Poison Oak

No need for tecnu. Any soap and water is just as good. Tecnu was invented by hallmark.
 I've worked in poison oak plenty.

Once as a young'n my brother and I went down and tossed foil wrapped potatoes in a neighbors burn pile. Yup, we did this often as a snack. Little did we know he was burning PO with the brush. That just about did in my brother and I. After a bottle of Pred pills that cured my poison oak for thirty years. After that I now get it but only where it makes contact and then it doesn't spread.

Yeah, a screaming hot shower feels ooooh so good on the itch. Not sure if it helps but oh it feels so good.

any wal mart has a real god section of poison oak soaps..technu...at least in Cali  they do 

Pee on it!

I had it really bad about 10 years ago. My friends dog was running around all day in the bushes at Don Pedro. That day later i found the dog sleeping in my bed on the houseboat. On my way home a couple days later my face started swelling so bad I could barely see to drive home. Went to the doc in box to make sure my lungs sounded fine. Was prescribed Pred, Berta found the dosage and took me to her vet office and got it for me out of the her med cab and that is why I bark out loud at times.

^^^ this makes a lot of sense now. =)  This is all good Info guys thank you, Is the Technu available in local drug stores or is order online the only way???  I want some for the glove boxes of my work trucks and my camping gear immediately.   I had one of my employees get PO and I felt pretty sorry for him....that ill teach to piss in the woods when there is a perfectly good bathroom available on the job haha

eating leaves for immunity ?
making a tea from the berries?

"i can run right through it and not catch it!"

all sound like GREAT ideas....

Technu....just use dish soap...heck why not...save 12$ 

Oh I hate urushiol. Cant even count how many times Ive had it. At least five times a year.  Have been highly allergic to ivy and sumac growing up in the woods of IL and WI. Moved here and seem to think I don't react as bad to the oak now but still get bumps and rash from the dogs and gear months later. I have become attentive to washing after my adventures. Tried most the tricks as its an allergic reaction so I think its mainly staying clean and healthy to keep it at bay.
 
 A good ( fish friendly) trick to get rid of the oak in the yard is put "round up" in a can/jar and soak toothpicks in it. I use a paint brush and start painting all the leaves I can and any stem or vine I poke the toothpick into it and leave it till its dying. This mainly stops it from spreading all over the yard. I say this because weed killers"round up and so on" are bad for fish reductive systems. I used to just "dose" the whole area before I knew it affects.

Try adding dish soap for a spreader. the reason round up doesn't work well on P.O. Is the oil on the leaves. It won't let round up penetrate very well. But I have to admit the best killer I ever used was some Bad gas I had in a tank. (I know but this is bad but it was years ago.) This gas was a couple years old years, and the gas turned sour. I threw it away on a patch I had that was loaded wit P.O, it was dead in less than two days and never returned. Then Ortho put out a P.O and brush killer. It foamed up like the dish soap did and the rest as gone. Never returned been over 20 years now.

Man I would have popped those blisters LONG before they got anything like that!

To all the Tecnu naysayers...Please read:

Toxicodendron dermatitis: poison ivy, oak, and sumac.
Published in: Wilderness Environ Medicine. 2006 Summer;17(2):120-8.
By: Gladman AC.

You can read it, or you can just believe that it works better than most anything out there.

10:1 Copenhagen spit juice works better than Tecnu, but in case, bring a whole buncha that stuff!

 

10:1 Copenhagen spit juice works better than Tecnu, but in case, bring a whole buncha that stuff!

You just want an excuse to spit on people

I have always gotten it very bad.  My dad would chew me out for getting it - "what did you do, run through that shit?!!"  I was sent on a camping trip with my grandparents one year (12 years old or so) right after I'd gotten a bad case of it from a dog.  Camping at the beach with it was not OK.  I've had shots several times and been told that too many of those is not a good thing.  I've tried Technu, but it seems geared to a situation where a couple hours later you're looking to clean it off.  That doesn't happen in my world.  I clean it off of me immediately.  I always watch for the plant - even without leaves - and I try to be very aware of any contact.  I wash immediately if possible, and dirt/mud/sand/gravel will do if that's all you have.

