How to keep your pet when you're allergic 

[Text on screen: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
How to keep your pet when you're allergic]

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[Text on screen: Rekha Raveendran, MD
Division Director, Allergy/Immunology
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center]

Rekha Raveendran, MD: One of the questions I often get asked by patients who are coming in for an allergy evaluation is, "If I'm allergic to my pet, do I have to get rid of my pet?" And the answer is no.
We've got a lot of options that we can do to help treat your symptoms, whether that be medications, whether that be environmental measures, whether that be immunotherapy, or a combination of all three. There are ways to keep your pet around and also treat your allergy symptoms.

Allergy immunotherapy is a great option for patients who have any type of environmental allergies, including pet allergies. What we do with immunotherapy, which is different than what we use medications for, is to treat the problem at the source. So when you're allergic, your body's having an abnormal response to things it really shouldn't. So pets shouldn't be really a problem. Trees should not be a problem, pollen should not be a problem, but your body is seeing these things and thinking it is.

And so what we need to do with immunotherapy is to give your body back small amounts of those allergens and to learn to desensitize your system so that when it sees these things, it no longer reacts inappropriately, and then eventually develop tolerance so that it's able to do it on its own. And we have three different ways that we're able to do that: with allergy shots, allergy drops, and intralymphatic immunotherapy.

[Text on screen: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
For more information, visit: wexnermedical.osu.edu/allergy]

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