I carry a small tube of hydrocortisone cream for rashes. You can also use jewelweed on areas that may be affected. Conveniently, jewelweed sometimes grows near poison ivy. You can also make jewelweed tea, soak a bandana in it, and use it like a compress on the rash. It is remarkably effective.

The oils in poison ivy are water soluable, so if you think you've gotten exposed, rinsing off with water is also very helpful.

Az

 

Exposure is what creates the sensitivity. Lot of people are not allergic until after one or even two solid exposures. There is also a genetic component. Native Americans are far less sensitive.

Active ingredient is an oil called urushiol. Treat it by washing the contaminated site immediately with soap and water or alcohol. (That pretty mush solves the problem.) Water alone is better than nothing. Keep some hydrocortisone around for treating any rash/itching that occurs. Doesn't show up until next day. Antihistamines can help, just remember some make you sleepy. Long sleeves and pants in areas where the stuff is endemic will protect your skin but remember the clothing will be contaminated and needs washing. Also your dog's coat, if you have a dog.

Keeping your eyes peeled for it is the most important thing.

 

Exposure is what creates the sensitivity. Lot of people are not allergic until after one or even two solid exposures.

This is true. We are born with a natural immunity to this toxin and as we are exposed, that immunity diminishes... opposite how things usually work. So, the best way to go about it is to learn how to positively identify it and recognize where it likes to grow and avoid it. Your husband needs to put on his big boy pants and go camping! I am highly allergic and spend a lot of time in the woods... I see poison ivy/oak and step over it or walk around it (and point it out to others constantly). The only real problem is having a dog that will run around in it and then jump in your car or sit against you... ask me how I know.

Teach your kiddos how to identify it and avoid it, exposure at some point is inevitable, but at least they can hang onto their immunity for a while. If you have been exposed and know it right away, soap and water is a good bet. Once you have symptoms, wash area (and clothes) well and use rubbing alcohol to wipe skin. Treat thereafter with Calamine (sp?) or if in the wilds, make a tincture of witch hazel (strip bark and boil) for compresses. There are also many good medicated soaps specifically made for poison ivy rashes. Happy Camping!

 

I was on a search in an area heavy with poison oak ,and when we came out of it every one was covered in it.
One of the guys pulled out some white vinegar and some of us used it and a few poo pooed it, and whined about the smell .

Well , those of us that used it, had avoided all symptoms of the poison, while the rest , suffered.
Vinegars have been around for centuries , and they are valuable for a great many things including preserving food among other things.
I believe it is another antibiotic .

 

This stuff is awesome. If you work in or around poison ivy, just use this to wash with afterwards. It removes all the oils and you won't break out. Even more importantly, it won't allow you to spread it around from one body part to the next...

 

++++1 for Tecnu! probably the best thing I've ever found for skin poison.

 

Vinegar is an amazing multi purpose prep.
Kills fungus, you can drink a little and treat sinus allergies, Kills mildew, food preservative, salad dressing, probably a longer list .


But for bugging out, a pack of prednisone cortical steroid pills would be tiny and the best fix for a poison ivy reaction (and any severe immune response).

 

Years ago at Ft Bragg, NC, there would be a cattle call at the Troop Medical Clinic after coming in from the field. Couple hundred guys covered in (mostly) Poison Oak.

Docs kept bins of pre-filled treatment packets for issue to sufferers: Prednisone tabs, Benadryl tabs, & Calamine lotion. Seemed to work pretty well. So did a scalding hot shower and a good wash with soap. I'm not sure if the scalding hot water removed the source of irritation or just deadened the nerves of the skin. I know it made it feel much better.

My generic Over-the-Counter back country medications for such encounters are Hydrocortisone cream and Benadryl tablets. You still need to carefully wash away the oils.

 

Good ol' Clorox bleach will do wonders for drying it up and taking away the itching. I've been using it for years.

 

Or just go get the stuff I recommended... it's cheaper, safer to use, and it works.

 

I had poison oak really bad a few years ago, dummy me was burning a pile of brush that had poison oak in it.

It was all over my face and pretty much all exposed skin.

I actually got a 3 inch chlorine tablet from my pool and scrubbed my skin really hard with it while in the pool.

Cleared it righ up.

 

Here is a some useful identification info. I just found.

http://www.poisonoakandpoisonivy.com/Resources/Sure-Fire. ONLINE with cover copy.pdf

 

Oh.. and don't forget to wash your clothes.

 

I think the kids and I will be out this weekend learning how to identify and use jewelweed. This will be our 5th weekend in the woods and so far none of us have gotten it other than my oldest has a small patch on his fingers.

 

Funny tale.

Once with a group of people on a 15 mile hike in & camp fishing trip at a high Mtn lake with big trout in it.
One of the guys - invited along another guy I didn't know.

Who turned out to be the sort that said he did everything - better than anyone else.

You know the type - says he won big bucks gambling, caught bigger fish, shot bigger game, climbed higher Mtn's, took longer treks, the whole shebang braggart.

After about 12 miles of the hike in, hot & sweaty the blowhard was ahead of me - stepped off the trail to take a dump.

I had a clear view of him doing so. Once he was done & back out on the trail I caught up to him.

