Today my allergies have reached a new peak! I've spent weeks and months around all kinds of dogs and cats so I was pretty sure I wasn't allergic to animals. But then the last few days just being around Anakin has brought on sneezing fits and teary eyes. I think I might have an allergy problem,I'm most likely going to end up getting on allergy meds. I was curious if anyone else might have experienced this and have any tips before I go try some something.

Yes, I have - there's another thread around here somewhere with it. I'm allergic to dogs but have it under control most of the time with flonase, claritin and sudafed. In addition, we don't allow the dogs on the sofa or sleep on the bed, we vacuum daily and wash the dogs monthly. Sometimes I have flareups but it's caused by the dry winds coming in with tiny particles that irritate my nasal passages. It's definitely manageable - there are some great books and articles out there to help. Also put an allergy cover on your mattress, pillow and shower before bed to remove all allergens from yourself. Definitely get allergy tested to see what other allergies you may have and need to manage. I had to toss my feather bed because I had no idea it was making me worse due to a goose feather allergy.

Are those scripts or over the counter medicines? It's usually pretty bad in the afternoons and late evenings. Other than that I've been pretty okay.

If I remember correctly, Flonase is a prescription and Claritin and Sudafed are both OTC. However, Claratin may not be the best for you. Different people do better with different allergy medicines. My family all takes Zyrtec, but I do better on Singulair. Try several if you aren't getting the results you want and you can always ask your doctor for suggestions!

I'm definitely going to do something ,it's been slowly progressing. At first it was minor and I could easily ignore it. Today I could barely get through cooking a uncontaminated dinner. No one wants a cook with the sniffles

My cat messes with my sinuses. I take Zyrtec every day& it helps a ton. But like Katie said, it's good to try different ones to see what works!!

Is Anakin doing a lot of shedding? I noticed when Sky started to shed more my allergies started to flare up a little. I used to have real bad pet allergies as a kid and started taking claritin (generic: loratadine) everyday. I still take it, about everyother day, seems to do the trick. I've heard awesome things about zyrtec (generic: cetirizine) too.

FYI - if you know anyone with a Costco membership, they sell both generic types of these drugs super cheap. I got a years supply of Loratadine for <$15

He hasn't started doing any noticeable shedding yet. And lucky for me I do know someone with a Costco membership, looks like I'll be experimenting with drugs for awhile until I find one that works.