If you have information about goat allergies, please let me know.
Here are some products made from goat or goat's milk.
I am allergic to Goat's and Sheep's Milk (but not Cow's Milk!) and this is confirmed by allergy testing. So having done some research and in the process I found your site, and I was intrigued. I have been told for years that it's impossible to be allergic to Goat's Milk and not Cow's Milk and thought I was the only one breaking the "allergy rules!" Nice to know I'm not alone! However, your list of Goat and Sheep Milk cheeses is a little limited for my taste.
I have never reacted to a Goat or sheep as an animal, however I have not yet been tested and it has been some time since I have been exposed. I also may have recently had a reaction to a wool sweater, but it could have been a laundry detergent as I am sensitive to many detergents, dyes and fragrances. Nevertheless, I have a very strong reaction to the milk and cheese. Most recently, my sister was holding my niece and eating a Greek Salad with Feta cheese on it. She then asked me to hold the baby at which point I broke out in hives and quickly had sinus symptoms, red eyes and a scratchy throat. Even this miniscule amount that was not visible to the naked eye caused a reaction, and I felt absolutely awful for a full week. Also recently, I was holding my friends' infant son and he spat up a little on my hand. My hand swelled up instantly and it turns out the starter for his homemade infant formula is made from Goat's Milk! So you can see why I am so cautious and have such an extensive list at the ready!
Thanks for keeping your site running, it's so important to know you're not alone when you discover such an unusual allergy!
AF writes: I have a severe allergy to goats and goats products. I discovered this through regularly travelling to Turkey. I was fine eating feta cheese for several holidays it was when I returned home and purchased a hat, which at the time I didn't realise contained some sort of goat wool and I reacted, quite mildly compared to how I react now. It then went to a pizza i'd bought in a supermarket which had feta on it, I soon reacted to that.
On my next trip to Turkey I ate my favourite three-cheese pizza and reacted, this time a little worse than before. I started with itchy hands, then my eyes, my skin becoming very hot, red and incredibly itchy and then the swelling, my eyes, hands, nose and lips. As soon as I returned I made an appointment at the doctors and was referred to an immunologist who has adamant I could not possibly be allergic to goats and came up with some long winded excuse as to why my body was creating this reaction.
So after this I went straight to the supermarket, purchased some feta and ate it, within ten minutes I was having an horrific reaction. The next day I called the immunologist and explained what had happened and he asked for the ingredients and asked me to return with samples of goats cheese so they could test me. We did that and of course it came back that I was in fact allergic to goats. The doctor was amazed, he'd never come across such an allergy before. Each reaction I had was becoming worse, I was avoiding goats products at all costs but as I do spend a lot of time in Turkey it's impossible to always know what I am eating. On my most recent visit in April I inadvertently caused a reaction by eating cheese cake, it had not ocurred to me that it contained goats milk/cream. Within about an hour I was having the worst reaction to say I had bearly had a tea-spoon full of it. This time my chest tightened and my throat began to close, eventually I was able to vomit which seemed to stop the reaction getting worse but I remained swollen for at least a further twenty four hours.