# Survival > Bushcraft Medicine >  Tradition Medicine - Treatment of Poision Ivy

## Wise Old Owl

I generally think we have all come in contact with Poison Ivy... as a 10 year old boy I would go and play in the farmers fields of Chester County and come back covered head to toe and ready for the trip to the hospital. Three times I was covered 80 percent in blisters that burst. I had blisters where people should not scratch... But I started a year later an allergy therapy for all the things I was allergic too. I repeated this series of injections every ten years - getting scratch tested and injected weekly - in all three years of injections for lots of things like ragweed - oak and poison ivy... The last set was 14 years ago and I had lots of questions. turns out the oil of poison ivy is a tiny drop amongst other thing in the injection... So when you see advice like this....


Instructions
Things You'll Need

    * Epsom salts
    * Poison Oak-ivy Soap
    * Calamine Lotions
    * Baking Soda

          * 1  Immediately wash everything that might have touched the plant. You may be able to remove the offending oil completely or     at least reduce the impending rash.
          * 2 Soothe itching with cool, wet compresses.
          * 3 Add approximately 5 c. ground oatmeal or baking soda to a cool bath and soak for 15 to 30 minutes.
          * 4 Add baking soda or Epsom salts to your bath, or make a paste of either of these and apply it to the rash.
          * 5 Opt for lotions containing calamine, alcohol and zinc acetate; these will dry the blisters and help speed healing.
          * 6 Leave the rash open to air. That will help it heal.
          * 7 Talk to your doctor about taking an oral antihistamine if you are extremely uncomfortable or if the rash is covering a large area of your body.

I will add one more thing to that advice - if you are ever looking for a quick solution to that advice - For adults - two Prednisone Tabs and possibly two quick acting - allergy tabs of antihistamine.  (Keep in mind this is from experience -consult with a doctor) this is how I avoid reactions on the first onset, I will try this before the Epi Pen and the 911 call. 

So today I am on another page I actively look for poison Ivy and grab the leaves bare handed and rub a few leaves on the back of the arm and expose myself annually! Today I am not allergic - I get one scratch spot and life is good.

So lets take this to a new level - very recently a large group of kids allergic to milk were ask to eat one cookie a day (Study over several years)http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AAAAI/25448 

The cookie or muffins had cooked or raw milk in small amounts & the kids get better.

How long does it take to get over an allergy?... How do we trick the immune system? In a blind test, my son who is allergic to dogs came home from college and we had a new dog here in house that we rescued from the pound. He coughed and sneezed himself silly for six months -and then he stopped! - so what are we actually allergic too when it comes to animals? -SALIVA!  Most pets lick themselfs - in the case of Rugby -my dog.. he licks himself terribly, this is also a sign or doggie bordom... So you pet the dog and transfer the dried saliva to your eye when it needs a scratch... in the case of people visiting others with dogs and cats - you are touching objects that the dried saliva has been deposited - or in another situation the active presence of a lot of animals on a farm. The dried saliva is airborn and coming directly in contact with the water in the eyes.  Why are you not allergic to Poodles & Lasa's? They do not lick themselves.

This is to open a discussion that I will revisit.  Please post thoughts or questions....

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## mouse111111

This is why I'm glad I'm not allergic to poison ivy, I can pick it up bare handed.

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## LowKey

One word of caution. If you don't get all the oil off, and you do a full immersion oatmeal bath, you are going to have poison ivy in places you shouldn't scratch. The oil disperses in water and spreads.

Best 'cure' I know is jewelweed. Or Calamine if you happen to wander into a thicket in the fall after the jewelweed is frosted into mush.

I'm not so sure poison ivy is an allergic reaction. It's a chemically induced skin rash. Some people (and most animals) are immune to the chemical. Others are hyper sensitive to it. Most of us fall in the middle where you get a localized rash, put up with it for a week or so and it goes away. If you wander into another patch a few weeks down the road, chances are you will get it again.

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## Rick

I've had it one time and that was two years ago when I replaced my wood fence. I carried some of the rails from the back to the front and ground some poison ivy into a bare forearm. I had three blisters appear that lasted for about a week. When I worked outside I've waded through the stuff chest deep (literally) and never did catch it. 

I feel bad for those folks with allergies. It's time consuming and expensive to go through the tests and then there is no guarantee that the shots will be effective. I think we all have some cross to bare in life. Some are more visible than others but this is just another example of the kind of crosses some are carrying.

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## Wise Old Owl

sorry about the spell check...

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## Rick

No blood, no foul. We don't have any spell check cops so you're good.

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## Winnie

After reading threads like this, makes me glad England doesn't grow poison ivy.

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## oldtrap59

Wife and I are both lucky in that we don't have any reaction at all with either poison ivy or poison oak. There is however a 34 year old son that doesn't want to be in the same county with either one of them. Over the years he's went through shots, pills, calamine and baking soda like you can't believe. Two other outdoor type sons however, don't have any problem with it. Go figure. :>)

Oldtrap

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## TresMon

Two basics that work for me.  It's once a leap year that I get a little spot form P. Ivy.

