Is there any alternative to surrendering?

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Fink

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Just looking for some advice:

We have a bonded pair of female guinea pigs aged 2 1/2 years. I have always had a slight allergy to the hay (like permanent low-level hayfever) and to the pigs' hair, and another member of the household has a stronger form of this and completely keeps out of their way. Unfortunately, over the past six months, my childhood asthma has returned quite badly, and is really exacerbated by the hay. Before this, I was the primary carer. This leaves the cleaning and most of the care of the pigs to a teenager and an elderly relative, neither of whom have the time to really give them lots of cuddles and attention, although they are kept clean and healthy. I also worry about the elderly relative doing the bulk of the care as she is a bit frail and has had a couple of falls while carrying the pigs, one of which resulted in a badly broken arm. Just to clarify: my allergy to the hair hasn't got any worse, as far as I can tell, it's my allergy to the hay that is really flairing up.

We would really hate to give them up, as we do love them, but I'm not sure I can see another way out and I don't know how long the current situation will be viable for long term, although there's no immediate need to hurry into a decision.

They live outdoors all year round, so we've already done what we can to not have hay in the house.

I guess I just wanted some advice about what else we could do to mitigate the health problems before having to go with the nuclear option of surrendering them for adoption. Does anyone have any ideas?

And I also wondered what the adoption process was like, e.g. do you think they would find a new home, since they're not juveniles? Would it take a while? I would hate to think of them being in a crowded rescue centre for months on end, and potentially being stressed and unhappy. If I thought that they would quickly find a new, loving, owner, it would be less bad. They are in good health and very good natured so they would still make someone excellent pets, but I worry that people might only want to adopt young pigs.

Does anyone have any thoughts, please?
 
I'm sorry you've found yourself in this situation.

What kind of hay are you using? I find I am extremely allergic to timothy, to the point even having it in the house makes my throat and chest tight, so I only buy that in emergencies. Switching to a different type of hay may help, orchard and meadow seems to be the least allergy inducing to most, especially if bought locally.

Other than that, over the years I've had to resort to wearing face masks, long sleeves, disposable gloves etc when cleaning out their cages. On top of medication of course, luckily over the counter antihistamines have always been enough to get me back to something comfortable although only if taken religiously every day.

Try to keep in mind, handling and cuddles are for our benefit, as long as they have at least one friend and everything they need in their cage, they don't benefit from coming out for a cuddle so don't make yourself feel bad for not doing so if it's making you ill!
 
Thanks. I use Meadow hay but it's not local. We live in London with no farms nearby so it's bought over the internet. Is there any particular brand you'd recommend?

I do wear gloves and an apron to cover my clothes. I used to wear masks but they're really uncomfortable at the moment because my breathing is already laboured. I'm on a steroid preventer inhaler as well as a reliever inhaler, which do help.
 
Have you tried orchard hay? It’s worth trying a variety, Timothy hay makes me wheeze too. I wear gardening gloves to clean them out as a couple of years ago I developed a dreadful skin rash on my hands and had to wear cotton gloves and use steroid cream while they eventually healed up. It is horrible when you are allergic to the hay or them. I’m not sure if your doctor could prescribe a long term antihistamine you could take?
 
I’m horrifically allergic to Timothy hay and mildly to meadow hay I use orchard hay from www.timothyhay.co.uk and have been done with that. My boys live inside and I was having similar issues with hay triggering my asthma. I took prescription anti histamines for about 18 months and stopped taking them due to covid and some weird symptoms and have only had to go back in the summer. My pigs live inside and I have no issues now, but I have always stuck to the orchard hay. You can actually buy the antihistamine over the counter now, they are called allevia, however the higher strength ones are still prescription only.
 
I'll try that orchard hay, thanks.

I was on daily antihistamines, first OTC then prescribed, but my body developed a tolerance for them so they stopped working. The doctor advised that I should now just take them on days when I've got bad symptoms within a short while of waking up rather than everyday, so that they'll still be effective when I really need them.
 
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