What Makes Curly Coats Hypoallergenic?

I spent half a day at the small animal hospital at Penn yesterday with my limping collie. He has arthritis in his elbows, actually it is relatively mild, and the prescription was for Rimadyl, an anti-inflammatory medicine that has met with some controversy lately. For the time being, I am taking him to my vet today for some more acupuncture and to review the pros and cons of Rimadyl versus baby aspirin. He hardly seems bothered; in fact, I think it hurts me more than him to see him limping.

Anyway, the wait is always a factor when you visit a teaching hospital and while I was waiting for the paperwork after the exam, I hung out in the waiting room where I made the acquaintance of the most adorable miniature labra-doodle puppy. All curls and wags and affection, the little guy was in for food allergy testing and was just a bundle of love. These designer breeds have been around for a while now, their chief benefit being their lack of shedding and hypoallergenic coats. All of which sounded wonderful to me as I picked skeins of collie hair off my clothes, coat and car.

It turns out that there is a horse that is also hypoallergenic and it too has a curly coat. The American Curly Horse, in fact is becoming the rage in Europe and an entire Curly breeding farm has recently opened in France. According to the official web site (where you should go to see a picture of the absolutely wonderful looking animals!), the origins of this breed are unknown but they can still be found in wild mustang herds out West. Their coats are curliest in the winter when they are the longest; in summer many shed out although their manes and tails are usually always curly.

So what is the correlation, if there is one, between curly coats and allergic reactions? I'm guessing it has more to do with the type of dander (or lack thereof) that these curly coats produce but if anyone knows, I'd love to hear from you.

Meanwhile, those curly coated horses, in my opinion, are absolutely spectacular!