# Goats giving me poison ivy



## Moody (Jul 2, 2015)

I have a buck and a buckling. The separate place I have for the bucks is wooded 3-4 acres. I really want to pet these guys, keep them friendly but I can't keep from getting poison ivy even when not touching them. I have to move them from the woods to the front with the girls for the time being. The rub me or end up brushing against me and the next day I have the rash. Or the big one just must try to run through a gate when I try to go through it and I end up handling his breakaway collar. 

I wash my hands after every single time but I must be contaminating gates and latches and feeding bins and of course clothing. 

Anybody else have issues with their goats giving them poison ivy again and again?

Besides the bad rash I have chigger bites and fire ant bites so I am one itchy goat keeper. The chiggers are from cutting limbs for the girls and the ants were hanging out in my path one day.


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## Hens and Roos (Jul 2, 2015)

Wow, sorry to hear that you are all itchy  maybe you do this already but what about wearing gloves when you have to handle the boys and a thin long sleeve shirt to help protect your skin.


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## babsbag (Jul 2, 2015)

In CA where I live it is poison oak and my goats and dogs give it to me all of the time. Fortunately they eat the stuff too, love love love it, so after they are done eating it all for the year I don't have to worry about it again until the next spring when the new growth comes out again and we start the cycle all over.


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## Latestarter (Jul 2, 2015)

Man, I feel your pain (itch)! When I was younger, all I had to do was walk past poison ivy and I'd be one giant scab! Haven't had it now in years and years, and thankfully, doesn't seem to be any here.  I've been told I've been exposed to poison oak and even handled it, but have never got the rash from it   I must not be allergic/sensitive to it Short of going into their pasture with a can of agent orange to use on every plant that even resembles poison ivy, I have no suggestions of merit... Except maybe buy stock in calamine lotion...


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## Godsgrl (Jul 2, 2015)

I would wear long sleeves, pants, and gloves when you are around your goats. When you go in for the night, your clothes go straight into the laundry. Add Tecnu to the laundry. Leave your shoes outside, and douse them liberally with Lysol. Take a shower, scrub well, and wash with Tecnu. Scrub every part of you that had contact with the animals. Do not go to bed, or sit on furniture until you have taken a shower. Hope this helps. (<-----chigger phobic)


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## babsbag (Jul 2, 2015)

Do your goats eat the poison ivy? I was told a long time ago that drinking the milk from the goats that eat poison oak will help a person build up an immunity towards it. I don't know if that is true, and I don't know how pasteurizing would affect the remedy, but I do know that I don't get the poison oak as badly as I used to. I can now walk by it and even brush against it and not get it. If I do get it it is never as bad as it used to be pre-goat ownership days.


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## Moody (Jul 5, 2015)

My milkers aren't down in the woods so they don't eat it. Would be worth a try thought to see if that would work for me. Hopefully I will put the guys  there full time instead of occasionally. I have a safe pen for them at night that is lined inside and out with Hotwire to deter any predators including my own dogs. 

I have started using gloves but poison ivy can stay on tools and other surfaces for a long time so if I touch anything with the contaminated gloves then forget and touch it with bare hands I've gotten poison ivy again. 

I just watched a video about proper scrubbing to remove the urishiol from skin. 3 scrubbings with a wash cloth which is not my normal washing technique. Normally I just use soap and rub my hands together. 

Long sleeves would be better than my bare arms but that would equal lots of laundry to move the goats daily. 

I have been coming in and heading straight for the washer to strip and then to the shower for a scrub down. Hopefully this helps. I am apparently pretty sensitive to it. My dogs used to give it to me every summer.


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## Goat Whisperer (Jul 5, 2015)

Maybe get some summer/non-insulated coveralls would help? You wont have to wash your clothing as much. Just a thought 

@babsbag I know several people who have said the same thing. Some of the folks had it so bad that they would swell up like a balloon if they came in contact with it, now after the goats they have no issues


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## Pearce Pastures (Jul 5, 2015)

We were seriously just having this conversation.  My mother wants to use her goats to clear the ivy, raspberry, and other cruddy underbrush in her woods.  She has a LOT of ivy and I know that the goats will eat it up but I am sensitive to it and do most of her upkeep on those animals (vaccinating, trimming, and what not).  

I am hoping there isn't an issue.


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## BrokeHenJenn (May 16, 2016)

Thanks to my beautiful, fabulous girls I have had poison ivy almost constantly this spring.  :/  Had to go to the Urgent Care this weekend because my face had swollen up so bad that one eye was swollen completely shut, and the other was halfway there.  Not. Fun.

The girls do eat the leaves off the ivy, but not the trunk of the vine.  Which means that there is still a nice urushiol oil filled vine attached to the tree.  The girls rub up against the tree and the oil transfers to their fur - from there it transfers to anything they touch.  

The best advice I can give is to do regular checks on their pasture as they clear it.  Poison Ivy has to have something to climb on so look for vines - esp. "fuzzy" ones.  Clip it as close to the ground as possible and pull it off the tree as far up as you can get.  I like to torch the area on the tree where the vine was to dry up any remaining oil.  Otherwise it can remain there to poison you for up to a decade or more.  Bag up the removed vine in a heavy duty trash bag and haul to the dump.   Be sure to wear protective clothing while doing all this of course.  Make sure to thoroughly scrub all tools used, and place all protective clothing, gloves etc. in the washer immediately.


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## babsbag (May 16, 2016)

Supposedly drinking their milk will help build an immunity to poison oak/ivy. 

We have poison oak in CA and it grows on trees but also like shrubs. My goats adore it and the dogs run through it too. Too much to iridicate but the longer I live here the more mild my outbreaks  are.


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## Mike CHS (May 16, 2016)

I started using a product called Ivy Block that I get on Amazon.  It isn't super cheap but a bottle goes a long way and it does work.  When I got poison ivy all over me last month it was all from the one day I did not use it.


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