I'm really interesting (LOL). Less fortunate is the fact that one of our rabbits has a bit of a heart problem and cannot be neutered!!! (achoo!!).

Anyway - if you think you are allergic to rabbits or find someone that is - try asking first if they have an un-neutered male and if they have then suggest neutering first before having to reome (not sure if you can also be allergc to females).

PS This is NOT an 'april fools'!!

PPS A bit ironic that I have just found out that I am classed as an 'alpha buck' on RU!! Will have to work towards being a mamma doe!
 
parsnipbun said:
You may think this is mad BUT I am allergic to un-neutered male buns. Now everyone I know thought this was mad as well - and that I was making it up - especially when i added that i was allergic to other male animals if not neutered (esp mice, but including cats).

However . . . the other day I mentioned this in passing to my vet (as we happened to get on to allergies), and she was really interested and said that there were often studies done of some kind of scent nerve in humans that was often claimed to be underdeveloped or wasted away that specifically detected pherenomes in other species etc. Turns out that if you do have this developed or present or whatever then you WOULD be allergic (or at least react) to animals that were more hormonal.

I am also allergic to the poos that the males leave when they think there has been another rabbit in their area - (even if they are neutered males) and she explained to me that these particular poos go via a special area in the rear of the bun that coats them with extra smelliness (NOT caecals).

Apparently I'm really interesting (LOL). Less fortunate is the fact that one of our rabbits has a bit of a heart problem and cannot be neutered!!! (achoo!!).

Anyway - if you think you are allergic to rabbits or find someone that is - try asking first if they have an un-neutered male and if they have then suggest neutering first before having to reome (not sure if you can also be allergc to females).

PS This is NOT an 'april fools'!!

PPS A bit ironic that I have just found out that I am classed as an 'alpha buck' on RU!! Will have to work towards being a mamma doe!
Click to expand...

This is something i have never ever heard of and im now intrigued to find out more tried googling it but cant find a thing did the vet say whether the allergy had a name or anything that may help me to search for info on it
 
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