Poison oak

[Firewoodking]

Here in Northern California poison oak can be fierce. I seem to get it every time I fell tree and split wood even after my regular tecnu bath.

Any suggestions?

[r.man]

Maybe you are allergic to something else, real trees, splitter fumes, sunlight.

[stumper]

Clean all your tools.  The oils get on everything and stay for long periods.  I am a stump grinder and end up with poision ivy regularly.  The grinder sends the oils evrywhere.  I have found out the hard way that just handling the tools or working on my machine can give me poison ivy. 

Apply the ivy block pior to exposure and then take a cold shower with tecnu.  Also wash your clothes seperately after any exposure.

[gwilson]

I have hear that poison ivy block works good although i haven't tested it. Its available through Forestry Suppliers I think. I had poison ivy for two months last summer on my face and arms because when i was falling i would get exposed continuously.  A banana over my face and a face shield with long sleeves and gloves seems to help. Its tough stuff and no fun at all when its on your face.  :-\

[ely]

i wasnt gonna say this until i seen the banana comment, and then thought what the heck... ;D
i had a fellow tell me once that his mother used to make tea from sycamore bark, they would drink it each day and it helped not only get rid of what they had but helped keep them from getting it again.

i drank it for several years and it seemed to work ok for me. then they came out with the rhus -tox serum that i take each year and it works very well imo.

[red]

goats milk soap

[stumper]

OK ely you got me what is rhus tox serum, where do you get it, how do you use it and what does it do?

[muddstopper]

I guess I am one of the lucky ones that doesnt seem to be affected by posion ivy or oak. Wasnt that way growing up. I could get within 100ft of the stuff and breakout all over. I dont know if I just built up some sort of immunity or its some other reason. One thing I can remember that helped growing up was clorox baths. When we got exposed, momma would run a hot bath and add clorox. Water so hot you could hardly stand it. We would sit in the hot water until it cooled down and then take a super hot shower, using plenty of soap. Then we would rinse off with cold water. Supposely the hot water and clorox would kill the oils from the posion ivy, the hot shower and soap would rinse out the open pores of the skin. Then the cold shower would close up the pores. Our kids where treated the same way when they got exposed to the poison ivy and it seemed to help them to. Now its the grandkids and they get the same clorox bath and it seems to help them just as well.

[Sonofman]

I know what you mean mudstopper about getting downwind and catching it, I did too through my teenage years. I would be really bad with HUGE blisters all over. We went on vacation to Philly one summer when I had some, and the people there told us about a homeopathic medicne called Ivy Tox. It was the juice of the plant in a real weak solution of distilled water. I would put a few drops in a glass of water and drink it every day. I did this about 6 months, and did not catch Poison Ivy for about 20 years. I can get it now, but I have to come in contact with the plant and it is no where near as bad, just a slight rash with few very small blisters. Ivy Tox is no longer made, so I can not get treated again.

[Firewoodking]

I have also got it from my dog. He  always tags along when at work in the forest. Fluke is a good boy,
A purebred boxer almost a year old.

I find it funny that when I cut firewood, I constantly expose and re-expose myself to poison oak and end up with terrible rashes on my arms and legs. HOWEVER, my son  (my assistant And buckaroo) is exposed to the same vegetation as me yet never has got poison oak.

I wonder if him being 50% Philippino has anything to do with that. (My wife is 100%) I am white.

I have never heard of ivy block.

[woodmills1]

I needed to pay my welder today(see general post)

he said he put on some new boots he bought in the summer, and got poison rash like he did when he last wore them.  He steam cleaned them. :D

[Slab Slicer]

I'm one of the lucky ones also. Not really affected by it. maybe a couple of little bumps if that. When I worked for a tree service, I was the one elected to pull the poison ivy off the tree, or clear it out of the way when it was anywhere near the work area.

My brother is even more immune than I am. We think it's because he once ate a poison ivy leaf on a dare. Must have done the trick, and made him completely immune. Although I would not recommend that anyone try this.

Remember, that every 7 years or so, your bodies metabolism changes, and you can become allergic to things that didn't bother you before, or even stop being allergic to something you were allergic to in the past.

