Angela's Story

“I’m allergic to cats, dogs and horses. It’s easy for me to avoid cats and horses but dogs are trickier as they are often allowed in shops, pubs, cafe, restaurants, buses, trains, taxis and more.   

Contact with pet hair can mean days of ill-health with streaming eyes, wheezing – feeling wretched and struggling with my vision. The whites of my eyes and my throat both swell up. I have been hospitalised more than once because of my allergy to pet dander.  

I am finding it more difficult as the years go by. I’ve had to abandon paid-for meals in cafes or run away from dogs in open spaces because the owners don’t always believe me when I say that I really need them to keep their dogs away from me.  

I constantly risk assess when I go into a public place. Increasingly, I shop online and turn down social invitations. It’s very isolating. 

I work as a nurse and I’m fine in sterile areas like operating theatres or the recovery room of a hospital.  

I’m 49 and have been allergic since I was 21. But going back only a few years dogs were less frequently seen in public spaces or were more likely to be on the lead. 

I wish there was more understanding of this allergy. I don’t dislike dogs, but I wish some owners would take allergies more seriously.” 

Pet Allergy