Chihuahuas help with asthma??
 

I recently stopped a friend from buying a dog at a pet store... she called to ask if I knew where they could find a dog, and mentioned they had gone to PetCo looking for one. Thank God she called me!

Her son has terrible asthma - we're talking hospitals 2 times a month kind of terrible - and he's only 2 years old. She has heard from several sources that Chihuahuas help (specifically children) with asthma. I've never heard this, but I looked online and found differing opinions. Anyone know anything about this?

I have heard this same thing when I was young , a neighboor of ours had Chi and she had told my mom this same thing. I dont know if its true or not, I do know my Hubby and son both have asthma and we did have a Chi years ago, but it was a mix but it never helped them.
One lady had even told us if the Chi lays on the childs chest the asthma goes from the child and into the dog. I find that weird .

That does sound a little strange... Chi's tend to have upper respiratory problems to begin with, but osmosis? I don't think so!

That does sould weird, but uo nevef know.

I have heard they are hgood fir this also, but I have always believed it to be an old wives tale. If true I would not want to guve asthma to a poor dog. Seems cruel.

My deceased aunt swore by this. She had terrible asthma and someone had told her this. That the chi will take the asthma away. She had two she bought and as a child, I saw her start to have an asthma attack and pull the chi's almost right to her face in her arms and in a few minutes she would be fine. i know a lot of old wives tales really do work. AND the dogs never got sick. both died of old age.

i think it is a bit of an old wives tale - they are good dogs to have if you suffer from asthma ~ my brother has quite bad asthma and cat and dog fur really makes him bad but he has 2 smooth coat chis and is fine, i wouldnt say its helped his asthma the dogs just dont bring it on as bad as other animals do :) they are adorable and loyal pets though, highly recommended :D

In our case, It was true. My son, Paul (23 now) had asthma really bad. At the age of 2, we had been to the ER 24 times in less than a year. We had the nebulizer etc. We had this fantastic specialist tell us that there is no proven data but that he has several patients that went and got Chihuahuas and noticed a significant difference in the asthma attacks. Well, let me tell you, when you watch the ER doctor inject this long needle into your baby's chest while he has blue lips and nail beds from not being able to breathe- you will try anything. So we looked around and found this breeder and got Pablo. It was the best thing we ever did. The asthma attacks did not go away but they did lessen significantly. We let Pablo sleep with Paul. They were the best buddies. Pablo passed at the age of 15.

Pablo never got asthma...Never heard of that. The breeder we got Pablo from said it is something to do with the dander of a Chihuahua. That she had sold several pups to people looking for help like us.

So this was our experience...

l found this Sarah it is good to read.... the Chi thing is down aways.
http://pcca.net/Asthma_MedicalTopics.html

I haven't done any checking on the Chi thing, but I do know there are studies that say if you have a pet in your house from a young age, children are less likely to develope allergic reactions to things because they've already been initiated by the pet.

We ought to be able to Google that and get some more info.

Thats what I did Susie :) LOL the link in my above post ;)

I meant Google about the research on dogs in general helping with allergies.

When I was a kid, I had a friend with asthma that got a chihuahua for this reason. I was actually thinking about this recently and wondering how true it was. I just don't see how a chihuahua could actually help with asthma. The only thing I can think of is the power of suggestion. Someone gets a chihuahua truly believing that it will help with their asthma...and because they believe this, it actually does help...not because the chihuahua actually does anything but because the person's body responds to the brain telling it that the chihuahua is helping. This is why drug studies are done using both the actual drug and a placebo (fake) pill. Sometimes people thinking they are receiving treatment, actually makes them think they are feeling the effects of it. There was a "House" episode last season where they were on an airplane and one of the passengers got really sick. Well they thought it was some major disease and several passengers developed the same symptoms. Well, it turned out those other passengers only developed those symptoms because they believed they were exposed to this terrible disease. Just a fictional episode but it really happens. By believing in something, it can have a major effect on you.

So, here's a little research on Google. couldn't get the JAMA article on asthma cause I forgot to bring home my password. I'll see if I can remember to check it out at work tomorrow.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/288/8/963

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...%20Association

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/63/72039.htm