I'm so sad - toughest decision

[Michael]

No, it is 100% certain that it is the bird. I already know I am allergic to animals, but I could tolerate my Quaker Parrot ok. I have 2 dogs, and because of them I have to take one type of medication once a day (one shot). Since I got Zoulou, I take 2 shots of 2 types of medication in the morning, 2 at night, 1 in the middle of the night, and 1 or 2 more during the day. Nothing else has changed in my house, and it is a house I've been in for 2 years. I went to 1 shot a day to 10-12 shots a day !

I know this is kind of a simple suggestion, but just offering in case it was overlooked. How often do you bath/shower your parrot? If you shower it rarely, perhaps do it more often. If you do it very often, perhaps do it less. Too much showering could lead to dry skin and flaking, etc which could increase allergies but then again not enough could also spread dust. Perhaps if you could find an ideal amount of showering you'd be able to at least reduce the problem.

Also, could you describe the proximity of the bird/cage to where you sleep and spend most of your time? Perhaps keeping it in another room or covering the cage at night could help things?

[sidech]

No, it is 100% certain that it is the bird. I already know I am allergic to animals, but I could tolerate my Quaker Parrot ok. I have 2 dogs, and because of them I have to take one type of medication once a day (one shot). Since I got Zoulou, I take 2 shots of 2 types of medication in the morning, 2 at night, 1 in the middle of the night, and 1 or 2 more during the day. Nothing else has changed in my house, and it is a house I've been in for 2 years. I went to 1 shot a day to 10-12 shots a day !

I know this is kind of a simple suggestion, but just offering in case it was overlooked. How often do you bath/shower your parrot? If you shower it rarely, perhaps do it more often. If you do it very often, perhaps do it less. Too much showering could lead to dry skin and flaking, etc which could increase allergies but then again not enough could also spread dust. Perhaps if you could find an ideal amount of showering you'd be able to at least reduce the problem.

Also, could you describe the proximity of the bird/cage to where you sleep and spend most of your time? Perhaps keeping it in another room or covering the cage at night could help things?

Thanks for trying to help Michael. I let Zoulou bathe when he wants to. At least two or three times a week I will offer him a bowl of water to bathe in. But he hasn't done it much. Maybe I should go back to putting him in the sink and letting the water drip over him. I'll go do that right now.

As for proximity, his cage is in the corner of my dining room, and my room is about 20-30 feet away. I sleep with the door 90% closed, and he is covered at night.

I have been improving in the last 2 day. I had a slight cold and it is starting to go away. I have been back to about 2-4 doses a day, which is better. What a roller coaster this is...

[Azure Hanyo]

Maybe it was only the cold making things worse? Either way I think it would be of benefit to try bathing him more, as per Michael's suggestion. A second air purifier may be of aid to you as well, if you keep one in the room where your birdie is and one in your bedroom maybe?

Unless someone already said that. Probably. I hope you get to keep him!

[sidech]

Maybe it was only the cold making things worse? Either way I think it would be of benefit to try bathing him more, as per Michael's suggestion. A second air purifier may be of aid to you as well, if you keep one in the room where your birdie is and one in your bedroom maybe?

Unless someone already said that. Probably. I hope you get to keep him!

Yes, the cold was/is making it worse. It's the first time I have it so bad though. Colds always make everything worse. As for the second air purifier, I don't know where I would put it. I have the air conditioning / heater, the dehumidifier and the air purifier running... This is getting a bit much... Although they are not the noisiest by themselves, all three of them make a lot of noise in the house ! I'll see, if I improve a lot, maybe I'll just buy a better air purifier, more powerful and more silent.

[Azure Hanyo]

Maybe it was only the cold making things worse? Either way I think it would be of benefit to try bathing him more, as per Michael's suggestion. A second air purifier may be of aid to you as well, if you keep one in the room where your birdie is and one in your bedroom maybe?

Unless someone already said that. Probably. I hope you get to keep him!

