Rita Doppenberg <[log in to unmask]> writes:
[...]
> I noticed that the food looked different. I asked my husband why did it look
> different. He said that last Friday night he was too late to make it to the
> pet store so he stopped at the grocery store and bought a bag of Purina Dog
> Chow! So here I am, off the chair like a shot to check the
> ingredients....sure enough WHEY! My sons most severe anaphylactic allergy is
> to Dairy! We ran him to the sink and washed his hands right away. Now it all
> makes sense. The dog had licked him almost right after eating, thus explains
> the hives. As for the anaphylactic reaction, well I can only speculate that
> this is what it is. Its funny how easy it is to make an innocent mistake
> like this. Normally we are so careful in checking everything but for some
> reason the dog food slipped by. I know our regular brand of food does not
> contain any dairy products but just this one innocent little bag because the
> pet store was closed almost cost my son his life.....

This is a good point.  I am not allergic to _my_ cats, but that's
because I feed them vetrinarian-quality food instead of grocery store
brands.  When we gave them Friskies for a week, I started getting allergic
symptoms again.  The cruddy food had changed their saliva enough that
I started reacting to the cats again.  Went back to good food, no asthma.

I've found the same thing when I visit friends.  If the cat's owners
feed it Iams or Hill's Science Diet, no problem.  Friskies or 9-Lives,
asthma galore.  So it's not just that I'm habituated to _my_ cats.  It's
what we feed to them.

So even if your son isn't allergic to dogs or cats, you have no way
of knowing what their owners feed them.

Lee M.Thompson-Herbert        KD6WUR                  [log in to unmask]
Member, Knights of Xenu (1995).  Chaos Monger and Jill of All Trades.
"There are some people who will argue whether the flames are blue
or green, when the real question is that their arse is on fire."