At home allergy / intolerance test

mayabear

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Has anyone tried an at home allergy (or intolerance) test? I found one from 55strands here that tests a lot of things including fruits, veggies, meat, seafood, additives, living things (dust mites, mice, etc.), cleaning supplies, fabric, fungus/mold, grasses/trees/plants, spices, and some other random things. The reviews were decent with some people saying it was spot on and when they removed whatever their pet had an intolerance to the symptoms cleared up. It's expensive, but so is going to a specialist (which my current vet is suggesting). I've already been to a specialist and paid $$$$$$$ for them to tell me nothing, basically. Pulling a few hairs is a million times less stressful than taking her to the vet all the time. I feel so bad :(. My wish is that we figure out what she's intolerant of and remove it from her life and we can ween her off all of her expensive medicine that doesn't seem to be helping anymore anyway. I'm skeptical, but a girl can dream.
 

MissClouseau

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Honestly every vet I know and see online says allergy tests are not reliable for cats. If you don't have one already personally I would much rather spend some of the money on getting a HEPA filter air purifier which helps with airborne allergens. And then go with the common allergies and treat it like as if he is allergic and see how things get when removing it.
 
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mayabear

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Honestly every vet I know and see online says allergy tests are not reliable for cats. If you don't have one already personally I would much rather spend some of the money on getting a HEPA filter air purifier which helps with airborne allergens. And then go with the common allergies and treat it like as if he is allergic and see how things get when removing it.
Yea the reason I haven’t gotten one yet is bc the vets say it’s not worth it, but I have multiple air purifiers (one of which can detect if the air is polluted-and it hasn’t been), my cat is on medicine and even after increasing the dose (which I really don’t want to do bc I don’t want her to develop other problems) she’s still not better. Her issue is breathing which indicates it might be environmental, but I have no idea what it could be (no scented things in the house, anti-allergy detergent, everything, etc...). I just don’t know what to do anymore.
 

MissClouseau

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Yea the reason I haven’t gotten one yet is bc the vets say it’s not worth it, but I have multiple air purifiers (one of which can detect if the air is polluted-and it hasn’t been), my cat is on medicine and even after increasing the dose (which I really don’t want to do bc I don’t want her to develop other problems) she’s still not better. Her issue is breathing which indicates it might be environmental, but I have no idea what it could be (no scented things in the house, anti-allergy detergent, everything, etc...). I just don’t know what to do anymore.
There isn’t much research on allergy in cats so I’m really basing this with allergy in humans but have you followed dust mite allergy tips? That’s one of the more common allergies among humans, I have it as well unfortunately and it’s truly challenging to follow all the tips. But still worth to try, starting with everything fabric in the house.

I will repeat FeebysOwner’s question though. Did they rule out other possible reasons for such breathing problems?
 
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