Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Poison ivy?

That'd be my guess if it's itchy. I wouldn't know for sure 'cause I'm not bothered by it, nor by Poison Oak.

Itchy, burning. Right under my right shoulder blade.

Look like poison ivy to me to. A remedy that we have used to get rid of it was to put bleach on it full strength. Usually gets rid of it in three days. Burns like fire but works. Also swimming in a pool that is high on clorine works to.

Mine too. Every time I've seen poison ivy on someone it has been smothered in some sort of topical dressing, so add that and I could confirm poison ivy.

I am not bothered by it either. Last year, my sister and I were walking about and I walked through a big patch wearing shorts and flip-flops, she freaked out!!! I had to remind her that it don't bother me.

My main sport from from early grade school thru high school was Baseball. And I remember a lot of itching going on

I've seen it on forearms, hands, legs, feet and even a face! But I am not going to even ask how you got it there

Doesn't sound right - under the shoulder blade? Were you rolling in it? Seems a weird place for poison ivy or oak to occur. If it's poison ivy the welts will fill with fluid, become very itchy, and will burst easily when itched. The fluid is clear, not puss colored.

Be sure to wash the affected area to remove oils that can easily spread and cause additional reactions. Also, wash the infected clothes ASAP.

I once got into a very bad situation - first and only time I ever had a reaction. It was brown and dormant and I was planting a garden right in the middle of it out at a friends acreage along a fenceline - basically tilling by hand for 8 hours. Had it literally everywhere, so bad the DR gave me a cortizone and steroid shot on the spot when I finally visited him three days later. Cleared up in 36 hours - miraculous. I didn't sleep for three days before I sought treatment.

It's growing on the slope below the quarry house up the sides of trees. I was walking on the slope on Thursday with a landscape guy talking about building paths. Some of it was as high as 12 feet on trees.

I had poison ivy nearly 20 times as a kid. It was brutal. However, as an adult, I've only had it maybe twice, and they weren't that bad. Really, all I managed it with was some self discipline. While it took a while to clear up in the infected area, it didn't spread because I refused to scratch it. As a matter of fact, I was walking around in it in shorts the other day, fishing from shore at a local lake, and I know it contacted my skin. And I wasn't able to wash it off for a couple hours, so maybe having it so many times my body has built up an immunity (doubt it). A friend once told me that simple brushing up against a leaf will not infect you, that you actually have to break it so that the juice contacts your skin. I've never been brave (or dumb) enough to personally test this theory. I believe the "poison" gets under your fingernails and spreads by further scratching. It typically took a couple days for the rash to appear after being exposed to it, then didn't completely clear up for a couple weeks at the most. The effects vary drastically from person to person. While I had it nearly 20 times as a kid, my brother, who pretty much explored the same areas I did, never had it once and has still never experienced it. Same story with my kid, thank God, and I know he's been in it. There was a neighbor girl who last year had it so bad she couldn't leave the house for a week. Her face was so swollen she could hardly see. Really bad. When I was a kid a friend of mine used a leaf as toilet paper on a camping trip. He had it pretty bad, as you can imagine. He ended up being hospitalized for a couple days when it spread everywhere, including underneath his eyelids. Sounds like some good advice from TJ there and if you've never had it, I would encourage you to take it seriously, since you don't know exactly how your body will react.

At the pond we're building it's the typical wooded foliage for this area so we have tons of nettles, poison ivy, ditch weed, etc. We will be spraying thoroughly around it once the digging is complete to eradicate it all and let other natural grasses and plants take their place. I suppose you would probably do the same. While I like a pond to remain as natural as possible, I don't want every trip out to end in an uncomfortable outbreak of the scratchies.

That sounds excruciatingly painful. Don't know if I'd have the guts to put straight bleach (or diluted for that matter) on an open sore. You mention the chlorine and it reminds me, the last time I had it really bad, I was 18-19 and a buddy had a jacuzzi and the super hot water felt really good on it. I'd soak in there and not feel tempted to itch at all and the relief would remain for a while after I got out as well.

