CLEANSING THE ALLERGENS AWAY Over the last few years, there has been much written about pet-related allergies with a special emphasis on cat allergies. Fel d1, better known as the ‘cat allergen’ is probably responsible for 65% of all pet-related allergy problems. Reducing Fel d1 has been the subject of many of these writings. Allerpet substantially reduces the fel d1 allergen load of a house by removing a very large, significant majority of these allergens from your petbefore they have a chance to enter your environment.

Rinsing Bathing Acepromazine Allerpet

Circa 1987, a study at Washington University in St. Louis concluded that after having washed each of 10 cats once every month for 9 months in distilled water (not because of any advantage over tap water other than it eliminated many of the variables in the analysis), there was a reduction in the amount of Fel d1 that was removed from the animal. This was determined by analyzing the 1 liter (34oz.) of distilled water that each cat was washed in. It should be noted here that all of the cats were minimally sedated.The national media created a great stir about this study after it was presented and shortly thereafter; distilled water became the product of choice ‘to keep the cat at home’.

Rinsing (no shampoo) a cat in any kind of water. . . distilled or tap as described above will benefit you more than doing nothing, however, you must do this at least once a week to achieve any kind of positive effect. For an allergy problem, once a month is almost as good as not at all, once a week is marginally better. Rinsing does not effectively cleanse the animal. It is on a par with taking a shower without using any soap or shampoo.

BATHING

A big step up from rinsing is bathing, the difference being the use of a shampoo. Bathing will considerably reduce the allergen level of a cat providing that you do several things that most cat owners don’t.

First. You must use a shampoo formulated for animals, not just one that calls itself an animal shampoo. It must have an alkaline pH in excess of 7.0, preferably around 7.5. All human shampoos have a pH around 6.0, much too acid for an animal. An acid shampoo will cause scratching and an excessive shedding or scaling (both allergy-causing allergens). The coat and skin of both cats and dogs are alkaline.

Second. Problems will begin to increase if you don’t properly bathe an animal. . . especially a cat. You must know how to truly rinse an animal, not to just get the visible soap off the skin and coat, but really cleanse off all of the residue. This requires a minimum of 2 good quality rinses, and preferably 3. If you can do this, and if you do it once a week, you will substantially reduce the cat allergen load. If you can’t, you will probably add additional allergens to the environment that didn’t exist before.

A study published in the September 1997 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that washing cats with soap and water did reduce allergens, but the reduction didn't last longer than a week.

ACEPROMAZINE (an old wives tale for allergy control)

Acepromazine is a widely used tranquilizer, however its ability to control pet allergies is an ‘old wives’ tale. Almost all veterinarians will tell you that there is absolutely no evidence to substantiate a ‘cat allergen’ reduction in cats. University allergy research shows the same. Acepromazine is a tranquilizer used within the veterinary profession.

The theory behind this is that the tranquilization, or sedation, will reduce the cat's self-cleaning and thus reduce the amount of Fel d1 deposited on the coat. The fallacy is that it doesn’t reduce the self-cleaning and even if it did, by far, the largest amount of Fel d1 is deposited on the coat and skin by the secretions of the sebaceous glands.

ALLERPET

At this moment, other than giving up the animal, Allerpet is probably the best solution available to help you keep your pet at home because of its ability to remove the offending allergens before they have a chance to enter into your environment. A washcloth lightly dampened with just a little Allerpet is all that is necessary to reduce the allergen level of an animal. The ease of use of Allerpet enables most pet owners to treat their pets as often as necessary without the usual hassle of a bath (Yes, we know that some cats and dogs really enjoy a bath. . . but most owners don’t. With a small animal they can cleanse it on their lap while watching TV). Allerpet's suggestion is once or twice a week. A side benefit of Allerpet is the beautiful look and feel of the coat from the conditioning and moisturizing agents.

YOUR CHOICE

Whatever your choice. . . ask yourself two or three simple questions about any product or treatment that you may consider using.  Does the product tell you what it contains?  Does it make claims or does it "imply" its claims?  Has it been clinically tested by a recognized testing laboratory, university or hospital?   Does it leave a residue on the hair to attract more allergens of all types . . . , grass, pollen, dust, etc.?

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