This is a bit scary. A fly tying allergy possibility is much more common than I thought. When the sneeze attack occurred, I was making dubbing from zonker strips in a coffee grinder. I will go “back to the bench” to see if I react again to the rabbit fur. I was also using marabou and that can be really fluffy too. The search for the cause will continue and I am not going to give up tying and let the dust collect on the bench.
caribe
You might try wearing a dust mask for woodworkers and see if that helps. If it just irritation from inhaling particles it should do the trick.
I can think of few acts more selfish than refusing a vaccination.
A dust mask sounds like a good idea. I want to stay away from the medication if at all possible.
caribe
I have had allergies all my life,,, Severe, with a capital S, to most kinds of animal dander and to a lesser extent, fur. Dogs are strictly off limits to me, to the point of contact causing hives and swelling, asthma, eyes turning red and swelling, etc. Sometimes just being around people who own dogs and leave dog residue on their clothes causes me problems. When I did a lot of coyote hunting, I had to wear a mask, gloves, and goggles when handling them. A sneezing fit ain't nothin'....
Rabbit fur dubbing is strictly a no-go for my flies. Learned that early on. Thank God for the amount of synthetic materials we have today. I use that as another excuse, other than the weight of soaked fur, as to why I don't like rabbit strip flies. Actually the strips aren't too bad, but dubbing? Forget about it.
Stay away from allergy meds? Yeah right, I wish. When I was a kid, I started on the "desensitisation" road with a shots which were supposed to help, dam' near killed me. The meds have come a long way for offering relief without the side effects of the older - but very effective - stuff like benadryl.
To the simpleton, proof does not matter once emotion takes hold of an issue.
The dust mask will probably not help if the problem is serious allergies but sneezing without other symptoms makes me think that the problem might be irritation similar to inhaling pepper.
I can think of few acts more selfish than refusing a vaccination.
I tied some flies last night without the rabbit fur with no allergy symptoms. I may have found the culprit. Thanks for all the suggestions. The zonker strips, hares mask, and rabbit dubbing are now in sealed containers. I can live with not using rabbit as long as I can still use squirrel. Here in Wisconsin not being able to tie pink squirrels would be downright tragic.
caribe
I run a special air cleaner. On top of that, the Doctor found that I do have Contact Dermatitis. I have to use two types of creams (prescription), and am supposed to wear cotton gloves at night. All of this has not stopped me from tying since that is my side business and a passion. As to outdoors, I find that I breath much easier up in the Mountains. A lot to be said about good clean Mountain air !!!!!!!!!!!
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