I have had it just about every year since I could walk, that would be 57 or so years. Sometimes just a minor case which I have right now, other times it has been really bad. One of the worst times I got it from cleaning about a dozen rabbits that had been buroughing through the roots in January. I do use straight bleach after I scratch it raw though I don't recomend that treatment, I can't count the times I have been up in the middle of the night scalding my hands in the bathroom and then going for the bleach. I took shots every year for several years in the spring and still got it just not as bad. I still keep a gal. of bleach in the shower and wipe down with it if I think I may have been close. I am going to order a new product monday (new to me) I just read about today "tecnu" 32 oz bottle for $16.50 from duluthtrading.com. Good luck

I was just kidding with you Bruce. Ivy's are climbers, and if you, as most, are susceptible to the oil's causing, well, your condition, cloths wont help. The oils only have to come in contact with fibers and they will wick, or saturate a very small spot, especially if it is cotton. Add perspiration, humidity and general motive animations like the Condello Technique and your cloths will move, and those nasty oils are still in one spot, but moving as you do, so it spreads.

I hope I did not over complicate this issue.

leupy, That kind of reminds me of a bad case I had when I brought one on my dogs in. He was digging in the woods and I got poison ivy all over my chest and arms. Lesson well learned!!!

One more thing, I still don't understand the meaning of the name you have

Golden Rings was my first thought! Leupold!

leupy = leupold, It has nothing to do with OSU football, as in "hang on snoopy"

What is an OSU? and, will it eat Aquamax?

That almost looks quite obscene Bruce, better get it fixed. Some of us may be at the breakfast table soon and I am sure you do not want to be the cause of a major Hypoglycemic Epidemic

Bruce, Just how far under your right shoulder blade??? That doesn't look like a shoulder blade or anything near it to me

I promise.

But I was wrong about the side. It's just under the left shoulder blade. Maybe that's the source of the confusion.

I woke up this morning and it's the exact same configuration, location and surface area.

Once the oil from the poison ivy is washed off (soap and water works fine), the rash will not spread no matter how much you scratch it. However, an infection can set in if the skin is broken. An oil in the poison ivy plant binds to a protein in human skin forming a haptan (protein-chemical immunogen) to which many humans develop an allergy that results in a rash. The severity of the rash can change with age in a single individual. Keep it clean and use a disinfectant cream. As a kid, I got it real bad (even closed up my eyes once). I never could keep out of the woods. Still can't but I need to rollin it now to get a reaction. I do wash up with soap and water now if I think I was exposed.

RAH, your experience sounds familiar to my own, having had it tons of times, and bad, as a kid, and rarely getting it as an adult. Is this usual, to be highly allergic as a kid, but not as susceptible as an adult?

I am not sure about the specific case of poison ivy, but children have a higher prevalance of some allergies compared to adults. In the case of food allergies, 2-3% of adults have food allergy in the US, while about 8% have them as kids. In this case, the difference is typically blamed on differences in digestion, but I think this is an incomplete answer. Our immune system is very complex, and our understanding of allergy is not very advanced. This is evidenced by our inability to cure this disorder. The antibody type responsible for most allergic reactions (IgE) is the same antibody type used to combat parasitic worms in our bodies. In countries where parasitic worms are common, people do not have allergies, and those that have bad allergies are great at fighting parasitic worms. Research to combat auto-immune diseases (IBS in particular) have even found that patients that are given large quantities of pig parasitic worms (eggs) that cannot complete its life-cycle in humans, experienced a remission of auto-immune disease symptoms. Cool stuff...

Bruce you can get a product at the pharmacy called zanfel. It is a special soap that will keep the rash from spreading and will remove the itch. It will also help to dry the rash up. It is the best treatment I know of and is not painful except to your wallet. A one ounce tube will run you about twenty bucks.

That certainly looks like a poison ivy rash. I've dealt with poison ivy exposure and the rash off and on most of my life. The plant grows in profusion all over the wooded and shaded areas of my property now. But, the rash outbreaks are much less severe now than as a child. Treatment advice for poison ivy is much like golfswing advice - it varies with whom you're getting it from. Steriod treatment may help for severe cases, but it usually gets more credit than it deserves because the rash is likely already in the resolution stage by the tome such treatment is sought. Generally, from my experience the rash has to run its course, which can be up to 3 weeks. The only effective itch relief that i've experienced is exposure to a few seconds of mildly hot water. The itching becomes intense for a few seconds (reacting with histamine release), but allows hours of relief. This is also a method of determining if the rash is indeed from poison ivy or other urushiol bearing plant exposures, because few other itchy rashes respond this way.