[MadAhab]

Alpha-gal light sufferer here - light because my reactions are usually somewhat light hives, however I also have practiced avoidance nearly perfectly for years. I'll try to answer your questions, but I'm not a medical professional so this is not medical advice etc etc.

What to do in the meantime until the 30-days the allergy takes to develop? 100% avoidance of all things you mentioned would probably be safest.

Why avoid? There are many anecdotes of the allergy fading with enough time when you practice alpha-gal avoidance. So starting IMMEDIATELY and never having a post-tick bite alpha-gal reaction may stop reinforcing the behavior in your immune system even faster. That one theory of how this allergy supposedly fades with time, is its sort of forgotten and dropped from your immune 'defenses' but that maybe not right.

Regarding Dairy, I personally haven't had much problem with cheeses however high fat milks and sour cream kick my ass usually. More processed stuff like cream cheese surprisingly was ok. I believe I read other's online anecdotes supporting what my body has shown to be true also, cooked dairy is usually OK for whatever reason, a similar phenomenon to young kids dairy allergies where they can have it cooked in dishes. But again you may want to do 100% avoidance diet and slowly reintroduce, a standard allergy practice.

RE: cross contamination. Again I'm not a highly sensitive alpha-gal sufferer but I haven't had many issues with this. It would probably be a problem if someone used bacon grease to cook instead of a regular vegetable oil. I've stopped worrying too much about this when I dine/order out and have been OK. I put that energy making sure what I'm ordering doesn't have any hidden beef/pork like in broths of soups.

[DantesKite]

I wonder if completely abstaining from any red meat for a year would be enough to reduce whatever antibodies are being created to the point where you could eat red meat again.

[MadAhab]

Most anecdotes I read said the 8-15 year (I'm year 9) scale for the allergy to fade if at all, I don't recall what they said they had for reactions/accidental allergen dosages during their years though.

Accidental allergen exposures happen once in a while, as you get used to the diet and learn hidden sources of allergen, they happen less. There's been no point in time when I thought I had to test if the allergy had gone away yet because I can usually remember a recent small or big hive from the past year. Right now I think I'm at least 1.5 year without hives, probably thanks to quarantine forcing a more controlled diet.

Since about my second year of being allergic I've been very well adjusted to my fish/bird meat only diet and have no insatiable desire for a steak so I'm OK waiting another few years before purposefully trying anything dangerous.

[ryan-allen]

More research is needed, my anecdotal experiences is that different people have wide differences in the way that they react to alpha gal.

I know someone who went into full anaphylaxis from inhaling aeroplane food on a flight, requiring both injectors, they were in their late 40s.

I know someone who was able to reintroduce cheese and that worked for them.

The variance and time to affect seems to vary depending on the person.

My ex partner has a reaction petting my dogs who've been running out in the yard rolling in wallaby poop.

It's bloody awful affliction :( It prevents you from being able to enjoy many activities that most people take for granted.

The good thing is bird is pretty versatile! Duck is amazing, where I live you can buy duck chortizo. Groups I've joined on Facebook that are USA based are doing Emu briskets!

My ex goes and gets a test every once in a while that measures some level that they can use to tell if it's getting better or worse.

The crazy thing is that the local schools ban peanut butter but a sausage sizzle as they're called here (cooking like 50 sausages at a time for a fundraisers) are all totally OK, despite the allergy being an ongoing issue for the local area (just like in the USA, it's localised).