Yes, the cold was/is making it worse. It's the first time I have it so bad though. Colds always make everything worse. As for the second air purifier, I don't know where I would put it. I have the air conditioning / heater, the dehumidifier and the air purifier running... This is getting a bit much... Although they are not the noisiest by themselves, all three of them make a lot of noise in the house ! I'll see, if I improve a lot, maybe I'll just buy a better air purifier, more powerful and more silent.

That does sound like a bit much. Oh I hope it works out!!! Get well soon.

[Michael]

Now I'm no thermodynamics scientist, but I wanted to suggest looking into which way the air is moving with that 10% open door. Regardless, you want to make sure you set up your devices in such a way that air is moving from your room toward the parrot's room and not the other way around.

Another thing, once again a very primitive suggestion but just in case so don't be offended, you should clean the cage bottom very frequently. You see what happens is they shed dust, feathers, and food dust into the bottom. It would be totally fine to let this accumulate for a few days EXCEPT... the parrot gets the urge to do flapping exercises in its cage every day! When it does this, everything that settled to the bottom is blown all over the place. I know I definitely have this problem. So more frequent cleanings (even a quick vacuuming with a handheld, no need to change paper) could help with airborne allergens.

[sidech]

Don't worry, every suggestion is welcome. The air from the air purifier is neither towards my room or the parrot. It is 4-6 feet away from the parrot, facing the wall at a 90degree angle from where Zoulou is. So it is not pushing the dust towards my room, but rather in the kitchen, away from my room and Zoulou. But it's not a big house, only a bungalow, so space is sort of limited.

As for cleaning, the cage gets vaccuumed twice a week, paper changed twice a week and bottom cleaned twice, at least, if not 3 times. Floor gets dusted almost every day. But you're right, the more I clean, the less dust there will be.

At first I was giving myself 1 year to adapt to Zoulou. Sometimes people get used to what they are allergic too. My brother used to be allergic to his cat, but after maybe 6 months or so, it stopped. But he could not be around any other cat. So I was hoping this would be the case with my little one. BUT, of course I can't do that if I'm at the point where I can't even breathe anymore...

[Michael]

Seriously, I'd suggest getting a battery powered hand held vac and vacing out dust from the cage bottom at least daily. To me it seems that is the most congested point of bird dust. It's all falling and collecting there (which is good) but when the bird flaps or falls down, it takes off into the air at maximum concentration.

Could you tell us if those allergy symptoms are present all day for you (as in having the bird in the house is causing symptoms) or is it more specific to having the bird on/around you? I know when I walk into a house with a cat, within 30 mins I'm feeling lousy. 5 mins after getting out I'll feel better again. If it's this same kind of long term thing, then looking into alleviating the worst concentrations of allergens could make it become bearable.

[sidech]

Seriously, I'd suggest getting a battery powered hand held vac and vacing out dust from the cage bottom at least daily. To me it seems that is the most congested point of bird dust. It's all falling and collecting there (which is good) but when the bird flaps or falls down, it takes off into the air at maximum concentration.

Could you tell us if those allergy symptoms are present all day for you (as in having the bird in the house is causing symptoms) or is it more specific to having the bird on/around you? I know when I walk into a house with a cat, within 30 mins I'm feeling lousy. 5 mins after getting out I'll feel better again. If it's this same kind of long term thing, then looking into alleviating the worst concentrations of allergens could make it become bearable.

Yeah, I need one of those anyways. I'lle get one.

The allergies start when I get home, and so they are worse in the evening and on the week-ends. When we have a long week-end, for example, I'm happy to go back to work, because I can't stand it anymore ! I start getting better when I go out the door, and worse when I come back. At home, even if I don't touch him too much. Just by breathing the air in the house, I get asthma. Of course, if I cuddle him, it's worse. Also, when I had my cold, it was to the point where I had to bring my medication to work, because I was having asthma all day, only stopping a few hours when I took my medication. I had a burst of sneezing for at least 1 month, I guess. I was sneezing non-stop when in my house. To the point where I didn't have the time to blow my nose between two sneezes.

So you see, it is not an interesting situation to be in.

But, you never know, sometimes life brings you surprises.