Today, we want to share something very near and dear to us, Poison Ivy Rash Treatments. This may sound odd but once you have had a good case of poison ivy or one of its’ cousins, you will understand why we say that. If you have had it, you already know and understand.

With fall coming many will be setting up your gardens for fall crops, cleaning new areas, or just doing general yard work. With any of these comes the possibility of finding poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac.

Poison Ivy and Poison Oak, just in case you are fortunate enough not to have ever come across them before.

If you have ever been in the beautiful woods, enjoying nature, and then gone home to break out in a horrible, red, itchy, weeping rash, congratulations, you have poison ivy, poison oat, or poison sumac. Of course, people can be allergic to any number of things but these are common in our area.

As you know, we have said many times, that we are farmers. Farmers go out into the farm and do yard work, gardening, clear land for new pastures, and on occasion have to repair dog fences.

This is our case. There was a bad storm that knocked down several large trees. One large tree fell onto the dog yard fence and squashed it flat. So we, as in the whole family, set out to clear away the tree and put the dog yard fence back up. There were chainsaws, machetes, limb lopers, rakes, and other tools involved. Well, the tree was mostly covered with poison oak. To make a long story short, we, collectively, got poison oak rash all over. As luck would have it, most of us use long sleeves and gloves when working outside, but some of us do not. For most of us, the rash kept to the arms but the most unfortunate of us had it pretty much everywhere.

The pictures really do not do it justice.  It was so much worse than it looks in these pictures.

Funny thing, but not really funny, some of us broke out immediately, but for some it took between three days and a week to get the full effect. And do not think if you are not allergic to Poison Ivy that Poison Oak will not bother you, this is not the case.

Just a note of interest, do not handle poison oak, poison ivy, or any of their cousins with bare hands. If you do, this is what happens.

As we were in desperate need of help, we used what we could find and made a DIY Homemade Poison Ivy Rash Herbal Treatment. Actually, we made several as everyone thinks their way is the best. And as long as it works for you and you get relief, use whichever one you want.

We wanted to give you a list of the things that may help you with Poison Ivy Rash. Many of these we used ourselves. So we will be giving you a series of two talks for this, Poison Ivy Treatments Part One: Store Bought Treatments and Poison Ivy Treatment Part Two: DIY Poison Ivy Herbal Treatments. One talk was just too long to get it all in.

The first list is of store-bought items, and normally we use things we make but Poison Ivy is in a class all of its own and we use what works.

Poison Ivy Treatments Part One: Store-Bought Treatments

1. Dr. Tichenor’s marketed as mouthwash.

2. Hand Sanitizer

3. Tecnu

4. Oak-n-Ivy CalaGel

Poison Ivy Treatment Part Two: DIY Poison Ivy Herbal Treatments

5. Peppermint Essential Oil

6. Plantain Salve

7. Sage Infused Apple Cider Vinegar

8. Willow Bark Tea

9. Jewel Weed Tea

Yes, we know this is a bit of an odd mix-n-match of options. But, over the years, we have tried just about everything and anything we can find to combat that dreaded itch of poison ivy and its cousins.

1. Dr. Tichenor’s mouthwash

Some of us had great luck with plain old Dr. Tichenor’s Antiseptic. If you are not familiar with this, it is marketed as a mouthwash but it is really so much more. It does have a good portion of Alcohol but it also contains Peppermint Oil and Arnica. Both are used for itching, pain, swelling, and inflammation. Those of us who used Dr. Tichenor’s just washed our affected areas and dried them carefully. Then we rubbed Dr. Tichenor’s into the areas directly, with no dilution. Yes, it was very refreshing and if you had done a lot of scratching, it did burn but just about anything is better than that itch. If you are in need of quick relief, Dr. Tichenor’s worked for some of us. Of course, you should try a test spot to be sure you will not have a reaction to it.

Others of us could not use Dr. Tichenor’s straight, it was too strong for their skin.

2. Hand Sanitizer

Another note of interest, hand sanitizer seemed to help some of us also. For some, the over-the-counter, store-bought hand sanitizer was a miracle. The hand sanitizer was used directly on the rash and stopped the itch almost immediately. Over several days of use, the rash seemed to dry up and go away. The alcohol denatures the poison ivy oils and helps dry the rash.

We usually make our own or we upgrade the store-bought versions. Our hand sanitizer will normally have Peppermint and Thieves oil in them. These oils are known to help with inflammation, itch, and pain. The alcohol helps dry the rash and the Peppermint stops the itch. Thieves oil is good for many things including inflammation and it has antibacterial properties.

We did a talk some time ago on 4 Ways to DIY Homemade Hand Sanitizers.

3. Tecnu

Tecnu is marketed for just this thing, Poison Ivy Relief. It is common in most general stores, Pharmacies, and large box store pharmacy areas. There are several different products made as or by Tecnu but all have the same use, poison ivy relief. The Tecnu soap, as it sounds, is to scrub the affected area to get the poison ivy oils off the skin. There is also a lotion and a clear gel that can be applied directly to the skin. All three of these items gave relief to some of us but not so much to others.

4. Oak-n-Ivy CalaGel

Similar to the old Calamine lotion, this is another over-the-counter ivy relief. It comes in a clear gel that is to be applied directly to the affected skin. Again, it did work for some of us. It does not last all that long but when you are in dire straights, any relief is good.

All of these things can easily be found at your local stores or Pharmacies. We would always recommend using the DIY Herbal Treatments that we will discuss in the next talk but as we said before when you need relief, use what you have. If you keep DIY Herbal Treatments on hand, that is great but if not there is no shame in getting immediate help.

We hope this talk has been helpful and please see next week’s talk Poison Ivy Treatment Part Two: DIY Poison Ivy Herbal Treatments.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.