tracyree,
     I am so sorry to hear of the sad situation you find yourself in.  When he was very young, my son also had an allergy to cats and dogs, so I know how it can make you feel.  I was much more fortunate, though, since treatment with desensitization allergy shots allowed him to overcome his symptoms and we were able to keep our cat and he lived with cats until he was an adult and left home.  Has your son had any treatment such as this?  It does take some time to work, so it may not prevent you from having to find homes for your cats right now if his symptoms are severe.  But, it might help him in the future because he will no doubt have many occasions to be in contact with cats throughout his life. 
     At first I didn't see that you posted your location in your title, and was going to suggest that.  So, if there is anyone in Tennessee that can help, please post here for tracyree to see.  Tracyree, in order for anyone to contact you by PM if they are interested, you will have to post at least a total of 5 posts here.  So, I suggest that you see where you could do some posting in other threads in order to meet that requirement for Newbies.  Welcome to Itchmo and good luck finding good homes for your beautiful kitties.  I do understand that this is a horribly difficult decision for you to make.    

tracyree when I was that age I had no allergies at all and adopted a lot of stray cats which my beloved grandma tolerated even though she was very allergic to them. Maybe your son would outgrow the allergies. And you might want to go over to dogtorJ.com or .net and read the section on lectins. These are foods that antagonize the body and maybe your son is having a reaction to a particular food and not the cats after all. Just a thought to help you out.

Thank you all. 

We have not done desensitation shots.  Our allergist won't do them on such a young child and I don't think I could put him through it either.

I've already asked all my friends/family.  Seems like everyone is either allergic or already has a housefull of cats.

Thank you.  I have made up flyers for the vet's office that we'll be dropping off today.

We've been really working to get the dander out already, it has been so much work.  We've moved the cats downstairs in their own room.  Downstairs os on a seperate a/c system, so hoepfully that will keep the upstairs from being "reinfected".   I shampooed all the carpeting with AllerSafe carpet shampoo that is supposed to neutralize the animal dander.  I've been  mopping walls and washed the couch cushion covers.  Everything I can throw in the washing machine is beign washed.   

We are in the process of building a new home, so will be moving in a year.  I'm looking forward to that as that house will be dander free (except for any that gets in on our things).  CLeaning dander is pretty overwhelming, it's airborne, sticky and can be "active" for 10 years!!

tracyree,
      I'm sorry that your allergist won't consider the shots.  It is really not a difficult treatment, and kids get used to it very quickly.  Since you are apparently seeing an allergist, can I assume that your son has had the skin tests to determine exactly everything he may be allergic to?  These tests consist of injecting a tiny bit of various substances under the skin and looking for a reaction to determine what things a person is allergic to.  Usually, it is more than one thing.  It may be dust, molds, various trees, grasses, etc. as well as animals.  There are many, many substances that are tested for.  Knowing this makes it easier to look at the environment to make sure that contact with all of these things can be avoided.  I know from experience that this is a problem that has to be attacked from all sides and, for sure, understand the difficulty of cleaning up the home to lessen the impact of the problem. 
      Again, I am so sorry you are having to deal with this, and I truly hope you can find a solution to finding a loving home for your kitties.  For now, though, even living in another part of the house is a better solution than  having to put them in some place where their fate is unknown.  I am keeping you in my prayers with the hope that this will have a happy outcome for all concerned.   

Hi Tracyree and welcome.

I am someone who has been allergic to multiple allergens all of my life. I am an expert on them now given a lifetime of my own. The allergist I went to did scratch tests for over 400 different foods, molds, pollens, etc. It is very common for someone who has one allergy to have multiple allergies. Thus, getting rid of the cats may not improve your son's condition because he likely has multiple allergies. Testing for 21 things is woefully inadequate. For several years, I had to take weekly desensitization shots and occasionally antihistamines or steroids to stop my attacks.

Allergies are a strange thing. Different ones cause milder or more severe reactions and it depends upon the strength or weakness of the body at the time whether the reaction may be stronger. But... When the body has been exposed to allergens repeatedly and has become reactive to some, then even the mildest ones can trigger larger reactions which the mild allergen wouldn't normally do. So if your son is very sensitive to let's say wheat, then with multiple exposures to wheat, he will also react strongly to milder allergens such as the cats, if that allergen is weaker to him. It won't be clear what is the stronger allergen when he is reacting to multiple allergens.

