animal fur... what do you do to keep it out of everything?

mom2case · February 2011

DH said this morning that we need to brush the cats daily because he doesn't want their fur getting into our baby's respiratory system. I think we need to vacuum every day because even after brushing them, fur still flies off of them. So, what do you do to keep animal fur off of everything?

AlphaKat · February 2011

I have no solution, but we are in the same boat. Poor DS gets fur in his mouth all the time, and our pets don't even shed that much! In a perfect world I suppose I would vacuum every day and run a lint-roller over everything. But who has the time to do that!?

Kierasmommy09 · February 2011

I got so tired of it I shaved my dogs HAHA. Summer time is coming so they should be fine Wink

Seriously though, after I shaved them the male seemed to shed less, the female just has rediculously thick fur and I don't think there is any stopping that for her. Otherwise you will spend looooots of time brushing pets and vacuuming =/

AllisaurusRex · February 2011

Kierasmommy09:
I got so tired of it I shaved my dogs HAHA. Summer time is coming so they should be fine Seriously though, after I shaved them the male seemed to shed less, the female just has rediculously thick fur and I don't think there is any stopping that for her. Otherwise you will spend looooots of time brushing pets and vacuuming =/

What breed are your dogs? There are certain breeds that should be shaved, and if your dogs are of one of those breeds then great, but in general shaving a dog's fur off is bad for them. Not only does their fur keep them warm in the winter but it also keeps them cool in the summer. A shaved dog runs the risk of overheating and also of getting badly sunburnt (their skin for most part is never exposed to sun so therefore is very sensitive to it). If your dogs are strictly indoor dogs then they should be okay, assuming that your house stays comfortably cool, but monitor their outside time because overheating can happen quickly and sunburn can happen even faster. Not flaming or anything, just letting you know. It's a good idea in theory but I would hate for something to happen to your dogs.

And for us, we put hard wood floors in LO's room along with an air purifier. Between the 2 it seems to help, though it's not perfect. It will probably be better once we finish replacing the carpets in the rest of the house (we plan to have that done before LO is crawling). But like PP said, no one has time to brush their pets and vaccuum daily.

momofmanyinthemitten · February 2011

Get rid of them? I'm allergic to most animals and so is DH, so I'm a little biased

rdhmama79 · February 2011

With two cats and a dog, I think we are doomed to have animal fur on everything all the time. We vacuum every other day, and brush all the animals daily. Still fur everywhere.

Mrslovebugs · February 2011

kielpinskim:
Get rid of them? I'm allergic to most animals and so is DH, so I'm a little biased

This is ridiculous. Her pets were her family before the baby got there. It angers me to no end when people get rid of their pets because they had a baby or got pregnant and don't want to deal with them anymore.

I had a major melt down the first night home because of this issue(thanks hormones!). I remember going to bed with LO (we were bed sharing at that time) and jumping out of bed crying my eyes out, like sobbing. DH comes in asking what is wrong, and I was just like "There is freaking cat hair EVERYWHERE!" I was so overwhelmed. Not only were my dogs sooo excited and hyper (my Boston Terrier was literally foaming at the mouth she was so excited to see us after being gone for 4 days), plus they thought the baby was a toy every time she cried or something. They don't shed too much. I have a Shih Tzu which doesn't really shed at all, and the Boston has short hair... the problem is my cat. She sheds a lot.

Vacuuming more often and washing the curtains, sheets, etc more often too. And I just make sure her binky and bottle nipples are hair free before putting them in her mouth.

Strunella · February 2011

We have a long hair cat, and her fur is everywhere. We put a floor in LO's room to help keep things a bit cleaner. I do brush her, but not every day. She also sleeps in our bed, a habit too far gone to break now. Guess we'll have to be more on top of it once LO becomes mobile. But honestly, I also think that fur is just a part of our family life and will have to be part of LO's life too.

mom2case · February 2011

The thought of becoming a cleaning maniac to battle the cat fur never occurred to me. DH just woke up this morning thinking we need to do something different once the baby comes. We're used to fur everywhere and both grew up in homes with pets. I don't think our parents ever worried about it too much. I think it will be a bigger problem when LO becomes mobile, but we have hardwood floors so maybe it won't be so bad...

Thanks for all of the advice though! I'll just deal with the fur like I always have and let DH become the cleaning freak if he wants to, lol.

bethandjoe09 · February 2011

If it helps, there's currently a theory that we've actually become TOO clean and it's increasing the rate of allergies. Basically, our immune systems evolved in an environment where they were regularly called upon to defend us against bacteria/viruses/parasites. Now our houses are so clean that they don't encounter those things at the same rate, so they find other, harmless, things to attack. The result is an increase in allergies.

Not that I'm advocating shoving cat hair in your kid's mouth or stopping all vacuuming, but I wouldn't feel too guilty about the occasional stray hair-in-mouth.