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Allergic to rodents

TribalWolf77

New member
I have a serious allergy to rodents, mainly rats and mice. Feeding my snakes and cleaning the cages will trigger a reaction, and my reactions can be severe (trouble breathing up to anaphylaxis).

Just wondering if anyone else is allergic to rats and mice, or am I the only one on earth?
 
Oh no, I'm not personally, but we have plenty of members who tried to keep live mice or rats and ended up being allergic!

Sorry to hear you have to deal with that!
 
Oh no, I'm not personally, but we have plenty of members who tried to keep live mice or rats and ended up being allergic!

That's how I found out. At one point we had 3 rats as pets. We couldn't figure out what swelled up my lungs to the point where I broke a rib and had to be taken to the ER by ambulance.

And, as I type this, I've got food defrosting for the "other kids".
 
I kept and bred African soft furred rats for the better part of 2008, until I came down with a really bad chest infection, ended up with pneumonia and plurisy, then developed a severe allergy to the ASFR's and had to rehome them. I have since had milder allergic reactions to frozen and defrosted rodents, ie swelling itchy hands and if I put my hand to my face accidently, it will bring on an asthmatic attack! Rubber gloves help considerably, or get someone else to do the dirty work :grin01:

So no, you're not the only one ;)
 
Does it help if you pop a couple Benadryl before handling any rodents to defrost? Or is it far too serious for that? I've known people to do this with known food allergies.
 
I kept and bred African soft furred rats for the better part of 2008, until I came down with a really bad chest infection, ended up with pneumonia and plurisy, then developed a severe allergy to the ASFR's and had to rehome them. I have since had milder allergic reactions to frozen and defrosted rodents, ie swelling itchy hands and if I put my hand to my face accidently, it will bring on an asthmatic attack! Rubber gloves help considerably, or get someone else to do the dirty work :grin01:

So no, you're not the only one ;)

I hear you there ... my asthma's acting up as I type this.

Does it help if you pop a couple Benadryl before handling any rodents to defrost? Or is it far too serious for that? I've known people to do this with known food allergies.

It gets that bad at times, but a couple of Benadryl makes me better.
 
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