[acritzer]

Some of you might remember I brought this up in one of my previous threads, but that was part of another discussion. I have a concern about my daughter's possible allergic reaction during our puppy visits (last two).
We currently have a 6 year old Golden, which she does fine with. However, when visiting the puppies she tends to sneeze and get itchy eyes.

Of course, having a dog already, this is something we never expected. My question is, could she be allergic to one dog and not another? Even if it's the same breed?
Or, could the conditions at the breeder's be causing the reaction, more so than the dog?

The puppies (6) are now in a kennel in the garage. Newspaper on the ground, and a carpet section. Most of them looked a little bit dirty from pee and poop. Nothing that I wouldn't expect though, I certainly don't think it's improper conditions, but definetely very "doggy".

Advice?

 

[Willow52]

You mention carpet, possibly there's a mold issue that your daughter may be having a reaction to rather that the puppies.

 

[acritzer]

I doubt that's it. It was only a carpet square, and inside the kennel. I was hoping it has to do with them being dirty and/or having so many all together? Anyone ever heard of someone reacting to one dog but not another (of the same breed)

 

[goldhaven]

I had a litter of 10. Whenever my pups got a little pee of poop on them, it was cleaned immediately. We held out pups regularly. My grandchildren held our pups and there was no way we wanted to hold them if they were dirty. The conditions of the kennel say a lot about the breeder. In this case, in my opinion, it says walk away. As far as the allergy, I don't know of a child being allergic to one dog and not another unless of course one of those dogs is a poodle. I am told that they are hypo allergenic. I think that the allergic reaction might be from something in the breeders house or something that she may have put on the dogs like a flea powder.

 

[acritzer]

Well, we are planning to take our daughter to an allergist. Not quite sure what we might find out...since she doesn't react to our current dog, it's hard to say what the results might mean to us. The breeder does also have a cat, which we know our daughter has issues with. But we don't know how much the cat may or may not have been in that area.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[acritzer]

Well...my wife talked with the pediatrician this morning (they talked extensively). She says not to be concerned. Because she has no issues at home with our 6 yr old Golden it's unlikely that there would be an issue. Most likely it's either the concentration of dogs, or something else in the house.

Being the cautious type I'm not completely satisfied, but it helps a bit. Next plan is to keep our daughter outside during the next visit and only bring out one puppy for her to see. We might also ask the breeder to keep the cat away for a while, and bathe the pups before we come.

 

[BeauShel]

Could they have a cat? When I was young I had alot of problems with cats.

 

[acritzer]

Yes, they do have at least one cat and I know our daughter reacts to cats. What I don't know is how much the cat is around the pups, or how permeated that room is with cat dander.