Allergy shots?

Well I'm allergic to rats, sadly because I love rats, bred them for years. When I moved out to the west coast, I found myself suddenly allergic! Does anyone get allergy shots? I'm considering getting them because it would be sooooo much cheaper to breed my own food for my snakes and keep the adult females as pets. How much do the shots cost normally?

No one?

Alisyn,

Are you able to go for allergy testing, to assure that your allergies are indeed to rats? (And to see if those allergies are to all rodents, to animal dander in general, etc.). What about insurance? If you do have health insurance, perhap you could call and see if the testing and shots are covered.

I dont have insurance till the first of the year, but the thing is, when I was on the west coast I wasnt allergic to rats. I had them for a few years with no problems. I have dogs and cats here with no problem. Its not the bedding either, I've tried carefresh, aspen, even shreaded paper, and I still sneeze my head off.

The first is not far off; you might want to hold off and consult with your insurance company (or even read the policy now to see whether it covers allergy testing).

Non insured costs vary widely. I know doctor's offices that give a price break to those without insurance and paying cash. But even if the shot itself is not expensive, the shot combined with even a discounted office visit charge may come to an appreciable amount. Of course it is all relative, if you have 100 snakes and want to raise rodents to save on food costs, the doctor cost may be worthwhile to you.

Another reason you may want to wait is to see via the testing exactly how sensitized you are now, since you apparently were not allergic prior to this. While a lot of allergies involve sneezing, running nose, and feeling miserable, those who are very sensitized can actually have severe reactions.

We have a couple docs on the board, they may want to add to this, before you sink a lot of cash into a rodent breeding operation.

I'll have to wait till the first of the year If I want to go through testing/read up on it. I just though I could go in for the shot. I used to breed rats as pets out east, then when I moved to the west coast, it got so bad that I'd walk into my house, immediatly stuff up, sneeze and become miserable. When they're walking on me and they're nails scratch me the scratches puff up almost instantly and itch. None of this happened at all back east, and it was litterally within a month that it started from the move to after we settled in. cleaning the cages is the worst, I have to wear a painters mask.

I basically figured that if you can get shots for cats/dogs, you could for rats too. cleaning the cage though is the worst for me, allergy wise.

Allergy shots may not be the answer. They take weeks or even years to really be affective, and even then, they don't always stop the allergic reaction. I don't think that rats are a normal part of the allergy shot "cocktail", so there is the possibility that you might have to pay extra for a special mix.

I'm allergic to rats too...I found this out when I kept one as a pet. Things were fine until I let the rat sit on my shoulder near my face. I started sneezing, wheezing, and the rat's nails left big welts on my skin. I tried changing the bedding, taking allergy meds (which left me drugged-out), actually washing the rat on a daily basis, etc. Nothing helped, and it got to the point that I could not even go near the rat's cage, so he had to go. It was sad.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do...

Jamie

Well I might be able to do this after all. Without having a permanent male rat around, I'm not going nuts allergy wise. So I'm going to give it a try