Doctors can treat allergies with drugs that reduce allergic reactions. And there are nutritional supplements such as Quercetin in capsule products like Aller-Max from a health food store that help reduce and make allergies more manageable.

You have a lot more work to do with this problem. Contact an allergist explicitly and find out what allergens your son has so that you can begin to eliminate them from his environment. You may not need to get rid of the cats especially if some food or soap or other allergen is a major culprit.

You may have to shop around on allergists. Some will not do desensitizing treatments for foods for example. I found one that did and was treated for some foods and molds. I have to avoid all corn products (oil, starch, flour, but not syrup), a certain mold, egg, and beef. I have other allergies, but the mold, beef, and corn are major ones. Once the major allergens are totally avoided, the patient may be able to tolerate exposure to milder allergens once in a while. Or it may be such that your son requires lifetime treatment with allergy reducing medications or nutritions. I have to take the Quercetin in Aller-Max once daily.

One thing you should be doing at home is changing out everything that can be an allergen. Change detergent brands, change bath soap brands, change cereals (change from wheat to rice for example). Do this for at least a week each and then expose him to a small amount of the prior item and see if he reacts. If so, you add that one to the avoid list. Pay closer attention to when your son has reactions. Keep lists of what reactions, when, and what you suspect set them off. Be aware that the reactions can occur within just a few minutes or a couple hour or they can take a day to develop if they are food. Reactions can easily include sneezing, runny nose, stuffy nose, headache, muscle spasms, tiredness, irritability, watery eyes, red eyes, puffy face, difficulty breathing, chest congestion, and much more. Different allergens may cause different reactions too and over a differing timeframe. In severe allergy patients the allergist will have the patient keep an Epi-Pen for emergency treatments. During my 400 item testing, the allergist ran into my mold allergy. It was so severe he had to stop testing and do the rest the following week. That can happen too.

It is possible your son may have allergies to things like wheat, or cotton, or fragrances in products, as well as other items. Many times allergy patients have to go through a long process of elimination (at least temporarily) to determine which items are causing problems. Obviously, 400 items isn't even near all the things we are exposed to in a day. But 21 is so incomplete as to not be very helpful. We use so many chemicals in our homes now and so many mixed products that it is a challenge to identify the single item sometimes.

Over a period of time, you may also discover that people can be allergic to two or more items when combined. I am allergic to orange juice with tomato juice. So I don't drink OJ with spaghetti... But that took me years to discover.

Good luck. Leave the kitties in their own isolated room and use sticky rollers coming and going from that room.

Dennis great post and nice back-up from Nabiya. I too suffer from allergens in specifically bread. Last wk my boss treated to beef sandwiches and not more than 3 hrs. later my lips had puffed up and could feel the inside of my mouth swelling up too. The reaction was to the bread from the sandwich and wonder if its the 'dough conditioners' that are used and may contain high amounts of sulfites which a lot of people are highly allergic to.

Read that each allergic reaction is quicker to come on to the particular thing(s) one is allergic to and can be quite serious to even cause death if not treated. Right away I used a primatene pill which contains ephedrine in a small amount to counter act the reaction to the bread and slowly the swelling subsided. Very scary when your throat is closing up along with your mouth, lips etc. swelling.

Tracyree like Dennis and Nabiya pointed out it might not be the cats alone or even at all. They put so many chemicals in the clothes detergents, dish liquid soaps, fabric softener sheets, liquid fabric softener that I use organic now so the chemical can't release into your system from wearing your clothes or using as towel and drying yourself and absorbing any chemical residue from the detergent and fabric softener. Don't forget that chemicals are in air fresheners, cleaning products and our cars contain a huge amount of plastic that gives off fumes too. I gasp when I open my car door after it has sat all day at work in the sun and the fumes just waft out when I open the door.

Just some things to think about along with having more tests done for more allergens. A site you might want to read more on lectins which are foods that antagonize the body is at dogtorJ.com or .net Very helpful to those suspecting an allergy and wanting to narrow it down on the foods too.