Exposing chickens to cat hair to help with human allergies to cats

[Suebaby71]

I read an article recently that talked about a way to reduce the effects of cat allergies in humans by exposing chickens to the fel d 1 protein. Chickens that are exposed to this most common of cat allergens make antibodies against it. These antibodies are also transferred to their eggs, in the yolk. If the cat eats the antibodies, then they produce fewer allergens and this gives a level of relief to nearby humans with cat allergies. Purina makes a pretty expensive (more than twice what I pay for regular) cat food that contains the fel d 1 antibodies and is supposed to reduce the amount of allergens by about 50% after 3 weeks and possibly more if fed for longer (I can't remember exactly). I have decided to try a free version of this and am wondering if anyone else out there has tried or wants to try the same and would share their findings with me?

Although my cat and chickens are sometimes in the same area I have started to intentionally brush my cat and put his hair in their coop. Specifically in the nesting box and sometimes in "treats" like oatmeal mixed with discarded sourdough starter. After a week of that I started to mix 1/2 an egg yolk with my cat's wet food each night. My allergic son is moving home from college in about 3 weeks, so I hope that we will notice a difference, but so far I don't know if it's doing anything. I don't know if the cat hair exposure is enough, if the 1/2 a yolk a day is enough, etc.

My family thinks I am marginally crazy, but I don't see how I have anything to lose. Is there anyone out there that's crazy like me? I don't even know if people will see this post, it's such a random topic that doesn't fit into the forum categories!

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

I read an article recently that talked about a way to reduce the effects of cat allergies in humans by exposing chickens to the fel d 1 protein. Chickens that are exposed to this most common of cat allergens make antibodies against it. These antibodies are also transferred to their eggs, in the yolk. If the cat eats the antibodies, then they produce fewer allergens and this gives a level of relief to nearby humans with cat allergies. Purina makes a pretty expensive (more than twice what I pay for regular) cat food that contains the fel d 1 antibodies and is supposed to reduce the amount of allergens by about 50% after 3 weeks and possibly more if fed for longer (I can't remember exactly). I have decided to try a free version of this and am wondering if anyone else out there has tried or wants to try the same and would share their findings with me?

Although my cat and chickens are sometimes in the same area I have started to intentionally brush my cat and put his hair in their coop. Specifically in the nesting box and sometimes in "treats" like oatmeal mixed with discarded sourdough starter. After a week of that I started to mix 1/2 an egg yolk with my cat's wet food each night. My allergic son is moving home from college in about 3 weeks, so I hope that we will notice a difference, but so far I don't know if it's doing anything. I don't know if the cat hair exposure is enough, if the 1/2 a yolk a day is enough, etc.

My family thinks I am marginally crazy, but I don't see how I have anything to lose. Is there anyone out there that's crazy like me? I don't even know if people will see this post, it's such a random topic that doesn't fit into the forum categories!

This is very interesting and am curious how it all turns out! Best of luck!

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

I do not think that will work, but go ahead and try it.

 

[LaFleche]

My family thinks I am marginally crazy, but I don't see how I have anything to lose. Is there anyone out there that's crazy like me? I don't even know if people will see this post, it's such a random topic that doesn't fit into the forum categories!

Although I have no cat allergy I find this a very interesting topic and approach.

Studies mention shedded Fel d1 to last for about a year in a home environment, so I would not expect much improvement regarding your son's reactions during this period.
But the amount of newly shedded Fel d1 would be decreasing over this period of time, and maybe the severeness of his cat allergy will decrease as well.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6960183/

 

[Starrponies]

I know quail eggs help with allergies. No experience or knowledge about it other than reading about it before I got them. This seems like an interesting idea I'm so curious what you find and will have to do some reading myself! Thanks for sharing!