|
What to do About a Horse Allergy |
 While a horse may not often be seen as a pet, for horse owners or those who are active in equestrian events, the relationship between you and your horse can become just as close as you would have with a family pet. Unfortunately, despite your love of these noble animals, it is possible to develop a horse allergy that can get in the way of your enjoyment of your horse.
Symptoms of a horse allergy can become a significant problem. While most of the time, horse allergy symptoms are not dangerous, they can make you miserable. And if it seems you will have to give up riding and caring for horses, that change of lifestyle can be almost as miserable to cope with as the symptoms themselves. Those symptoms could include sneezing, itchy eyes or nose, problems breathing, watery eyes, skin rashes or even the triggering of asthma problems. The good news is that just because you figure out that these symptoms are coming from a horse allergy, that doesn’t automatically mean you must give up this important part of your life.
In many cases, the suspicion that the allergic symptoms you are experiencing are coming from a horse allergy are not hard to figure out. Since your exposure to your horse is probably at specified and limited times, if the problems of a horse allergy surface during and after that exposure, then you have a good clue where your problem resides.
If the problems you have because of your horse allergy also cause additional asthma, that is good reason to raise the level of concern because asthmatic attacks can become dangerous for the sufferer. If you are dealing with potential horse allergy problems in your children and they are also asthma sufferers, you should be extra careful before you let them ride or be with horses.
The reason you may not have to give up your love of horses entirely even if you have a horse allergy is that the problem is probably not the animal itself. Usually the horse allergy problem is causes by the dander of the horse's fur or droppings from horse mites or from the horse's urine or saliva. And these thigns can be controlled to reduce or eliminate the frequency of your horse allergy symptoms.
Since most horse allergy symptoms come from these kinds of "residue", it is even possible that someone who never comes in contact with horses could have horse allergy symptoms because of contact with the allergens away from the animal. If one member of the family rides and brings home the horse dander or other allergens in his or her clothing, others in the family may exhibit horse allergy symptoms without ever having contact with the animal. If that is the case, the extra care of having the family member who rides isolate everything associated with the horse from the family until it is cleaned is a natural solution.
The ways that horse allergies are treated are no different from the ways other allergies are dealt with. While avoidance is the best approach if the contact with horses is not important to you or to your child, there are other treatments that can make it possible to continue enjoying being with these beautiful animals even with a horse allergy. By working with your doctor and allergist, desensitizing therapy can eventually eliminate the horse allergy symptoms or various drugs like corticosteroids or anti-histamines can provide a lot of relief for the horse allergy symptoms as well.
The more you know about the real causes of your horse allergy, the more you can do to eliminate the problem without giving up your time with the animal entirely. If the horse allergy comes from the dander or horse mite droppings, keeping your horse washed and brushed can work wonders at eliminating horse allergy problems. If the horse allergy symptoms come from contact with urine or dung, you can avoid the horse allergy cause by simply interacting with the horse away from where he or she resides so you are not as exposed to bedding or other stable items.
By taking these kinds of precautions and combining smart horse handling practices, good cleaning and hygiene rules and the use of horse allergy control medications, you may be able to continue to enjoy an active life of horse riding and maintaining a close relationship with your horses for many years to come.
|