Does anyone take allergy tablets on a regular basis, i.e. having a cat and being alergic to it?

What medicine is in the ‘allergy tablets’?

I used to get terrible hayfever when I was younger. Used to need antihistamines for about 3 months of the year. The doctor prescribed me a nasal spray for long term use and a tablet for bad days.

Probably worth talking to your doctor.

I take anti-histamine every day, just sneeze less on them (not that it’s a big issue if I don’t take them, just sneeze a bit more).

I get hay fever. It usually starts in late-Jan with the hazel pollen, and fades out in Oct/Nov. Loratidine has worked ok, and so has cetiridine this year, with the Beconase spray at peaks.

I use Beconase nasal spray for my hayfever, April-ish through to July-ish. Got a bid bad this year, no symptoms other than a wheezy cough. Turned out to be pollen-related asthma. 1 a day cetirizine sorted that out, haven’t needed anything since the rains came mid august

I use anti-histamines for hayfever. This summer I moved house, so my hayfever was a lot worse, and went on for a lot longer. I was taking Loratadine tablets every day.

I felt like absolute carp, and didn’t know why. Generally really tired and had really bad guts (proper green apple splatters 😮 ).

By chance, a packet of tablets ran out so I started a new one which the missus had bought; they were cetirizine hydrochloride. Within a day I felt much better and my guts cleared right up.

Not sure if it was the long termness, or the specific tablet. Never noticed a problem with Loratadine before.

Really looking forward to next years pollen season 😕

Dave

I’ve had Urticaria (hives/itchy rash) for about 9 weeks and the Dr has given me antihistamines (along with several other things). It doesn’t look like clearing up any time soon and I think it will take a long time to work out the cause. In the meantime I’m relying on the antihistamines in order to get through the day. The tablets I’ve got mean that I’ve not been able to drink (I had one can of beer and it stopped the antihistamines working and I nearly scratched my skin off 🙁 ), are there any antihistamines that I can have a beer with as I’m bored of drinks that are full of sugar while in the pub?!

Daily for 10 years plus, Urticaria. Used to cost me a fortune until I found a nice cheap source.

Can’t say I’ve noticed any side effects and it certainly hasn’t interferred with my drinking!

Cetirizine by the way, loratadine doesn’t work out for me.

I’m on a one a day anti histamine and have been for several years. I use the Tesco one pound for 14 tablets.

@JEngledow Have you changed your washing powder or softener? It may be disagreeing with you….

Interesting that several people have mentioned problems with loratadine – it didn’t work out for me either.

I use cetirizine, one per day March – Oct every year and the only problem I get is a little bit of a dry mouth.

Cetirizine should be OK with alcohol, but might not be as strong as whatever your doctor has prescribed.

If I were allergic to a cat such that I had to take medicines on a long term basis, then said cat would be gone.

I had some issues in Sept-Nov 2009 (I think it was now!??) where my face, lips swelled up hugely to the point where I struggled to sleep or eat as my lips were so swollen, then as the day progressed the swelling went down, next night swollen up again! Tried hundreds of anti-histamines and cetirizine is by far the best, initially I took 10mg (1 tablet) a day but was told to up it to 20mg a day. The Dr told me that I could continue taking Cetirzine daily for the rest of my life with relatively few side effects. Interestingly when I mentioned this to a good friend who is a Pharmacist he was a bit shocked as long term studies haven’t really been completed.
However I need to take the Cetirizine to control the swelling and lots of other allergies, I don’t take it every day, as your body will build up a tolerance to it and then you’ll have to take more for it to work. HOwever I use it when I regularly need to without thinking twice about it.

Is it not just more sensible to get rid of the cat if you have an allergy to it? If it’s a proper allergy I imagine you would struggle to be around a cat, rather than it just being an iritant.

As M-chick says, one can build up a tolerance, I think this happened to me with Loratidine. And your sensitivity to cattiness may get worse. I’m increasingly sensitive to planty things, though it’s taken a lot of years to get there.

I haven’t a clue what sets mine off tbh, so many things have changed over the years (pets, houses etc.) that I really can’t think of anything that aggravates it.

Except probably dust, which is pretty unavoidable!

I get my Cetirizine from here, plenty cheap.

JCornford – yes I used to, for my allergy to my GF’s cat.

But then I started using inhalers (brown preventer + occasional blue relief one), and was able to stop using the anti-histamines.

FWIW, Cetrizine and/or Loratidine effectiveness seems to differ among different people.

Someone told me (so must be true!) that the original Pirition had been linked to Alzheimers? Anyway, my mum used to use that a lot in the past and is now starting with said disease, so…