[SPIKER]

I'm rather immune to it myself Poison Ivy & Oak that is but Sumac I can get a bit of.   I also got one bout of Poison Oak once when camping in jr high school.   We got to the lake real late and it was fall.   We needed to get a fire going for some night fishing and I pulled out a bunch of brush to burn & was in that smoke getting the fire going.   Seems I used mostly a patch of P.Oak to start the fire with & was blowing with it right in my face.  :

Only other time I got blisters as a kid was playing WAR in a giant P Sumac patch which that stuff makes a great place to play as a kid dumb enough to not know better.

One thing though is remedies now me & my brother didn't bother us much but my sisters, mom brother-n-law & my nephew & Sister n law are/were all down wind & got it types.   The best thing we found was

1. PRE-TREAT YOURSELF if you think you will be in/around it nothing helps better.   start day prior with a heavy hand lotion. Then few hours prior to heading out use one of the skin blockers or invisible glove type lotions.

2. wash up ASAP using DAWN and cold water 2 times followed up with HOT water & DAWN once more.   Dawn is a great oil emulsifier (Breaks Oil up in Water) & lets it wash off.    The COLD water first couple washes keeps your pores closed so it does not get washed deeper into you, the follow up with the HOT water then gets the last little bits out of your pores along with the sweat from the day.

3. Stay away from stuff than can add skin issues such as bleach, alcohol or heavy alkaline soaps which can burn your skin on top of opening up to the oils of the ivy.   

4. keep a tube of "Zanfel" from one of the pharmacy (not prescription but kept behind counter as it is like 30 bucks for small tube.)   It is for treating it once ya get it my woman swears by it to stop the itch & burning...

Mark

[bigred1951]

i use to get it bad but havent really got it for past couple of years except maybe a little red spot..but i would scratch it raw then take a shower and scrub it really good then i would run the water over it and make it hotter and hotter till i couldnt stand it anymore..it would be a little tender and sore after i got out of the shower but it always made it stop itching and it would be gone in a day or two

[ely]

stumper, the rhus-tox medicine comes in 3 small viles, it is a green minty solution that you pour into your mouth and hold for about 30 seconds before swallowing, we take it about january each year. it takes three weeks to do the treatment, good for a year. somefolks have to have a booster part way thru the year.
it helps most folks to not be alergic to poison ivy, with me i may still get a few bumps that itch but getting covered by it and seeing a doctor for the kenalog shots and predizone packs are a thing of the past for me.

it comes from ERIC'S PHARMACY in shawnee okla. our company gives it to us, but it costs them about 5 bucks per vial. not sure to single customer costs. you should be able to find it online. www.poisonivyprevention.com
i just found that in a co-op paper as i typed it. it says 16.95 money back guantee,age 4 and up.
the trick is to not get around the ivy while in treatment phase. some folks get a slight reaction of a rash from the first dose, but if you tough it out and finish the course it works well. some get scared and quit taking the treatment. my kids wont take it, they got severe cases because they didnt stay clear of the stuff when it mattered most.

one last thing, the directions says to not eat pepermint while taking the vials,3 weeks, for some reason the mint will taste terrible during that time.

[ely]

i just thought, jeff if its not ok to put that up then please remove it, i am not selling the stuff though, just helping folks out.

[CTYank]

I found out recently that there is one poison XXX treatment that works, before and after the exposure. Oral Ivy. Under $10 delivered from Amazon, for a year's worth.

After 40 yrs of no ivy-red-rash, I got a mega-dose cleaning up after Sandy. Severe stuff. Borrowed the bottle a friend got on my advice. A couple of drops in a few ounces of liquid every few hours, and the fire went out, albeit slowly. No hospital visit.

Lower dosing for a few days before likely exposure is reported to be very effective.

Most the other stuff is a placebo, but calamine helps.

[drobertson]

My wife and youngest son get it, almost by looking at it, every year, it has boiled down to the dog, the oil just hangs on and then spreads to whatever,  it is a pain for them,  once my daughter got it,  I believe from us driving through a cloud of smoke, someone was burning brush, this was a bad one, shut her eye, very bad swelling,  she was 5 then, but now she has few issues with it, 

[johnjbc]

I don't recommend it because some people have a bad reaction. But when I was a teenager the Dr gave us a poison Ivy shots every year. Ask him what was in it and he told me it was an extra of the plant. So I ate 3 small leafs and it worked. Didn't get it again for almost 20 years
I understand that they took the shots off the market to to some bad reaction.