I Am Really Dumb.....

[seniorcats]

Has this ever happened to any one? I bought some really great looking local hay to supplement the 50 pound bags of Oxbow I usually get. I sorted through the hay and removed some plant material that didn't look like hay. For the last 2 weeks,I have been getting what I thought was poison ivy on my hands, arms, chin and neck - nasty and itchy.

After 2 weeks of this I went to look at the field where the hay was grown and saw this stuff.

The foliage is turning orange and the berries are a beautiful purple. It's poison sumac - Oh Duh! :shock2:

I feel like a grade A double dipped dumb ***!

At least I've sorted it out of 3/4th's of the hay bale. Would this stuff bother the rabbits if they had gotten any? I know our cats don't get poison ivy but I'm not sure about rabbits.It's back to the Oxbow for us.

 

Oh Anne , Sosorry you have to go through PoisonSumack , that itsh is maddning, Dont feel dumb , It happens a lotwith field grown hay , I knowit doesnt hurt horses because they avoidit , it has a smell to it they dont like, there fore avoiding it . Im not sure what itwould do to a Rabbitand Im afraid to have to findout . Another thing you canfind sometimes in field grown hay isDealy Night Shade not poisonous totouch but deadly when ingested, It looks like a potato vine and hastiny purple or white flowers , depending on variety.

Good rule of thumb , whenhandling plant material in a bale of haywear rubber gloves and donttouch your skin . I buy baled hay from fields, but use gloves when pickingthrough it . toss gloves away when done .

 

[BlueGiants]

Oh you poor thing! I really hope youget over it quickly... that is a nasty itch that becomesintolerable. (Don't scratch! You don't need anyinfections!) Have you tried oatmeal baths? Theyworked when my daughter had it...

:bath:

 

[RaspberrySwirl]

Oh good grief!Like I need one more thing to worry about! :XI was justbragging to Carolyn today about the new bale I got Sebastian and howhappy he is with it! It has never evenoccurred to me that Imight have to pick things out of my fresh hay before!:shock:Now I'll be looking for trouble where I never knew itexisted!

Raspberry

 

[seniorcats]

Thanks all for making me feel lessdense. Gloves, writes reminder note. It's hard forme to wear gloves when I garden but I know I should. I nevergot poison anything until 8 years ago. I used to roll inpoison ivy when I was a kid and no effect. I'll get a bunchof those plastic gloves from the dollar store.

Raz, I was sorting it to make sure there was no curly (or curled) dockin the hay. It grows in all our fields and across the US andCanada. The plant is really big and obviously nothay. By the time it ends up in hay, it's usually dry and darkbrown. Cows eat it sometimes but I've never seen a rabbittouch it. I pull it out just to be safe.

http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=plant_profile.cgi&symbol=RUCR

I pull out anything that looks like leaves, especially the large onesfrom curly dock and anything that vines, like Gypsy mentioned thedeadly nightshade. A little Datura and we could allbe high and happy and hallucinating.

At $3.00 a bale, it's hard to pass up good local hay. Oatmealworks for me followed by an apple cider vinegar rinse. Myhusband makes me sleep in another room after that treatment.

 

Anne ,

Here is another option for cutting thepoison oak , sumak and ivy oils!

Dawn dish saop

ajax dish soap,

or any other grease cutting dish soap ,

Like Dawn says it takes grease ( and oils ) out of the way .

 

seniorcats wrote:

I used to roll in poison ivy when I was a kid and noeffect. I'll get a bunch of those plastic gloves from thedollar store.

That brings back memories of 6th grade camp! I tried so hard to getpoison ivy so I could go home and I never got it. Iwasrubbing it on my arms and face and nothing everhappened!!!If you can actually get it later in life, I knowto be careful now!

 

[bluebird]

If you know you touched poison ivy. if you washwith Fels-Naptha laundry soap it removes it.dont wait for the rash,wash as soon as you know you were in it.Bluebird

 

bluebird wrote:

If you know you touched poison ivy. if you wash withFels-Naptha laundry soap it removes it.dont wait for the rash, wash assoon as you know you were in it.Bluebird

They still have that on theMarket!!!! I love that soap itworks wonders for the rabbits also , Iused to use it way back when to cleanlitter pans !

< runs to the store to find some >

 

[bunnydude]

Oh man, I feel bad for you. But don't feel dumb. How were you to know that there was poison sumac in the field?

 

[cirrustwi]

Oh, man, I buy field grown hay, I never everthought I had to go through it to look for things. I don'teven know what to look for. I do know that there isn'tanything white or colored in my hay, so should it be ok? I'mnot allergic to poison ivy or anything like it, so I wouldn't evengeta rash from the hay.

