chinchilla allergies

 

If you are an allergy suffer like yours truly, is a chinchilla a good pet for you?

As a person who adores animals and chinchillas especially I found myself asking some tough questions recently. Today I am just getting over my 2nd case of pneumonia in the last 2 years. Pneumonia is pretty nasty stuff and leaves scarring and what can be permanent damage on your lungs. In my not too fun visit to the ER Monday I found out that I now have a small black spot on my lung (MAJOR YIKES!)

Apparently this spot didn't fully heal from the last time I had pneumonia and getting it again doesn't help. Finding this out made me take a healthy step back and evaluate what I could do to prevent getting sick again. Often times for me, something that starts as a little sinus congestion can easily go into a full blown sinus infection or worse if I’m not careful. I have always had some sinus problems, and have allergies to cats and certain breeds of dogs, but I began to ask myself if my 9 lovely chins are making my allergies worse?

I take great strides in trying to allergy proof my house as much as possible and am on a regular allergy prevention program including Sudafed, Clairton and several nasal sprays. My doctor once told me that my nasal passage are kinda like a pug dog, all tied up and easy to clog up the pipes so to say.

My golden rule with chins is keep it clean. My Chins have their own room and as mentioned in previous articles, I have a shop vac that I clean around their cages with that has a special 8 layer allergy filter. I also wear a medical mask to prevent too much dust from getting in my lungs when I clean their cages or give them dust baths. On top of that I have an air purifier in the room (who knows if those things really work) and I have started to spray around the room (not the cages) with Lysol. But despite my best efforts it is pretty clear that within the last couple years my allergies have taken a turn for the worse.

So I started to evaluate what I had done differently.

1.      More Chins . I have a lot more chins now. So more chins=more hair, more dust ect.

2.      Loose Hay. Before I fed my chins hay blocks, until I tried loose hay and they loved it.

3.      Dust. I had been using sand at one point but switched to the finer dust. They seemed to really like it and it really fluffs out their coat

 

Chinchillas are really not bad in comparison to other pets for people with allergies. True no pets would probably be ideal, but what fun is that? Chinchillas are non-allergenic. Chinchillas have no dander, which is the leading cause to pet related allergies. Their fur is so thick that most of the dander/fur allergies are a non-issue with Chins. They also don’t have the excess saliva or licking habits like dogs and cats are often prone too so that’s really a non issue. They do shed when they are agitated and their hair has a tendency to float in the air, but on further investigation, my problems are likely due to the loose hay and dust.

Hay allergies are very common and if I am going to continue using loose hay I should keep it in a large food bin, buy dust extracted hay, or forgo loose hay all together and use cubes to reduce airborne allergens. Dust is also an issue. If you have ever watched the air after your chin takes a dust bath you’ll notice it really does get everywhere and lingers in the air. I’ll have to read some reviews and give the sand a try, but hopefully that will help!