My main things are 1) put the highest priority on avoiding contact, and 2) if there is any contact, wash immediately.

It usually shows up on me within 24 hours.  If you got it after two weeks away from the field then it was on something, but it can't be on everything or you would've gotten it earlier!  It's never on everything, and sometimes whatever you got it from now doesn't have it - it's with you now!  It's trippy shit, and it's torture.

Don't get it.

my neighbor swears that by eating the leaves you gain immunity...and has shown me several times
but im too chicken to try it ...I don't get it bad
but the trick is to get the oil off your skin fast so tecnu, ajax, dawn, bleach. butter, oil ...anything that will dissolve the oils will work

Eating can work, but can also be real bad if it breaks out in your throat.  I'm fortunate it really doesn't bother me.  I have walked through lots of it in shorts and sandals while helping a friend track a deer he shot in thick brush and it didn't have much effect on me.  I got poison ivy once when I was little, but it wasn't that bad.

Repeated exposure can also lead to systemic outbreaks. I had it terribly each season during the first few years I lived in Bonny Doon. Got it from brush clearing, from the dog (who gave it to 6 people during a party), from handling contaminated clothing....just wicked. I started getting it from being out in the sun...no plants anywhere. Turns out the human skin can actually hang on to the oil if the exposures have been constant enough. Then heat triggers the reaction.

for two years I avoided all potential contact and it finally stopped. haven't had it bad for about 10 years now. Last time I got it was 2013 on the tops of my feet from wearing slaps on the SMC that low-bush poison oak is terribly sneaky stuff.

cold showers, dish soap, and tech Nu help tremendously.

I'm feel your pain and am glad to know Im not the only one who gets systemic outbreaks. The best remedy Ive found is getting in the ocean. the cold water soothes while the salt water helps dry it out.

really good point a throw away paint brush is also the best way to really apply a good dose ...paint the whole plat-whatever kind it is- and re-apply in a week -and as needed for tough plants....i'm way in the country, a mile almost from any water source, is spraying still bad news

The weed killer Is safe for humans ( could drink it ) would never recommend it !!!and it works by blocking the enzymes that make it reproduce. As far as I know it's a tough compound to disolve and my guess it makes it to most ground water and stays. My Father is a chemist and worked on something like that before it was commercialy sold. We had a koi pond and he was vary adamint that it affects the fish and will kill them if I get it around the water. Knowing that I live near the Russian River about a mile or so I don't use it more then a brush or toothpick.
 Oh never knew it was in some shrooms thanks for the info.

I believe I have gotten some PO in the last 5 years, but just a small patch on the arm or leg.  But growing up in the mountains I had lots of PO rashes after running through the woods. Then it all stopped, and I thought I had an immunity too.  For several years I never got it. The last time I can recall having it bad must have been in Middle school, and I only remember that because the family jewels were affected.    When out in the forest now, or following a path to the ocean, I look very cautiously and avoid pretty much everything.  Seems to be working, as I cant really remember getting it anytime recently... 

Eating it???  Must be a joke...

Midwest-
thanks for the reply..i try to not use it too often..once in spring around some fence posts and a hillside when stuff is about 3 inches tall -keeps that spot bare ..no need to weed wack or hack vines...rattlesnake by my back door when we first moved in has me keeping a clear area around the property that was like 2-3' tall before...I dont like to use it though-roundup

wanted to kill the back yard now before spring and re-do it---weeds and thistles to mow really...and start fresh
but was worried even a light spray on a sunny day ,to dry quick on leaves and grass, would be bad for my beagle who like a nice nibble of grass here there each day...may try it anyways and fence her off the lawn for a week?

anyone here used roundup on a lawn area to demo it and had dogs etc? says safe for pets and livestock  maybe it is..?

as far as mushrooms containing the oil itself...it may be in the ground from run off and rains and I had a system reaction really bad..but I know I got poison oak from touchy a slippery jack....I've seen choice Chanterelles pushing up through roots and actually being sliced in half as they grow out and around the root...and also chanterells right in among poison oak around oak trees and grassy areas...so for sure those would be scary for me...I always worry when I see market chanterells if they were in poison oak..also petting any country dogs that can roam like where I live , has me washing my hands after pretty fast