Ok, I'm trying to tell myself there is no reason to panic!(See, I'm already going, maybe Daisy ingested something bad...but thenthe others would have had a problem right? Or her blood workwould have been bad or they vet would have picked something up,right????)

Jen

 

[seniorcats]

cirrustwi wrote:

Oh, man, I buy field grown hay, I never ever thought I hadto go through it to look for things. I don't even know whatto look for. I do know that there isn't anything white orcolored in my hay, so should it be ok? I'm not allergic topoison ivy or anything like it, so I wouldn't even geta rashfrom the hay.

Ok, I'm trying to tell myself there is no reason to panic!(See, I'm already going, maybe Daisy ingested something bad...but thenthe others would have had a problem right? Or her blood workwould have been bad or they vet would have picked something up,right????)

Jen

I generally remove all the leaves, berries, really thickstalksand vines that I see in hay. It didn't soundlike Daisy had gotten into any bad plants. The FDA websitesays animals, except a few higher primates, are not sensitive to poisonivy or it's cousins - good news!

Fels Naptha soap - it's in the laundry section at Wal-Mart.

 

I am Bumping this threadback up , because it has some valuable informationin it and I have to add somethingsI found out recently , notthorugh just word of mouth but something Iam at this very moment experiencingwith Field grown hay .

I have been having issues with my Tort Liter ofDutch for the last 3 days , very runny cecal matter, everything was fine with them until Iopened a fresh bale of Field Hay . Now tobe honest I havent found anything ofsuspect in it as yet , but that doesnt meansomething wasnt sprayed on the hay before baling ,nor on the ground while it was being grown .

Right now I have a tort baby 10 weeks oldon my lap sprawled out scrossed my lap ,he has no energy, no desire to move ,nothing , very lethergic. eyes are brightbut thats the only good sign .

I have tried giving him water by mouth ,nutrical etc , but he has no desire to swalloe , itjust runs back out ,

All hay was removed from ALL cages babies included, He was fine last night , eating peeing andpooping , the runny cecal matter seemedto have dried up and normal poops werethe result . the other 5 have allresumed normal poops also.

this particular one acts as though he might have been poisioned bysomething possiblyin the hay. A friend has lost 3 rabbitsrecently to Milk Weed in her hay bales . please please be carefullfeeding out field hay for the time being ,

If this is from milk weed the white fluid is also toxic torabbits it could be sread thinly through out the hay , but enoughtoxin still in it to be able to kill a 10 week oldbaby.

 

[Bassetluv]

Thank you for bumping this, Gypsy...it's anotherthing I would never have thought about. I buy baled hay as well, butwould never know what to look for (the only thing I watched for wasdampness/mold/heat buildup). But to look for certain plants that couldbe toxic, such as milkweed...I'd have no idea what it would look likecompressed in a bale of hay. That's really scary stuff...:?

 

[m.e.]

I'm so sorry to hear about the little baby bun, gypsy

I guess my question would be: how can you know? How can you tell ifthere's something like that in the hay? Is there a safer way to buyhay, that at least gives some assurance there won't be anything in itthat could harm our rabbits?

~Emily and the Fuzzbutts~

 

Peg :

Field grown hay is just that , its whatmost Ranchers feed their Horses , its grownin open fields and is generallyvery safe , occasionally you willfind such as Ann did Poison Oak or Sumackand even Poison Ivy , most farmerswill watch thier fields for such, knowing that itcan and will show up somewhere , This isthe first I have heard of MilkWeed being a problem , but then againthis year has been a very strange growing season, What Bothers me is I didnt buy thisfrom a fFarmer perse' I bought it through my localFeed Store , supposed to be safe , butnothing is guaremteed .

Emily :

Nothing is ever 100 % safe , nor can we ever findevery little thing in a 40 lb bale of hay, and IF it is milk weed poisoning there would beno way to detect its presence by sight , It would have to goto a lab and be tested for it .,

With the way hay is cut thereis no true way to setermine if any Toxicplants got cut down withthegrasses , it would all look the same ,and unless you are highly experienced in Botony ,an average off the street person wouldnt know whichstem was which. Unless it was somethingyou already knew what to identify it as .

Bagged Hay for right now seems to be themost safe way to go when feeding hay . It will bemore expensive but the safety involved willafford even a tiny bit of relief , If OneBaby is saved by buying bagged hay then Iconcider it worth the extra investment .

Where as I dont trust the 2bales I have right now they willbe put into a High heat scorce anddestroyed .