As a natural skeptic (and almost never reviewer of the many products purchased from Amazon) and allergy sufferer I was hesitant to give this a try. I am so glad I did. I have a 14 year old golden lab mix that predates the discovery of my allergies, whose bodily allergens antagonize my immune system. Despite allergy shots and a hefty medication regimen, I still experienced significant nasal congestion whenever I would lay on the carpet wherever Ginger may have done the same. After putting down a respectful spray and letting it dry (without vacuuming) I buried my nose right in one of the dog’s favorite sleeping spots and inhaled several breaths through my nose. Typically, nasal congestion would rear its ugly head within a minute or two (after a single breath) and persist until nasal lavage/irrigation. Much to my surprise, my nasal congestion failed to appear. I sprayed the rest of the fabric areas of the house, focusing on Ginger’s prime resting zones thinking “let’s see just how long this lasts”.

That answer turned out to be about 3 weeks. During that time my nightly use of my “rescue” nasal oxymetazoline (Afrin) went to zero (typically 2-4 nights per week). No, I am not tolerant to the effects of Afrin/oxymetazoline (tachyphylaxis) as 1) The 72hr consecutive use warning on the bottle is not well supported among healthy volunteers in the literature and 2) I use a nasal steroid (fluticasone, mometasone, etc) and that seems to prevent oxymetazoline tachyphylaxis. You can search PubMed and stumble upon some scientific articles from which my claims are derived.

Anyways, there are a whole host of additional factors that could have played a role (dog bathing, weather, laundry, other allergen exposure, medication compliance, humidity, etc) but I am not conducting a study for publication so I don’t care. The stuff works for me. I bought the 128oz container and plan on making repeated applications on a monthly basis while tracking my oxymetazoline use. I’m happy I can roll around and play with my kids on the carpet and still be able to breathe afterwards.