Oh no! Has it happened again? Despite your best efforts, you’ve managed to get caught up in poison ivy again. Within just a few minutes a poison ivy rash develops on your skin that requires you to itch it often. Few things are as irritating as dealing with the itchiness that comes from a poison ivy rash! These rashes often can include pesky fluid-filled blisters in addition to the scratchiness. The quicker you try to treat poison ivy, the better your chances to receive some much-needed relief. Here are 5 ways to treat poison ivy:

1. Compounded Creams

Specialty Care Pharmacy is happy to offer compounded creams to treat poison ivy. These compounded creams are topical medications that are customized to meet your specific medication needs! That means these products are made from multiple different compounds that work together to treat poison ivy and provide you with relief from those nagging symptoms. Instead of counting on 1 compound to provide relief, you can obtain a compounded cream made of multiple symptom alleviating compounds! If you don’t typically respond well to standard poison ivy treatments, compounded creams could be the answer you’ve been in search of!

2. Over-the-Counter Corticosteroids

Topical corticosteroids available over the counter are a go-to method to treat poison ivy. Topical corticosteroids are a type of steroid medications that are applied directly to the skin to reduce irritation and itchiness that often comes with a poison ivy rash. Topical corticosteroids such as clobetasol, betamethasone and triamcinolone are commonly used to provide relief from all the scratching.

3. Calamine Lotion

Calamine lotion is an over-the-counter topical medication that can be used to treat poison ivy. This soothing pink lotion works to help relieve itchiness, pain and discomfort caused by a poison ivy rash. Apply calamine lotion to dry out oozing blisters and skin irritations that are common symptoms of coming in contact with a poison ivy plant. The active ingredients in calamine lotion are zinc oxide and 0.5% iron oxide.

4. Take a Bath

The first thing you should do when you suspect you’ve come into contact with poison ivy is to thoroughly wash the affected area to remove the oils from the plant’s leaves that are in contact with the surface of the skin. Many people find that regular bath soaks can help to relieve itchiness and irritation caused by a poison ivy rash. Oatmeal baths and Domeboro soaks are a great home remedy to treat your poison ivy itch.

5. Over-the-Counter Antihistamines

Some folks experience relief from their poison ivy symptoms with the help of an over-the-counter oral antihistamine. Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) or cetirizine (Zyrtec) can help reduce the amount of itching you experience from a poison ivy rash. Antihistamines can cause drowsiness which can be helpful to get you to sleep rather than staying up all night itching. Loratadine (Alavert, Claritin, others) is an antihistamine that doesn’t cause drowsiness.

These methods to treat poison ivy are your best bet to find fast relief from your symptoms! Specialty Care Pharmacy is here to answer any questions you may have regarding poison ivy rashes. Contact us today to get on the right track to relief from poison ivy!