Allergy to cats
As a cat hair allergy refers to a hypersensitivity to a protein from the saliva of cats.
Allergens
Not the cat hairs themselves are allergenic, but certain proteins that adhere to the cat hair. This cat allergens come mainly from saliva and the cat's dander, ie hairless cats produce and distribute allergens. The largest quantities are found in the cat's face, through constant intensive grooming the cat allergen Fel d distributed with the label 1, but throughout the cat's body.
Fel d 1 is very small and light (particle size 2-10 microns ) and therefore has the property that for a long time to stay schwebfähig. It gets stuck in furniture, walls and clothes, so that allergens can be detected even in public places like schools, offices and buses not only in households with cats, but in small quantities. The cat allergen could be detected even in places where has probably never stopped a cat (eg in ice in Greenland).
Fel d 1 is the major allergen of the cat, it is recognized by more than 90 % of all allergic to cats and also binds most educated IgE antibodies. Cats produce this protein whose function is unknown in cats in the sebum, anal and salivary glands. From there it is transmitted through licking and grooming of the coat. Hangover produce larger quantities of Fel d 1 than female cats.
Not everyone who suffers from an allergy to cats, reacts to different kinds of cats alike. This is related to the production of Fel d 1, as cats age, race and gender dependent leave different amounts of the substance.
More cat allergens:
- Fel d 2 (serum albumin)
- Fel d 3 ( cystatin )
- Fel d 4 ( a lipocalin )
- Fel d 5 (Cat - IgA antibodies )
- Fel d 6 (Cat IgM antibodies )
- Fel d 7 (Cat IgG antibodies )
Symptoms
Symptoms are an allergic coryza with sneezing, hives (very itchy rash with wheals ), eye redness, and swelling and severe itching from scratch injury.
If the cat hair allergy is ignored, there is a risk of allergic asthma. It is estimated that there at every third untreated allergic over time leads to a so-called " allergic march ", in which first a hypersensitivity of the bronchial mucosa occurs which can lead into a allergic asthma.
Therapy
As with any allergy, the attending physician will also help the cat hair allergy first advise you to avoid contact with the allergen as possible. The major allergen Fel d 1, however, is literally to be found in small amounts everywhere, so that the complete avoidance of contact with the allergens is practically impossible. The symptoms of the allergy sufferer can therefore - with a correspondingly strong expression of allergy - also occur at places where is not a cat and has never lived where a. So cat allergens were found even in the domestic ice of Greenland. Apparently, the small and lightweight allergens with the wind over the globe are distributed. In the cities, they are placed on the clothes and shoes of the visitors in public buildings.
The only causally acting treatment of cat dander allergy is hyposensitization ( immunotherapy, SIT, " allergy shots " ), in which one tries to slowly accustom the body to ever higher normalized concentrations of the allergen. However, some health insurance companies do not cover the cost of immunotherapy to cat allergens. This should at least be in court not stand when the cat hair allergen has no cat. Other allergy sufferers have trouble finding a doctor who performs a SIT when the allergen does not want to part with his cat. But there are allergists who consider that a desensitization due to pragmatic considerations even possible and effective if the cat lives in the household of the allergy sufferer. Because a hyposensitization is a long-term therapy ( duration about two to three years) and should be done at times of low allergen load in principle, is a therapeutic success - at least among cat owners - questionable.