Cats shed microscopic pieces of dead skin to make way for newer, healthier skin. These flakes are called dander and are one of the most potent allergens known. Here are 7 other facts about it that will help you understand it better and treat it effectively.
What you can’t see can be a problem. There’s an old saying that what you don’t know won’t hurt you. But if you’re sensitive to the protein found in these flakes of dead skin, you don’t need to tell your body it’s there. And it can definitely hurt your quality of life by causing sneezing, wheezing, itchy, watery eyes, and nasal congestion. Because these particles are microscopic, they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Don’t let that give you a false sense of security about air quality.
There is no way to get rid of it. Replacing old skin with newer skin that is better able to protect the body against disease and infection is the body’s ingenious way of keeping your dog as healthy as possible. So this process is normal for all warm-blooded animals. That means it’s a fact of life as long as you have your pet.
Brushing your cat can help minimize the amount of dander on your cat. That means there’s less to clamp down to furniture and fly around with daily activities. Feeding him a healthy diet can also help keep the skin healthier and reduce unusually high amounts of shedding due to inadequate nutrients.
Every cat produces it. There is no cat that does not produce dandruff. Even with minimal hair, this skin rejuvenation process continues. And while hair and fur aren’t the actual allergens, because dander is sticky stuff, it often sticks to these particles and makes it look like these large particles are the allergens.
Removing hair and other particles can help. In addition to pet-related pollutants, there are a number of particles found in indoor spaces, regardless of how clean they are. They include dust, dust mites, mold and mildew spores, seasonal pollen, bacteria, and viruses.
By reducing the number of airborne particles, you also reduce the microscopic particles (dander, bacteria, and viruses) that use them to travel from one host to another. That means it can remove particles of various sizes. And that’s a good thing.
Filtering the air is the most reliable way to reduce dander. A High Efficiency Particulate Arrest (HEPA) filter is specifically designed to remove airborne particles that are 0.3 microns or larger in size. A micron is defined as one millionth of a meter that is considerably smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
Nothing will remove all airborne particles. But by continually filtering the air of normal pollutants, as well as those your cat generates, you’ll dramatically reduce respiratory problems that can be caused by the protein in dander.