Allergy to Deer Hair

[Islandlaker]

I have a problem, I love to hunt deer, and eat venison. Unfortunataly I am allergic to deer hair. My eyes get swollen and red, to the point that it hurts when there open, along with a few other side affects. I am not posting this for a sob story, I have ways to cope like eye drops, and I wear googles, mask, gloves so on. What I am asking is if any of you have heard of any sory of drug that can prevent this kind of reaction?

[stick]

I have the same thing and have either avoided the deer when down and others in my party take care of it or just dealt with it. Now my brother, this past season, developed the allergy after 25 years of hunting. I posted about it to see how common it is, and I was surprised on the number of people that posted claiming they had the same allergy. People take Claritin or other allergy medicine, and I did it this fall after downing a nice buck and needing to cape it out for a head-mount. It worked wonders. Now I'll carry a little stash, and pop one when I let the arrow fly or squeeze the trigger and while I give it the normal 30 minutes before I climb down, I should be good to go.

Check back by doing a search on "allergy" and you can see the post I started on 11/11/08. Good info there.

[rattlem'up]

same here. I usually take an allergy medicine before i would start butchering deer. When gutting the deer out it doesn't bother me since its in an open area. I just make sure i wash my hands right away when i get back to the house.

[89Bronco]

I use Claritin or a similar substitute the entire month of November. I get the same thing... eyes swollen shut, itchy throat, etc. The meds work wonders. I still gut, drag, hang my own deer, but I don't have to help as much with other people's deer.

[Islandlaker]

Ya, I also take claritin, and mix it with sudafed(sp?) the two help a lot. I was just hoping that maybe there was some sort of perscription for it.

[crothmeier]

I routinely carry benadryl with me everywhere i go. I get the sneezes and itchy eyes at random times and places.

[Tripleplay]

Honest truth is the likely products that you would get on prescription are in the same class of medications as Claritin. Zyrtec is an new over the counter option but does have a bit more sedating action than Claritin. The prescription options would be either Allegra or Clarinex along with a generic version of Allegra that is called fexofenadine. All of these products also come in a combination version that includes a decongestant which is the older version of Sudafed that is behind the pharmacy counters in Minnesota now.

One other option would be products that are called nasal corticosteroids. (no, they aren't the steroids that are going to add muscle or shrink things you may not want shrunk!) They work to decrease allergies in a different mechanism than the oral antihistamines but can be just as effective but they are something that you would want to be using daily for at least 2-4 weeks before the season. If you have other allergy type issues in the fall they would be a better option but if you only need something for gutting and butchering deer than I'd go with the oral choices like Claritin.

[89Bronco]

Claritin used to be a prescription years ago. I've tried Allegra way back when, but it didn't work for me as quickly or as well as Claritin.