contact allergy to hay - anyone have one???

[motorgypsy]

I've been bothered for some time now with itchy welts - lots of them - and today I unloaded 70 bales of hay and now have them all around my waist, on my shoulders (had on a tank top), arms, even some in my head. I don't think it's mites. It's not chiggers or mosquitoes - too many of them are under clothing but not where you get chiggers. I'll try benedryl tonight but can't take it in the day time. Anyone else had this problem???

[Monty]

What kind of hay ? Could be something in it that is foreign -
Or some kind of weed that is in the bales ?
Or allergic to something and it flared up because you were working hard and sweating ?
Maybe you could try Benedryl spray ,if you can't "take" it during the day ?

[GregM]

Sometimes. Mostly it aggravates my sinuses and my asthma, but I do get some skin irritation on occasion. Only with coastal bermuda or a variant like tift 44, though, alfalfa and timothy don't really bother me at all. I am on Singualir and a half dose of Advair for the asthma so that handles most of the allergic reaction.
Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Carol Nelson]

Oh gosh, yes, I get the same when I handle the coastal bermuda....welts, hives, whatever....I particularly get it bad under my arm that I carry the daily feedings with so I've taken to carrying the hay in buckets. I think it's from bugs in the hay...probably chiggers? I've found oral Benedryl works in extreme cases...or I buy a product called Chiggerex Plus from Wal-mart. Works better than Benedryl cream, or Caledryl lotions, or Cortisone cream or any of the other topical remedies.
Now sometimes there will be fireants that creep into the alfalfa...I used to get fireants from one product I bought from a particular hay producer, but I don't buy from him anymore and don't have a problem with ants unless they crawl into it from my own barn floor. I try to use the Amdro on them before they get to the hay.
Isn't it wonderful to live in the land of heat and humidity....boy, does it breed bugs! :roll:
Doesn't seem to bother the horses at all...

[Monty]

:lol: One good side to living up north - no bugs for about 5 months :D

[Carol Nelson]

Yeah, sweetie...if you want five months of snow, cold, clouds, and ice...I've had both...I'll put up with the bugs. They don't last long anyway. And we have the most BEEE-YOOO-TEEE-FULL....WINTERS!! ;-) :lol:


Hey, and wait just a minute there...I remember....you DO have the bugs in the summertime....MOSQUITOS....the state bird of Minnesota...grin!

[andrea]

Ihave to agree with Monty. My mother inlaw moved to Florida. That place gives me the willies. We had to watch out for posionous snakes and there was scorpians, I believe that is what she called them. They were on the door handles to the house. Eck. She put charcoal under the beds to keep them out of the bedrooms. I could not sleep. So next time I took a motorhome. Give me the two months of skitters and 4 seasons anyday.

Cant help you with the whelts. I am allegeric to hay but just the lungs.

[Minouri]

Motorgypsy,

My brother and his daughter broke out in small red dots when they helped me carry hay to the back field one day. It went away in a couple of hours. I had them go wash down ...if I'd had benedryl I would have given them that, too.

I'd say don't unload any hay.....do you have anyone who can do it for you? Some might consider that a nice problem to have.

My mom had a stroke years ago.....she only lost two abilities.....1) the ability to cook and 2) the ability to do housework....both confuse her now. :lol:

[CarolU]

I have grass allergies and do the same thing. I went to an ENT that specializes in allergies and was tested. I was allergic to every grass except orchard, every tree except pine and birch, and every weed. Sagebrush is my worst allergy. So, I started immunity shots, and am no longer as allergic to many grasses now. Some grasses I am no longer allergic to. I used to have to come in and quit riding whenever someone was mowing their lawn. At work I had to change job sites and go out to the desert to get away from the lawns in the housing area. I no longer have to do that for bluegrass...but weedwackers still send me sneezing.

When I handle hay or work in my gardens, I wear long sleeves, gloves, long pants, boots, and a face mask. I come in afterwards and change completely and wash my face. I do this twice a day to feed.

