Poison Oak doesnt have leaves in the Win ter

“My most recent bag nights were just over three weeks ago, and as to be expexcted it was a blast.
http://www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk/thread/38009,-1.php

About a week and a half ago I began waking up with spider bites, or at least what I thought were spider bites. During the course of the past week these 'bites' have evolved in to one particularly nasty rash, and spreading.

I maintained my theory that they were the bites of perhaps newly hatched venomous spiders until this past weekend, when it became all too clear that this was indeed some kind of rash. I dismissed the notion that it could be due to contact with foliage on our trip, as the symptoms hadnt began manifesting themselves until at least a week after the trip, and I am generally cautious and aware of suspicious plants in the backcountry.

Last night I called one of my partners, Matt, who said that he had the exact same rash which has to this point spread substantially. We called Eric, same rash. With Matt having taken the family camping the weekend after our trip, and Eric going on a hike with his wife, both thought that they contacted something on these trips.

We were certain that we had no contact with the red flag plants, so we were sitting there speculating that perhaps we had some kind of blood infection resulting from infected mosquitos?? While we're kicking this notion around Eric tells us to go to askjeeves pictures and type in 'poison oak', and we start scouring through the images.

I stuck to my guns with these guys, telling them that I know for sure that we encountered none of the plants that were being shown in these pictures. The catch: nearly all of the pictures focused on and warned about the leaves.

I ran a new search for 'poison oak winter' and found an image of a spriggy sapling looking plant, and it all hit me.

Matt had decided to make some 'rope' while chilling around our fire one evening. We had been talking about how we would make fire if we had nothing, and the problem of making a fire bow came up, as in what to use for the chord. These long skinny sprigs were all over the place in a patch near our camp, and Matt decided to start de-barking some with the intention of braiding long strips of bark. This crap was poison oak.

For the next 30 minutes or so we did the worst possible thing to do, peeled bark from the poison oak stalks and handled the raw insides, proceeding to braid the bark, basically getting the maximum amount of oils onto our hands possible. Everything we touched for the next however long became subject to infection.

We learned that poison oak often incubates for 7-10 days before breaking out, and the breakout can last 5 days - 5 weeks, depending on the person. Although it is non-transferrable (person to person) after the oil has been washed away, the bacteria can spread throughout the skin of the host if scratched.

Originally believing that I was the victim of spider bites (and actually getting up in the middle of the night when feeling an itch in a new place and going into the bathroom, turning on the light to 'get those little bastards') I naturally scratched.

I wanted to get some good stuff to curb this rash, as the worst patch is on my hip, and spreading. Needless to say there are areas I dont want it spreading to. Showed it to my doctor today, who almost recoiled when he saw it, made a sound, and said 'uh, yeah, that's bad'.

Ok, I know some of you peeps prolly have poison fricken oak all over your homeland. In SoCal there is tons of poison ivy, but poison oak isnt all that common. Trust me, I wont be making this mistake twice. We got quite a chuckle with ourselves last night, and the wife thought it was flat out hilarious. 'What experienced backpackers you guys are!'”

“Welcome to Steroidland.”

“yeah the doctor gave me anti-itch pills and steriod cream”

“I got a rash like you've described once, and my doc prescribed prednisone, and the cream. It cleared it up in about two weeks.”

“im not allergic to the stuff, thank god :D”

“one of the articles I read on it said that only about half of the population is sensitive to it, and that even if you are sensitive to it you build immunity with each encounter. yeah, it's real comforting to know that Im currently living the worst of times as far as poison oaks infections go.”

“Yes, poison oak and ivy (names are interchangeable in some spheres), are nasty year 'round. It's the oil in the plant that makes you feel nasty, so its nastyness is there year 'round. Just be happy you didn't throw it into the fire.”

“not that it helps you now but in winter you look for a cinnamon colored bud to recognize poison ivy/oak”

“Roots are apparently also "poisonous." I took an archeology class many years ago, and we worked on a dig in an area with lots of poison oak. It was easy enough to avoid the main parts of the plants, but our instructor made sure we knew to avoid any roots that poked out of the walls of our excavations!

Careful, spirit - your allergicness (is that a word?) to poison oak can change. I was not allergic for years. Now, if I get within shouting distance of it I break out!”

“Make sure you wash everything you camped with and or touched! The oil survives on clothes, tents, sleeping bags, shoes, etc for up to SEVEN years. Everytime you touch any of that stuff you'll get it again. I speak from personal experience.”

“Never burn the plant either. Fire does not destroy the oils that cause the reaction. All burning will do is cause you to get a rash in your throat, eyes and lungs causing respiratory problems.
last edited: 5/17/05 4:03:04 PM”

“You have to nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

“the only piece of gear that im worried about is my sleeping bag. that sucker prolly has oil all over the mouth of it”

“Af-firmative.”

“All I have to do is drive by a forest with the windows down and I get it. I was helping with a reforestation project this spring before anything leafed out. We were hand planting and digging in the ground, leaves, etc. It was a warm day and I had to wipe the sweat away many times. I also scratched a lot of places. Some we won't talk about. 6 days latter I got this rash all over the place, the worst on my neck and face. I looked like a zoombie. I didn't even come out of my office for a few days. The doc put me on prednisone which helped in about a week. I was blistering so bad that I was willing to try anything. Which I did. The one thing that helped the most was a 50% mixture of Clorox bleach and water. I stood at the sink with a cotton swab thinking how am I going to explaine this when I wet my pants. But to my suprise it did not burn. I stunk like a laundry mat for the evening but it did dry it up. A forest service guy told me about a natural product that he takes for 3 weeks in the early spring and then once a month during the summer. I did and I got into the ivy again and started to break out but it only lasted a couple of days and was very mild. I will look up the name of this and post it. It cost about $50 but is well worth it.”

“$50 is little to avoid the ivy! Please post info asap.”

“A backpacking site with only about two threads on 'ivy'. It might have been last season or so but I tried this new stuff called ZANFEL or something like that. It a grainy cream you mix with water in the palm of your hand till its lotion like, then you rub it on to infected areas and wait a few minutes and then wash off.

It supposed to pull the oils and toxins out of the skin. I thought it worked for me really well. the trick is to attack it before it gets full blown and systemic.

It cost around $30, use sparingly to make it last.”

“sounds like one of the homeopathic meds - here is a web site with some discussion about these meds: http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/homeopathic.html”

“Good site HOI, thank you.”

“I am sorry I din't get back with this yesterday but I was out of the office all day. The stuff that I took was called Rhus Toxicodenron. I got it at a pharmacy called NuCara. I don't know if they are a national chain or not. This web site talks about it. It worked for me.
http://www.poisonivyprevention.com/”

“Thanks much Outamatches!”