i know its not about dogs

Alrighty.... I'd better chime in on this one. I'm the world's worst poison ivy patient. I have had poison ivy at least 3X's a year since I was 8 years old, and I'm 33 now. I get it easily, but I'm just not gonna stay out of the woods hunting & fishing. Ain't worth it to me, I ain't gonna quit hunting or fishing so I'll just have to learn how to get rid of it better. First & foremost, if you know good and well that you've been in poison ivy, go get in some water and wash off. I don't care if it's pond water, creek water, or faucet water, get somewhere and wash off all exposed skin. Shuck the exposed clothing at your first opportunity. You don't want that stuff in contact with your body any longer than necessary.

I had a doctor once tell me that I needed to visit OU medical center & they could treat me with some stuff that would make me immune to poison ivy. I went up there & they ran some allergy tests on me, and $600 later I find out there's no such shot that they can give me to keep me from getting poison ivy. Used to be a shot that you could get, but they could never make up their minds whether or not it worked, so they removed it from the market.

When you take showers and you have poison ivy, take a cold shower. The stuff will spread in a hot shower. Hot water opens the pores in your skin, which is exactly why we take hot baths, because it gets us cleaner. Unfortunately, open pores allows urishiol oil to transmit to different spots & spreads your poison ivy. So take a cold shower, then dab off with the towel.

As far as the best stuff to get rid of it: if you get poison ivy go to your local pharmacy & buy some stuff called Zanfel. It comes in a small tube that'll cost you $40. It's expensive, but it works like nothing else I've ever seen in my life. It's a type of soap that you work into a lather in your hands, then rub like heck into the rash. It's very gritty and it feels FANTASTIC to wash your poison ivy rash with it. Besides how good it feels, it works. If your rash ever itches again, reapply the stuff & it'll quit. It usually kills the itch and begins driying up the rash after the first application. Yes, it does work that well.... really.

If I get it by my eyes or nads, I go straight to the dr & get a shot. I don't even have to see the dr anymore, he lets me just schedule the shot and get it from a nurse. $50 and I'm gone again. If I see the dr, my min. is $100....