I went through 2 years of 2 shots once a week, now I'm down to one shot every two weeks. Now does anyone doubt that I REALLY love my horses! LOL

[Minouri]

Wow, Carol. I didn't know you could build up an immunity through shots. Guess I never thought much about it.

Yep, you sure love those ponies!

[Carol Nelson]

Yeah, I was a very sickly child and took the allergy shots for three years...they got remarkably better.
I forgot to mention the washing...yes, after every feeding, I go to the hose and simply wash down my arms....helps immensely!
And in this heat and humidity, feels so good! Sometimes I stick my head under the faucet too!
That's where the "boy-cut" comes in nice!

[jodiTowne]

I do react to hay and just wear long sleeves and jeans. Same thing will happen in long grass. If it doesn't touch my skin I'm OK.

FYI.....for those with asthma related to allergies, there is a new product out called Xolair. It is for special cases and not many primary Docs know about it. It is expensive, but if you qualify your insurance covers it. It stops the allergy cascade. It has changed peoples lives.

[Barbwire]

I also get hives from hay touching me. When we get hay, and it's too hot to wear a long sleeved shirt I use the arm protectors that my husband made. What you do is, take some men's knee socks and cut the toe off, you put your arms through them, so the elastic part is at your wrists. You keep them on when you move hay and are able to take them off right away when you are done.

When I do get irritated, I take Benedryl and soak in an Aveeno oatmeal filled tub.

[Soltera]

Carol, my goodness, that has to be the very definition of loving your horses!

I get the red bumps after feeding hay, too, some of which develop a tiny white place that itches something fierce (bug bites, probably). I carry a small container of hand gel everywhere, due to my workplace (I work in a public unemployment office where we assist lots of stressed out, sniffly sick people, who often bring their sniffly kids – options are few for the laid off of this world, bless their hearts). An immediate dousing of hand sanitizer on the insides of my forearms, gently and thoroughly wiped off with both sides of one of those “rags in a box” paper rags prevent any bumps from forming.

[PLEASURE PASOFINO]

Through the years my body have created a very low tolerance with hay, what it seems to work for me is pooring lots of cold water and in about 5 minutes the hives are gone.

[motorgypsy]

Thanks guys!!!

All we need to do now is create a calendar with our hives of the month pictures. I know the butt shot would be particularly attractive!! Mine were gone the next morning except for a small red place where the welt had been. I don't think these are bug bites or stings. No center bite dot when the swelling is gone.

Our stallion gets hives also. Had to put a fly sheet on him he had so many. Don't know if it was a nettle plant or bug bite but he had hives all over his neck and on his sides.

[Monty]

Our one BLM Mustang gets the hives all over his front and over his shoulders - not so bad since I started him on MSM and Omega Horseshine - It is the reaction from gnat or no-see-ums ! Took longer for him to react this year and not as bad - helps their immune system .

[CarolU]

This thread is making me itch!!! http://www.jammerbabe.com/flotilla/images/smiles/brows.gif

[My Pasos]

Yes, I do, bad. Hay, grass clippings & alfalfa. I break out in a sweaty rash.

[reuben T]

interesting,,, I have a mustang with same problem. I figger out west it's too dry for them bugs, bring em east and they have problems.
Fortunatly I'm alergic to nothing that i know of, even poisen ivy don't bother me, good thing it don't, I wade in it every day just about.

[CarolU]

Reuben, I didn't used to be allergic to any of this stuff either. I had no childhood allergies at all. These all started 'showing up' in my late 30's and in those days I thought of them as 'hay fever'. They got worse over time to the point I got asthma from my allergies. That is when I finally went to a specialist.

I have a good friend here in her 40's. I've watched her develop almost as bad of allergies/asthma as I have in just a few years.

I have read a lot about it. Apparently these are the result of the immune system going 'crazy' over things it shouldn't. The incidence now in the U.S. population is alarming because it has grown exponentially in the last 20 years. They don't know why it happens.