# Mom thinks I'm allergic to my babies... Grrrr...



## Drakmanka (Jul 27, 2015)

The trouble with being a college student is having to stay at home to keep the bills from outpacing my salary. The trouble with staying at home is mom having hypochondria of the "everyone else has it" variety.
I've been keeping rats for seven years, and I know perfectly well that when a rat has sharp claws, and then decides to scramble across your neck six hundred times, that the skin is going to get red and irritated. My mom used to know this too, until the idea got planted in her head that I might be allergic.
We have a good friend who loves horses, dogs, cats, rats, spiders, fish, and anything else in the animal kingdom. She has always loved my rats, so whenever she visits I always bring them out to say hello, and usually they wind up inside her shirt. A few months ago she noticed the recent scratches on my arm from one of my back-heavy boys losing his balance and scrambling madly to avoid plunging to the ground. She made an innocent comment about it potentially being an allergic reaction, which I quickly dismissed due to being thoroughly familiar with how rat scratches behave.
My mom, on the other hand, took that idea and twisted it around and around and around until she had decided, without any testing of any sort, that I was allergic. There are no two ways about it, in her mind, she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that these "symptoms", that have been showing up since the first time I plopped one of our furry friends onto my shoulder, that I have a "serious allergy" to my rats.
I'm no stranger to allergies. The darn things nearly took my life when I was two years old. My mom is hardly a stranger to treating them, either. That's why I'm a healthy, normal adult today, rather than a sickly, pale, skeletal, wheezing, pathetic excuse for a human being. And yet she continues to assert, without going through any of the normal tests, research and speculation that she normally puts everything like this through, that I have a serious skin allergy to rats.
Not only is her basis for this supposed "fact" a completely normal reaction skin has to getting damaged by rattie claws, but I simply do not have skin allergies. Respiratory, yes. But even my most severe real allergy, Hay Fever, only manifests itself as a rash if I sit naked in the grass for two hours. And that goes away within a half hour of my removing my tender-skinned backside from the grass.
Sadly, because "I live under her house and under her rules" even at age 22, once my current pair passes away, I will be denied bringing home any more rats, all because of this stupid idea she has. I hope that they will have good, long lives, of course, but I especially hope that they survive into my eventual independent life, so I will never have to face the dreaded state of ratlessness.


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## JAnimal (Jul 23, 2014)

Wow... Can you get an allergy test to prove her wrong.


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## Drakmanka (Jul 27, 2015)

JAnimal said:


> Wow... Can you get an allergy test to prove her wrong.


Perhaps, although she may still dismiss it, since "Allergy tests are not always conclusive." Some women, like her, are, as stated in Star Trek, "A mass of conflicting impulses."


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## Ratloved (Oct 4, 2015)

Lol , my mother to a T. However, she lives under my roof now hahaha, the riles changed!!


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## Ratloved (Oct 4, 2015)

Rules have changed....seems I can't type tonight


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## Drakmanka (Jul 27, 2015)

Ahahaha! Awesome.


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

I'm sorry. Just hope to be able to have freedom soon and be out of her home. A nice goal to work towards lol

I am allergic to cats and have 5 of them....


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

Did she dislike the rats before the allergy incident? She could've been waiting for a good reason to deny you having rats. My parents use to do that, not with rats but other things.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

My daughter's friend has an honest to goodness rat allergy. If our girls run on her arm it swells up like a balloon in just a few minutes... no scratches required. By washing the arm the swelling goes down right away. I can't say all rat skin allergies work that way, but from the one I've seen, there's little room for doubt.


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## Drakmanka (Jul 27, 2015)

Fu-Inle said:


> Did she dislike the rats before the allergy incident? She could've been waiting for a good reason to deny you having rats. My parents use to do that, not with rats but other things.


I highly doubt that, considering the fact that she was the one who suggested I get rats... I had wanted to get a lizard but she didn't want me to keep crickets in the house to feed it, and since rats eat nice, neat little blocks of dried food, they were her go-to alternative.;D


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## Drakmanka (Jul 27, 2015)

Rat Daddy said:


> My daughter's friend has an honest to goodness rat allergy. If our girls run on her arm it swells up like a balloon in just a few minutes... no scratches required. By washing the arm the swelling goes down right away. I can't say all rat skin allergies work that way, but from the one I've seen, there's little room for doubt.


That's interesting. I wonder if I can find some articles documenting those sorts of allergic reactions and show her the difference between my scratched skin and just a reaction to the fur.


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## Kate94 (Oct 31, 2015)

I'm allergic to rats and I've owned 10 over the last few years, I take an antihistamine every day before handling them or cleaning out their cage, and make sure that I wear long sleeved tops to reduce any reaction on my skin. Normally when my body decides that it's allergic to something then it's the death of me, cats for example, within 10 minutes my throat closes up and I can't breathe, tablets before handling my rats however do a great job and at worse I'm just sat in mild discomfort with the odd sneeze. At least your mum hasn't outright told you to re-home them, that would be harsh :/


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## Drakmanka (Jul 27, 2015)

Kate94 said:


> I'm allergic to rats and I've owned 10 over the last few years, I take an antihistamine every day before handling them or cleaning out their cage, and make sure that I wear long sleeved tops to reduce any reaction on my skin. Normally when my body decides that it's allergic to something then it's the death of me, cats for example, within 10 minutes my throat closes up and I can't breathe, tablets before handling my rats however do a great job and at worse I'm just sat in mild discomfort with the odd sneeze. At least your mum hasn't outright told you to re-home them, that would be harsh :/


Oh my, I'm glad you're able to keep it under control enough that you can still enjoy them.
I'm glad of that, too. I know I'm not allergic, and thankfully she now seems to be slowly letting go of the idea as well.


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