Prevention:
Eat a dime sized new leaf.  One such leaf every 3 days or so for a month as soon as you see it popping up in spring and your treated for the year. Go easy, maybe one dose a week max if your really allergic.
I got this trick off Christopher Nyerges.  (read the various plant books: Poision Ivy gives you "contact dermatitis"  You don't have "derma" inside you. { Inhaling aromatized P.I smoke from a brush fire is an entirely different thing that will make you quite sick & broke out.})

I proved this trick to friends, family and hunting buds once and for all. I did the regimine for two months and worked up to eating substantial sized leaves. I took a month 
off after treatment- then weed-eated an old dog lot covered in P.I. - in shorts & sandals. Had lots of P.I. plant juice/oil all over my bare legs Arms & around my neck with 
all the little nicks & cuts.  The next day I had a teeny speck of PI rash on my left big toe under where my sandal strap had rubbed , thats all which I treated:

Treatment:
P on it.  First P of the day is best as it has the highest content of Urethic Acid in it.  i picked this trick up @ The Tracker school.  Seems to work for most, and do nothing for others.  With me it works amazing.

T

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## Rick

Old Coot has been after me for years to eat the stuff and I think you both are nuts. Eat it if you wish but my lips are sealed when it comes to eating poison anything. 

I'm not gonna ask how you pee on it if it's on the back of your neck.

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## TresMon

That's easy!

You hang upside down butt naked from a stout limb.  You pull your plumbing out back and let go of your bladder.

If it's so cold you have two navels, I can't help you.  Come to think of it I aint helping you regardless.

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## Rick

Admittedly not a solution I had considered. But it sounds like something Bear would do. 

Officer: "Uh, Rick, what in the name of Sadie Hawkins are you doing?"
Rick: "I have poison ivy on the back of my neck."
Officer: "Yeah, so?"
Rick: "I'm peein' on it."
Officer: "But you can't do that in the mall. Besides, you're making a mess."
Rick: "It itches."

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## Doyle

I have been taught a bush medicine for p.i is jewelweed or "do not pick me plant" which i have heard people call it. It has worked for me first hand, although everytimei  find jewel weed, it grows with the poison ivy, and i end up getting worse looking for the plant.

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## Rick

Impatiens pillada and Impatiens biflora do indeed work well on poison ivy. Most on the forum know them as Pale Jewelweed and Spotted Jewelweed or just as Touch-Me-Nots.

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## SurvivingtoThriving

Jewel weed always works for me, you just have to put it on within 20 mins of the time you touched the poison ivy.

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## Rick

The only time I've had poison ivy I used Jewelweed the next day and it seemed to work. I didn't actually break out until the next morning and then I applied it. I don't know how you'd know if you had PI oil on you or not within 20 minutes.

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## Sparky93

> The only time I've had poison ivy I used Jewelweed the next day and it seemed to work. I didn't actually break out until the next morning and then I applied it. I don't know how you'd know if you had PI oil on you or not within 20 minutes.


I have a friend who is allergic to poison ivy bad, one fall his truck broke down in the woods. So he crawled under to investigate, well the poison ivy was unnoticeable because it was all wilted and dead but still had the PI oil on it. He was broke out from head to toe, I forget how many shots he had to get. Thank God so far I have not been affected by the stuff!

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## lucznik

> Treatment:
> P on it.  First P of the day is best as it has the highest content of Urethic Acid in it. 
> T


What is "urethic acid?"  

I googled it and I get nothing helpful.

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## gryffynklm

That is a mis spelling he meant to say Uric Acid. from your urine. Do not take internally.

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## Wise Old Owl

You can find fault with the science, but folks science has been pumping out mis-information locally for thirty years. How to loose weight? Studys say:...... or avoid this..... 

In the news the pendulum swings both ways....recently a study introduced cookies with small amounts of milk to children that were highly allergic. Guess what... after 6+ months the kids reaction was reduced... I avoided melon and catalope for 20 years - now I am having a huge reaction when I see a melon with strawberries. The hint of mellon will cause hives

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## giedre11

Only rubbing alcohol will get rid of the poison ivy oil. If you use soap and water first you will only spread it!

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## gryffynklm

So you are saying that Jewel weed hasn't worked for all the people that posted before you including myself? Wow!! thanks for the info??? Only??? Perhaps for you.

 Your treatment is effective as long you treat within 10 min or so.

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## RobertN

I usually use calamine lotion although I try to wear long sleeves and pants when I know I'm in poison ivory country. Usually I get chiggers more often than poison ivy. As far as eating the leaves, I don't think I'd risk my health doing that. I'd hate to get poison ivy in my mouth or throat.

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## Rick

Try the jewel weed. It's abundant throughout Indiana.

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## TwiztidLily

Ok peeing and Jewel Weed I have heard of but in all honest would probably not use it. Simple remedy is Baking soda and water. Mix them up to a thick paste an apply. Do this every 6 hours. Baking soda drys it out an extacts it from the skin. This is also good with mosquito and other insect bites. Even bee stings. Its simple an cost little to make. An when it dry in the container it is in, just add water.

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