I told him - you are one of the toughest guys I have ever met.
He grinned & ask me - what makes you say that.

I replied - never in my life have I ever seen anyone intentionally wipe their ass - with poison oak leaves.

True story - he did & suffered the consequences.

 

^^priceless^ I'm going to borrow that story, change the names to protect the innocent and wait until my buddies all have a mouth full of beer and deliver the punchline!!! LOLOL

 

I'm lucky noy allergic to any of them, but if you take a banana and lay it in the sun until it turns black, then take the peel off and rub the insides of the peel on it, when it dries it will clear it up. An old cure from the hills of Ky.

 

I have heard if you burn it it can get into you lungs

 

Most of my BOBs have first aid kits containing hydrocortisone cream. My INCH also carries Calomine lotion.

 

I've heard the idea that you get more sensitive with exposure but I'm not sure I believe it. I do tree removal and trimming for a living and am exposed to poison ivy on at least a weekly basis, sometimes to the point of literally hugging a tree covered in it. I'm not any more sensitive now than I was ten years ago as far as I can tell. I try to wash off as soon as possible after exposure, preferably with Tucnu. It seems to have worked fairly well so far. I'll get a little on my forearms and hands and occasionally on my neck a couple times a year. Jewelweed works pretty good for relief.

 

I mostly use baking soda and water paste. I always keep some hydrocortisone cream ($.88 at walmart) arount for work, etc.

I am not sure why, but it seams that a lot of medical professionals have the poison ivy story wrong... at least in some cases.

I have read that you become more sensitive after exposure... You can actually build an immunity. their are even products to help with that. As a child/ teen, I would catch it without even being in contact with it... I could actually catch it being near where people where pulling it or cutting it. Sometimes, I would be covered head to toe... literally. I was in the hospital 3 times for it (once overnight) and put on steroids many times. As I got older, I spend a lot of time in the woods and only get a few spots here and there. Sometimes direct contact doesn't leave a mark.

They say the dead vines, even without leaves, can give it to you. I cut locust that are covered with them every winter without a mark.

As for the oil spreading from one item to the next without it ever stopping or dimensioning ... If it were that bad, some people would never get rid of it. Yes it can spread, but if I were to get some oil on my pants and not know it, then sit on the couch, then sit on my bed... you see where this is going. Better yet, If the dog got some on her... she touches every thing in the house in about 6 seconds when she comes in. It also takes days to a week from exposure until symptoms show. If I got it on my hands and didn't wash, I would have it everywhere within an hour or two.

 

I'm also not sure if people are as immune to it as they think they are. Some people say they can't get it, yet they've never been in the woods and sit at home and play video games all day long. Yea, I've gotten it really bad, but I've been in the woods digging and rooting around and came into direct contact with it.

 

My wife is highly allergic to it also. Here in OK we have found certain pharmacies that carry a Poison Ivy Preventiitive. I believe it is called RussTox (sp?) or something like that. Basically once a week, you drink one vial of it, swish around in your mouth for about 30 seconds then swallow. There are three or four vials. It taste minty. It works wonders.
Used to, my wife could see poison ivy and get a rash but now she has been exposed to it, rash would start then just dry up. Before we found this stuff, if she did get exposed, she would usually have to go get a shot to help with the alergic reaction. But this stuff works wonders.
Has anyone else tried it?

 

Member of another board said her childs pediatrician said to wash the rash with FELS-NAPTHA soap. She said the rash was cleared up within days.

TECHNU works well if "used as directed".

Wash clothes twice without drying between washes. Do not wash affected clothes with other clothing. Sun dry is possible.

 

Exposure will help you build a resistance to it. After moving to the country when I was in 1st grade, I would get it pretty bad. After all the years of running through the woods, fishing, hunting, etc... by the time I got into High School, I could roll in it with no ill effects. Zoom ahead "several" years, now that I'm a workaholic and am never around it... holy cow, it's pretty bad now. I walked through some barefoot and boy did I pay the price... that's where I learned about Technu. The stuff works because after I recouped, I went out there and pulled it all up and disposed of it. I took a shower with Technu and didn't break out at all. That stuff is the bomb...

 

Also, keep in mind many people think virginia creeper is poison oak. It has 5 leaves and looks like ginseng. Oak and ivy have 3. At one point it was reported that oak and ivy were the same species but that was discredited i believe.

 

I believe I'm allergic because when I get a reaction it's always pretty bad.
Even my neighbors Mango tree seems to trigger a reaction on me when I mow the lawn.
I've tried all the Benadril creams and oatmeal baths and everything over the counter that I could find and nothing seems to work. However...for me...the ONLY thing that works every time is a prescription of Prednizone pills and that calms it down almost immediately.
For this reason, I keep Prednizone in my medicine cabinet at all times. Works like a champ!!

 

I wonder if the doc will give me a prescription for prednisone to have ready to go? Last time I got poison Ivy rash, it was on my forearm from wrestling a tree down that had a huge dead poison ivy vine clinging to it. I had a massive reaction. Scratched it so hard the skin was pretty much removed. The only relief I got was from running scalding water on it. By the time I got to the doctor, my arm was pretty much raw meat.

Prednisone is the only thing that will touch it for me.