# Gender Allergies?



## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Okay this may be a really dumb question, but can a person be allergic to female rats and not male, or vice versa? My boys' previous owner said her husband was severely allergic to the boys, but that she had had female rats before. I know people are allergic to cats, dogs, etc, but I've never heard of people being allergic to only male cats but not female, same thing with rats. Does gender specific allergy really exist? The boys DID really stink when I first got them, but they were also fed crap and weren't litter trained and I don't know how often she cleaned their cage or anything. Now that they're under my care they barely smell. Was she just saying this to pawn them off?


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Rat allergies are usually to urine. Males can mark more, and that can stink on too high of a protein diet. Thus, worse allergy symptoms.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Oh okay I see. She was saying that whenever she touched them she had to shower and change her clothes the allergies were so bad 


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## delilahrene (Nov 1, 2013)

My boys pee on each other and all their items, so his allergies could have seemed worse with the boys. I get nasty rashes when my boys walk on me because they get urine from the feet into the scratches their nails cause. He would still be allergic to the females, but if they are cleaner the symptoms would not be as strong especially if he is only indirectly exposed to them through his wife.


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## LittleSparrow (Apr 14, 2014)

My husband gets hives after holding our male rat, but he doesn't get hives when he holds our females. I'm thinking it could be an allergy to either the urine or maybe buck grease? We have a bunch of girls, who pee on each other all the time. Naughty girls.. And only 1 male rat at the moment, who lives alone. Though I don't know if it's allergies to the urine, considering he has been peed on by both genders, on his bare skin, and not reacted after that. It's only after he cuddles them.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

People will make anything up to get rid of animals they no longer want.

No such thing as gender allergies.


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## Leraine (Feb 21, 2014)

I have so far completed over two years (of the 4 required for a medical degree) of medical school, and can say with certainty that it is possible to be allergic to just one gender of animals. In fact, I have heard of people who are allergic to male rats and not female rats. This makes sense, as male rats produce proteins that female rats do not produce. As further evidence, allergens (which are defined as a substance that generates an allergic reaction) can be proteins. (Think of allergens as aller-gens, or allergy GENerators). Therefore, it is entirely possible for people to be allergic to just one gender of rats. 

If you are not yet convinced, the evidence lies in understanding a little bit of chemistry, and in understanding the pathophysiology of the allergic reaction.

I explained this further in an older post. Let me see if I can dig it up for you.


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## Leraine (Feb 21, 2014)

Found the thread. I'll copy and paste what I wrote here. 

"Yes it's definitely possible to be just allergic to one sex. 

I too, am allergic to dogs, cats, dust, pollen, birds, etc. I currently have a female rat that I don't think I am allergic to, but over a decade ago, when I had a male rat, I was EXTREMELY allergic! It got so bad, that after a few months, I started coughing up blood. 
So, before getting rats this time around, though, I did my research on allergies, and I learned that some of my own actions were making my allergies worse, and that people are allergic to male rats but not to female rats! (I will explain later why this is possible scientifically in case you are interested)*

I'm sure you're aware that males like to urine mark their cage to get their scent on their things. As a young girl, I made the mistake of thinking that cleaning the cage more often would reduce my allergies, so I changed my rats bedding every day. I would take ALL of the old bedding out and put in completely new bedding every 24 hours. This actually makes things worse, because I'd be removing my rats' scent from their cage, which made them increase urine marking to compensate. This is one reason why some rat books suggest keeping some of the old bedding when you clean the cage, and putting it back in, so that the rats feel secure knowing that their cage still smells like them, so they don't feel as compelled to go crazy urine marking in their freshly cleaned cage. 

My second mistake was keeping the rats in my bedroom. I spent most of my waking hours in there, not to mention a lot of my sleeping hours. I'm not sure if you keep your rats in your bedroom. Even if you spend, say, 3 hours a day in the living room per day, it may be better to keep the rats in there than in your bedroom, because you will probably spend way more than 3 hours in the bedroom. 

I am not sure from your post if you are experiencing allergy symptoms due to airborne allergens (coughing, sneezing, possibly itchy eyes) or if it's just from physical contact (skin symptoms, possibly itchy eyes if you touch your eyes before washing your hands). If it's from airborne allergens, it may be helpful for you to get a certain type of air filter, like a HEPA filter. I would AVOID ionizing filters as I heard that this is unhealthy for rats. I also think I heard that ionizing air filters are dangerous to humans too, because they input ozone into the air. 

