Poison Ivy and the like

[bowieknife50]

I used to get it horrible. Tried all kinds of things but I think the biggest thing is get into the shower IMMEDIATELY after coming out of the woods with some oil cutting soap. I just used Dawn dish soap now. Wear exam gloves to take your clothes and put boots on and off. Those boot laces are a big reservoir of oil nobody thinks about enough. Wash your boots and get new laces once in a while. Wash your truck door handle, steering wheel, window, and armrest. Start thinking about it like being sterile for surgery.

Oh, and don't itch


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[Beendare]

Good tip Bowie^

Hog hunting the brushy coast is the worst. Bring a little bottle of soap, handle the animals with latex/nitrile gloves. Even rising it off in a creek or pond without soap helps....... if you are sweating it gets in you quick.

The sap is the consistency of a typical plant- its not 90w differential oil.

Triamcinolone acetonide prescription cream is a godsend for a bad case of PO.....

...

 

[orionsbrother]

This was about 4 days after exposure, hanging a tree stand! I break out within hours of even seeing poison ivy! This is not the worst case i have had and it goes systemic every time.
View attachment 100273
Needed steroid shot for this one as well as oral prednazone. Highly recommend you don't touch your junk if ya have the oil on your hands. Don't ask me how i know.

The one I can't get around is when using the chainsaw, blowing chips have covered my face, down my shirt, all over.

I would kill for that immunization if the military ever comes up with it. I can deal with ticks and thorns and what ever else but poison ivy kills me.

Never had poison oak but poison sumac and parsnip several times when i live up north.

That looks like a Hogweed rash with those big blisters!

 

[Blackdirt Cowboy]

I guess I’m lucky. I’m not allergic to poison ivy, oak, or sumac. I could roll around nekkid in it and not break out. I feel sorry for the guys who are allergic to it. I can’t imagine what its like to worry about it every time you go into the woods

 

[NoWiser]

Me too Blackdirt. I’ve purposely walked through patches in shorts just to see and it has zero affect on my. My grandpa and dad both have told me that they’ve never gotten it either. Reading this thread and seeing the pictures makes me realize how lucky I am.

 

[adkhunter]

That looks like a Hogweed rash with those big blisters!

Fortunately I’ve never tangled with hogweed. The poison ivy was a vine up the tree I was trying to hang the stand in and I knew it. Got what I deserved for being a dumb sob!

 

[El Gavilan]

Me too Blackdirt. I’ve purposely walked through patches in shorts just to see and it has zero affect on my. My grandpa and dad both have told me that they’ve never gotten it either. Reading this thread and seeing the pictures makes me realize how lucky I am.

I used to be that way but around high school age I got sensitized to it and now it eats my lunch.

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[curt514]

I grew up in the Midwest and poison ivy is everywhere. I have only had it a couple times in the last 20yr.
Talk to most arborists and you will find out that they still use the old school method of wiping your arms down the 2cycle fuel before and after the day. Forms kind of a protective layer that wipes away and keeps the ivy oil from sticking.
I have used fuel but my usual was lacquer thinner on a rag of brake clean. If I got into it in the woods or trimming fence rows I would wipe down at the end of the day. If I did get the start of a blister I would pop it and pull the cover off and do another wash with more thinner. The burn lets you know it working.
I know.. some are going to say that the fuel and solvents are bad for you but it’s okay, I have never been and do not intend on going to California so I am cancer free.


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[As_west_as_it_gets]

I get it just like the OP. I went years thinking I couldn’t get it. There were so many times that I should have had it, and never got it. A few months back I got it for the first time, REALLY bad. And now, I’ve had it twice since then. It always breaks out on the same part of my left forearm. I have it now, and I KNOW that I did not touch the plant in that area.


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[Smokedhog]

As someone who has been around it all my life and have gotten to where I dont react anymore. You guys worry me, where I hunt if I suddenly start reacting again I'm in trouble.

 

[redbullitt]

If you can rinse with Dawn within a few hours of exposure it seems to help a lot, if not eliminate the reaction for me.

 

[Gunnersdad49]

Well, mine got bad enough, I finally went to the doctor. They prescribed oral prednisone and Zantac and Zyrtec. I guess even though Zantac is for heartburn, it is a beta receptor blocker. The combo really cut the itching and redness.

 

[.204smokechaser]

Have very bad reactions to it. Had it everywhere last year after putting in 14 days on a fire in California. As folks have mentioned, keep it out of your groin area and ass crack if you can as it was a rough drive back to Idaho and a week after that. Had people get a good reaction weeks after the California roll coming in contact with residue in the work truck.

Prednisone helped and I didnt get a shot as it takes life off of the liver. None of that other over the counter crap was worth a darn. Make sure to wash everything to degrease it.

 

[adkhunter]

Have very bad reactions to it. Had it everywhere last year after putting in 14 days on a fire in California. As folks have mentioned, keep it out of your groin area and ass crack if you can as it was a rough drive back to Idaho and a week after that. Had people get a good reaction weeks after the California roll coming in contact with residue in the work truck.

Prednisone helped and I didnt get a shot as it takes life off of the liver. None of that other over the counter crap was worth a darn. Make sure to wash everything to degrease it.

NachesHunter94 - never heard that about the shot. What does it do to the liver? May think twice about that next time. Although after all the years of alcohol poisoning mine may be more tolerant...LOL!

 

[Youandme]

I self treat using this method. I am now immune to poison ivy!

 

[Unckebob]

If I get poison ivy, I go to the doctor for a shot. When I was a kid, I got it so bad t that I looked like Rocky after a boxing match.

 

[yfarm]

Son and friens went to a bonfire, wood had dried poison ivy vines on it, everyone in the smoke got whole body reaction. Had to treat with steroids.

 

[49ereric]

Does anyone here experience “systemic reaction to urishol?”

When I get into poison ivy or similar plants, about 4 days later, I get the reaction in spots that didn’t touch the plant. For example, on a search a few years ago, I was carrying out a patient, and walked, in shorts, right through a plant. By the next week, I had a rash on my back and sides.

The doctor at the time recommended Dermarest mousse and prescribed a course of oral antibiotics.

Do others get this type of reaction? If so, do you try to self treat, or do you go the steroid and doctor route?

Plantain… chew a leaf and apply to blisters repeatedly.
lava or fels naptha soap… apply soap suds and let dry and keep adding to it-layerin.
both work as well but no miracle it is gone.
use to pop blisters under running water and then apply soap or plantain.
I prefer plantain these days but both work as well.

 

[Bobbyboe]

My grandpa found out he was immune to poison ivy and would pick it and put it down peoples shirts…. Terrible, i know. My dad and I have never gotten it. I’m not certain, but im pretty sure im also immune. I’ve also been exposed to sumac, where my buddy broke out terribly and I didn’t have a blister.