[Buggie_00]

I have a 6 year old who has had asthma since he was 2 weeks old. He doesn't USUALLY have a problem with the guinea pigs because we take a lot of precautions. Any time he plays with them (supervised of course) he has to keep them away from his face, and then change his shirt and wash his hands immediately after he's done petting them. He doesn't really mess with them all that much, they're "his" pets in name only. He helps to give them veggies every evening and makes sure they have water and pets them, but I do the cleaning and other maintenance.

I'm getting to the point I promise.

So far we've avoided any piggie induced asthma attacks. We had one incident where he got really wheezy and we made him stop then and there and broke out the nebulizer which helped a great deal. We returned from a long weekend in Florida later yesterday evening and the second we walked in the door he started having problems. It was almost instantaneous. He started saying his neck was really itchy, which is usually an indication that his allergies are starting to give him trouble. Then out of no where an attack hit. We tried the emergency inhaler and nebulizer but ended up in the emergency room with him since nothing worked. The ER doctor said it was more than likely brought on by the guinea pigs and to take him to see an allergist. We have an appointment for that next week.

The thing I have trouble with is that we had someone over here every day while we were gone, the fans were on and the windows were opened for a few hours everyday while she was here. It's not like the whole apartment was closed up and there was no circulation and the allergens built up.

If anyone has any suggestions on what I can do to avoid having to re-home my girls I would greatly appreciate it. I'm so distressed over it all. In the end if it comes down to his health or my girls I know I have to chose him. I just feel terrible about even thinking that I might have to do that.

Just for info, I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, we have several large windows that we open to let fresh air in and fans that help with circulation too. I change the AC filter monthly as suggested and we vacuum after the kids are in bed so that any dander that gets stirred up has time to settle before they're up in the morning. He's home all day now because of summer and hadn't had any problems until he was out of the house for a few days and then returned. I'm worried with school starting in a few weeks and him being gone most of the day when he gets home from school he'll have a problem.

Any advice would be immensely appreciated!