When someone in the household has asthma

[Nishi]

Hi all, I have yet another question. Does anyone have experience dealing with rabbits and asthma? I recently found out my new roommate has it. She is arriving in the apartment in a week, so I’d like to make sure she doesn’t have an adverse reaction. I’m not planning to let them roam outside my room. Would people be affected if they never step inside my room? I feed them timothy hay and timothy-based pellets right now and use Equine Pine pellets for litter.  

[Mikey]

I believe it depends on the type of asthma. My asthma is caused by allergies and seasonal. Im perfectly fine around my bunnies, aside from when there is a heavy shed. But that is easily fixed with brushing the buns twice+ a day for about 30 minutes at a time. Plus, it helps the shedding bun not feel overly itchy with all the loose fur The bunny’s hay and all of that doesnt bother me at all. I am only slightly allergic to most animal fur

[Muchelle]

Be sure to keep your room sparkly clean. Even if brushed daily, rabbit fur can (and will) find its way in every crack of your room and it will bother even people that are not allergic/have asthma. So if you’ll be sleeping with the bun, I’d recommend that you get yourself a vacuum cleaner (even a cheap one) so that you won’t have any problem and won’t lose hours cleaning maniacally with a broom.

If the room is “””dirty”” (and so you’d have hair all over your stuff), very sensitive people could still have problems but I sure hope the girl isn’t that sensitive!

But before starting to worry, I’d ask her if she is willing to test separately her reactions to the bun and to the hay, so that if she is particularly susceptible to one of the two you’ll both know what’s the problem. If there will be a problem at all, different kinds of fur/hay can give different reactions to people with the same pathology. For example, I am not allergic to animal fur, but I cannot be with cavalier king dogs, their fur drives me in an endless loop of sneezing!

[Nishi]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Mikey, it’s reassuring to know that you have no issues despite having asthma. Overall, I do like to brush them regularly because I’m not fond of hair all over my clothes even though I get no allergies from them, so I’m already keeping stuff pretty clean.

Muchelle, do you mean that if the room isn’t super clean you think it would affect people outside the room if they’re sensitive? Her room and mine are separated by the kitchen. I will do my best to vacuum frequently, it’s just that when things get busy I slack on cleaning and I sure wouldn’t want to trigger any attacks.

Anyone with experiences with animal allergies, do you still have issues when a pet is kept in a separate room? I am allergic to cats and while I do get rashes and the watery eyes/ runny nose/ miserable feelings if I come into contact or sit in a couch the cat sleeps in, I have never experienced a reaction when the cat is kept elsewhere. Not sure if this is the norm or if I’m just not that allergic.

[Bam]

I have allergic astma to cats. I react to cat hair if I come into contact with them, like if I borrow a sweater from so who has a cat. Then I sneeze and my eyes and nose run and I get rashes and all that, but I don’t get full-blown astma unless I am in the same room as a cat or stay the night in a room where a cat normally lives. The feeling I get is that the air is “thick”.

I have no problem at all with the buns or with my dog. I react to timothy hay with a relentless cough esp at night, so I try to find timothy-free hay (most mixed hays have timothy though).

[Muchelle]

Well, I certainly don’t vacuum everyday, but I have to clean the whole place quite often. My bun is a normal short-hair but has a very very thick underfur and it will fly off everywhere. It gets stuck in the pen, under chairs’ legs, under the doors etc so when I slack off then it takes me a lot of time to go there and pluck by hand all the rolling balls of fur. The best thing to do is not leaving clothes and fabric shoes/slippers laying around, so that you don’t carry outside stray fur when you’re in a busy period and can’t do daily (or bi-daily) mantainance. This long speech to say that there won’t be an avalanche of fur escaping your room if you slack off a bit, but you’ll be more likely to carry it around, especially if you have carpeted rooms or rugs.

The sensation described by bam, the “thick air” is most likely the infinitesimal particles of dust and fur hanging in the air of the house, so be sure to air the apartment regularly to get fresh air in. I’m sure it will all go well, you’re already awesome for worrying about your roomate. Believe me, I know plenty of people that wouldn’t care one bit!

[Reesebun]

Pine is bad for rabbits

[Nishi]

bam, Muchelle, thanks for the input! I think I have a solid plan to keep the fur and stuff contained. Luckily, we have hard wood floors.

ReeseBun, I have read that pine shavings are bad but pine pellets like the ones I have are safe– I can’t remember exactly where, but I got this since it was recommended.

[Azerane]

Posted By ReeseBun on 8/29/2016 8:12 AM

Pine is bad for rabbits

Pine in pelleted form is safe because it’s kiln dried.

My husband has asthma, trigged by cold, allergies, dust, exercise etc. The bunnies are kept in the lounge room. He is ok to be in the room and pet the bunnies. If he pets them too long his chest starts to feel tight, and he avoids going near the cage if I’ve recently added fresh hay, because that’s his main trigger more than the bunny fur. I try to keep it well swept, but mostly vacuumed as sweeping just disperses things. I vacuumed the bunny area about twice a week, and sweep every other day. I intend to get an air purifier with a Hepa filter, but they haven’t been in stock since I got the bunnies, but I’m sure it will help for picking up airborne fur and hay dust.

[Bam]

Yes, pine pellets are fine, it’s the shavings you should avoid. (Chew toys made of pine are safe too, because it takes a long time for a bun to consume them.)

If your bun has normal hair or rex fur, I can recommend lint-rolling. I first brush and pick out loose tufts of hair, then finish off by lint-rolling – and that greatly reduces the amount of environmental fluff. It wouldn’t work very well on a long-haired bunny though.

[Author]

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