Some relevant links: 
I found this forum post where people discuss being allergic to male rats instead of female rats.
http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=24960

Here is a very thorough guide to dealing with rat allergies, with some tips on how to decrease the symptoms you may experience. 
http://ratfanclub.org/allergy.html

*If you're interested in why it's possible to be allergic to just one gender of a species, particularly rats: 
An allergy is basically an immune response to something. People usually call this something an "allergen." Your immune system is what enables your body to fight off infectious microbes, like fungi, viruses and bacteria. It does this by using these proteins called antibodies, which your body can create. (Although infants can sometimes get antibodies from their mothers, and you can also get antibodies injected into you to treat certain problems, but that's another story). So you have these cool things called antibodies, and they can either be free floating or attached to certain cells of your immune system. 

Now, when an infectious bug enters your body, it can have these things on its surface called "antigens" that can fit (the way a key fits into a lock) into some of your antibodies, which can then triggers an immune response, which will lead to symptoms such as fever, cough, sniffles...So some bug is floating around in your body with these antigens on its surface, and when it happens to meet one of your antibodies that it fits into, it triggers a whole cascade of immune activities. 

Antigen stands for *anti*body* gen*erator*. *This is because when an antigen binds with an antibody, one of the events it can lead to is mass production of that same antibody. It's your body's way of saying hey, there's an intruder here with this antigen, and this antibody happens to recognize it, so we better make a lot of this particular antibody in order to clear out all the similar intruders. 

Sometimes, though, your body will happen to contain antibodies that fit with harmless antigens - like rat bits (fur, dander, urine, saliva) - instead of a harmful antigen like microbe bits. The same events happen, though, and you then end up having similar reactions (sneezes and sniffles) as if you actually were infected by something harmful. 

Now onto why this can happen with male rats only: 

Those antigens in your rats fur, saliva, skin, urine, etc, can be composed of proteins. So if you're allergic to one of those proteins that are in male rats and not female rats, you'll be fine being around does but not around bucks. There are definitely certain proteins that exist just in male rats and not in females. This is actually one of the reasons why you citrus fruits and mangoes should NOT be fed to male rats. These fruits contain a hydrocarbon called d-limonene. Only male rats have a protein in their kidney that will react with d-limonene in a way that can lead to cancer or kidney damage. Female rats do not have that particular protein in their kidney, so it's okay to feed them those fruits. 

I'm not saying that this particular kidney protein is the antigen people are reacting to when they're allergic to rats, but it's one clear example of how certain proteins exist in males but not females. And since proteins are are often generators of immune response, it is completely possible for somebody to be allergic to just one gender of rats."

In case you are interested, this is the source thread. http://www.ratforum.com/showthread....g-an-allergy-to-my-rats&p=1206929#post1206929


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## Leraine (Feb 21, 2014)

If you want documented cases of such an event: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergy_to_cats#Cat_gender_and_color
"Female cats produce a lower level of allergens than males, and neutered males produce a lower level of allergens than unaltered males."


Since the females produce lower levels of allergens than (intact) males, it's possible that a person can have allergic reactions to just the male and not the female cat, if that person's threshold for an allergic reaction is between the difference in allergen amount from male and female cats.


This article http://www.asthmacenter.com/index.php/News/details/pet_allergy/ states "Male cats and dogs have greater amounts of secretion and are often more allergenic than females or neutered males."


Again, if the person's threshold for allergies is in between the difference of male allergen amount minus female allergen amount, then they would have an allergic reaction to the male animal, and not the female.


One last, but very bizarre and tragic example of allergies to just one sex is this story, which may not be safe for work. http://www.thejournal.ie/woman-died-from-allergic-reaction-to-sex-with-dog-172620-Jul2011/
A woman had an allergic reaction to the semen from a dog. Her allergy was so severe that she died from the complications. Female dogs do not produce semen, so this is an indisputable example. In this case, the semen was the allergen, and was a substance that the opposite gender of the same species can not produce).


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## Sheldon (Nov 1, 2013)

I am allergic to unaltered males because of the extra proteins they make and secrete in their urine. I can handle females and neutered males just fine but if a boy still has his goolies…man I can barely breathe.


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## Caseybnature (Jan 20, 2021)

cagedbirdsinging said:


> People will make anything up to get rid of animals they no longer want.
> 
> No such thing as gender allergies.


Actually, I just got male and female rats today(in separate cages) and I played with the girls with no problems, but with the boys I had a BIG allergic reaction. My throat constricted and breathing was difficult for a few hours after playing with them.


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