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Poison Ivy

ecuwil

ecuwil

Member
Anyone have any tips for dealing with poison ivy? Either preventive or coping with it once you have it. I watch for it and try to avoid it, but it never fails, I always seem to get it three or four times a summer. I have been highly allergic my whole life and have had so many steroid shots that the doctor will not give them to me anymore because they can deteriorate your bones. I have used the steroid dose packs, but they keep you awake for two weeks while you are on them and give me the hick-ups!

I have tried a bottle of pills that are small doses of poison ivy that are supposed to help you build an immunity, but they did not work.

My Dr. said they used to make a shot that would make you immune to poison ivy for a year, but it is not on the market anymore.

Thanks for any discussion on the topic.
 
I'm just like you, get it 3 or 4 times a summer, i just had it two weeks ago while cutting a tree down off my stand. it had the ivy growing all up and down it and i didn't even pay attention to it. I was itching like crazy before the rash showed up and i ended up having it on both eyelids and all over my face, stomach, arms, and other areas that don't need mentioned. I went to the doctor and got a steroid shot in my hip, and the doc prescribed me RhusTox. It was $35 for about 1 Liter. It's a liquid and you take it by mouth once a month, I would recommend it to you. I just happened to get poison ivy again yesterday, and it really reduces the rash and basically it doesn't spread or get all nasty looking and ooze all over.
 
Oh yeah, and you take it year round to build up your immunity so when you do happen to get poison ivy, it doesn't make it so bad. pretty pricey though, but if you have get posion ivy you know how bad it sucks, so it's worth it. i know what you mean about the steroid pills keeping you awake, i couldn't get to sleep until 2:30 am every night.
 
Get Tecnu for dealing with it after the fact. Most wildland fire crews I've been on carry tons of it because of always ending up fighting fire in poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. Its tough when it gets all over your clothes (fire pants and shirts) and gear for a 2-week hitch, but Tecnu helps get rid of the oils that cause the itching.

http://www.teclabsinc.com/store/poison-oak-ivy/tecnu

Good luck!
 
Get Ivy Block before you go out. IF you get it, HANDS DOWN... Betamethasone Cream which is by Rx only is the ticket. Cortizone over the counter is crap. If it's really bad, prednisone BUT I haven't needed prednisone in 5 years since getting Betamethasone cream & it's far better using cream VS pills.
 
I get it every turkey season and this year I used a product called Zanfel. You can buy it a WalMart and it is expensive but it is the by far the best product that I have used. I can usually get 4-6 hours with no itch and it is supposed to help draw the urushiol from the skin. :way:

http://www.zanfel.com/help/
 
I've been using these drops under my tongue once a week that helps make the breakout less intense when it does happen. Like you I'm extremely allergic to the stuff and if I even get near it I'll break out. The drops have helped big time this year. 2 years ago I had to have 3 visits to the doctor, 1 antibiotic shot because infection set in, and 3 steroid shots in the butt cheek, and then a month of prednisone. Never want to experience that again, not cool.
 
Sligh1 said:
Get Ivy Block before you go out. IF you get it, HANDS DOWN... Betamethasone Cream which is by Rx only is the ticket. Cortizone over the counter is crap. If it's really bad, prednisone BUT I haven't needed prednisone in 5 years since getting Betamethasone cream & it's far better using cream VS pills.
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Prednisone works great for me. A shot from the doc and then a weeks worth of pills to follow and it is totally gone for me. Usually within 36 hours I don't even know I had it. I wish they had prednisone 25 years ago. When I was a kid all they had was a greasy cream that would take 2 weeks to get rid of it. Also spraying the PI with Round Up a couple weeks before you deal with it helps too. I'm talking a vine growing up a tree.
 
I get a few small spots here and there every year, but, when I was younger I never use to really get it at all and the only reason I can think of is my Grandma and my Dad always use to have me wash up with Lye Soap when I took a shower asap if I was in it or around it
 
Prednisone absolutely works great, no question. But, it's far from good for you. For MOST people, it's a major stimulant that will have horrible side-effects while on it. Moodiness, anxiety, sleep problems, increased appetite, acne break-outs, etc, etc, etc. Not fun for most people. of course most folks don't use long-term BUT if they did, those are where serious side-effects happen. For poison ivy, it will only have short term, no-fun side effects BUT I sure won't take the stuff. I'll only take it unless it's absolutely necessary. For a guy with Crohn's, I've had a lot of experience with Prednisone. If you go with the far safer and extremely effective cream, Betamethasone, you're surely be far better off. You can target break out areas instead of systemically and personally, I feel it works far faster and far better in my experience. Just my 2 cents though.
 
After the fact I have used Ivyrest. Buy it at most pharmacies or walmart for like $8.00. Tube of cream, medicated. Takes the itch out right away and helps clear it. I am just getting over a bout with the crap myself.
 
Sligh1 said:
Prednisone absolutely works great, no question. But, it's far from good for you. For MOST people, it's a major stimulant that will have horrible side-effects while on it. Moodiness, anxiety, sleep problems, increased appetite, acne break-outs, etc, etc, etc. Not fun for most people. of course most folks don't use long-term BUT if they did, those are where serious side-effects happen. For poison ivy, it will only have short term, no-fun side effects BUT I sure won't take the stuff. I'll only take it unless it's absolutely necessary. For a guy with Crohn's, I've had a lot of experience with Prednisone. If you go with the far safer and extremely effective cream, Betamethasone, you're surely be far better off. You can target break out areas instead of systemically and personally, I feel it works far faster and far better in my experience. Just my 2 cents though.
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I must be a freak...no side effects for me. Except for that appetite thing...damn I love to eat!
 
Sligh1 said:
Prednisone absolutely works great, no question. But, it's far from good for you. For MOST people, it's a major stimulant that will have horrible side-effects while on it. Moodiness, anxiety, sleep problems, increased appetite, acne break-outs, etc, etc, etc. Not fun for most people. of course most folks don't use long-term BUT if they did, those are where serious side-effects happen. For poison ivy, it will only have short term, no-fun side effects BUT I sure won't take the stuff. I'll only take it unless it's absolutely necessary. For a guy with Crohn's, I've had a lot of experience with Prednisone. If you go with the far safer and extremely effective cream, Betamethasone, you're surely be far better off. You can target break out areas instead of systemically and personally, I feel it works far faster and far better in my experience. Just my 2 cents though.
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Prednisone sucks! For me it equals 2-3 hours of sleep per night......not good

Sent from my SCH-I500 using IW
 
I agree, I have had success with Prednisone, but the side effects and not worth the relief. Thanks for the input so far!

I have heard you have 20 minutes after contact to wash the poison ivy oils off. I always take a shower as soon as I get home or I jump in the creek if I know I have touched it.

I have also learned my lesson about taking a wizz after a day in the woods! I learned that lesson the hard way!
 
Poison Ivy, wow, where do I begin? In the past no matter what I did, prednisone, OTC creams gels and snake oil, it took a week for it to reach the peak of itchy oozing misery, a week for it to be that way and a week for it to go away. Three weeks of pure hell. I even tried Sani-Flush on some oozy open spots. I think the partial thickness burn it caused was better than the PI. If I mow over even a small vine I’ll get little pocks of ivy where the small pieces of leaf hit me.

Then I figured it out. As has been stated already there is an oil (urushiol) that comes from the sap. The oil can be broken down by naphtha. In the absence of naphtha I use Go Joe or what ever heavy duty mechanics type hand cleaner I have around. When I’m done working in the bush I rub the cleaner on all of my exposed skin. I don’t use anything but my hands to rub it in so I don’t abrade my skin giving the urushiol a portal of entry. I rinse it off with cold water and blot, not rub, my skin dry with disposable paper towels or paper shop rags. Then I put on another coat of hand cleaner and let it air dry. I go about the rest of my day and that night I rinse it off again with the cold water from the hose and then go shower. Last weekend I was knee deep in poison ivy and five finger ivy/Virginia creeper while running a chain saw. I was wearing shorts and a t shirt. Here it is a week later and no itchy oozy misery.

Here is the caveat, if you grind the PI into your skin hard enough to abrade the skin, you are gonna get miserable no matter what you do. Your body will have a local histamine (and other) reaction that you aren’t gonna stop. Perhaps a trip to the doc will help you but for me no matter what I did I had it for three long weeks.

Another thing that I wonder about is most meds for GERD (heart burn) are antihistamines. It is used as an adjunct to other meds when treating anaphylaxis. Perhaps that can help reduce the misery of an outbreak.

As far as betamethasone, I was prescribed betamethasone for Eczema. It works well for that and I did try it on the little pock marks I get from mowing over the vine and it works well. I haven’t had to try it on a full blown outbreak because I am very aware of any exposures I might have and use the Go Joe/naphtha regime to prevent it. I have contemplated coating my skin with go-Joe before I go out to a high potential exposure area but I haven’t yet.
 
I used to get it real bad too. Then I finally broke down and got a pair of leather gloves for about $10. Problem solved!!. That stuff and chiggers are my most favorite things in life:D
 
This is going to sound crazy but my chiropractor told me he could cure me of getting that so I figured I would throw $40 away and try it. I held some little viles and he did some funky voo doo stuff and by now I am really thinking that I just threw 40 bucks away but that has been 5 years ago and I haven't had a breakout since
 
I get the crap bad as well. If I think I got into it or was exposed I try to wash up immediately and often carry a bottle of water with me to at least rinse the area.

If it takes and I get a rash I usually scratch it til it bleeds and pour bleach or a mixture of bleach and water over the open areas. Swimming pools/chlorine also seem to dry mine out.

Also had luck with a product from the vet that they give dogs for irritated or hot spots.....sounds crazy but this stuff dried the ivy out all over my forehead in less than 48 hours.
 
ecuwil said:
Anyone have any tips for dealing with poison ivy?
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Are you SURE it is poison ivy? Did you see it and know you were messing with fire or did you get blisters and the Dr told you it must be ivy?

The reason I ask is that I am very sensitive to wild parsnip (pastinaca sativa) and the doctors call it "contact dermatitis" just like ivy. They could care less what you got into, because the treatment is the same. My complaint is that this approach by the doctors doesn't help the patient avoid report exposure!

I agree that prednisone has many bad side effects.


Just a few thoughts, good luck
 
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