... that this year's freshly cut and baled grass hay:
could make me so miserable?:
It's a rather cruel joke for a farm girl to be so allergic to her critters' food that it virtually incapacitates her, don't you think?
Believe it or not, the goofy mask seems to be the one thing helping the most. (The donkeys were a bit taken aback, though.)
Now I just need to find a pair of goggles and then all points of entry for those nasty allergens will be stopped dead in their tracks...
--> picture to follow (kidding).
Oh no you poor thing :(
ReplyDeleteI'm allergic to cats yet somehow stray cats always end up living at my place. So I end up living on antihistamines :)
Your mask is so mysterious... ;)
What kind of mask are you using? I come in and cuddle up next to the air purifier when I've done a lot of gardening...
ReplyDeleteOh no!! How many bales did you buy? Hopefully, once they are gone, you won't have such troubles!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you found something that helps a little, at least.
ReplyDeleteI've tried using goggles when we mow because it's so dusty. They mostly work, but I sweat like crazy.
Hope you beat the allergies, Danni!
oh, sorry you are so miserable! i SO enjoy the smell of hay so would be heartbroken if i had hayfever!
ReplyDeletethat is an all too familiar scene for me! I'm not sure what God was thinking when he gave animal lovers such horrible allergies! But it is worth putting up with it for our furry friends!!!
ReplyDeletePoor you. My daugher is also allergic to hay. Makes seeing things at the State Fair and other wonderful things a trip to medicineville.
ReplyDeleteI bet the donks thought your fly mask slipped huh? tee hee The Olde Bagg
I hear you! For me the worst are fescue and Timothy, so I try to stick to orchard grass.
ReplyDeleteOh Danni....I feel bad for you... not only is it hard labour,but it sure can make life miserable with allergies. Poor you!
ReplyDeleteScheherezade? Is that you?
ReplyDeleteI'm allergic to hay as well. I've always thought it a cruel joke to be a horse crazy girl allergic to their feed. I haven't tried a mask yet...
ReplyDeleteyours truly is a labor of L.O.V.E.
ReplyDeleteWe're glad the mask work for you.
Well, so much alike again! I too am allergic to straw/hay (the molds in it). I'm also allergic to cats and dogs......don't let my "babies" know!! :)
ReplyDeleteI know what you are going through. I'm kind of wimpy when it comes to any grasses, weeds and of course, hay.
ReplyDeleteI pop the old antihistamine in the morning and still have to come in at some point during the day.... and now the wind is blowing the fire debris around too.
None of this will end until the first rain. That isn't going to happen any time soon.
Guess we just need to have some patience with the allergy meds.
Take care and wear that mask.
Cruel joke....YES IT IS!!! I am so sorry that you are suffering. I know just how miserable allergies are, and can commiserate with you. I was horrified to discover that I seem to be allergic to the barns. I get the sniffles every time I go down to feed the calves in the morning and at night. Its not bad, but makes me sad b/c I know major jobs are going to make me miserable. Its not fair! I'll cry adn whine for both of us!
ReplyDeleteSo Danni, I'm confused. Have you always been allergic to hay or is there something about this year's crop that is causing you all this discomfort? And Ken wants to know is this hay you grew and baled or is it from another source? Curious minds need to know!
ReplyDeleteYour mask is a farm fashion statement! I use one when I mow the weeds as I am allergic to the weeds, pollen and dust.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am so sorry. :( Miserable.
ReplyDeletei feel your pain danni! i am so allergic to everything 'out there' that i look like something horrible has happened whenever i work in the garden. i cry and blow and snot and weep. well, you get the picture. and then of course my hands or gloves are dirty so it just becomes one big sloppy mess!
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling, I have the same problem! It's worse in the fall/winter/spring, for some reason the summer isn't as bad, but the hay bothers me. It is funny that we'd be allergic to what all our kids need to eat! But what the hay, that's what meds are for, masks, nasal sprays lol :) Glad to hear the mask is helping, if it works that's awesome!
ReplyDeleteMarigold, lol!
ReplyDeleteThis is not good! Have you explored remedies?
ReplyDeletePoor you... no fun. Speaking of our critters not recognizing us... yesterday, Don and I washed our cars. I had a baseball cap on and Suni kept barking... she didn't recognize me!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's very, very weird how different hay crops affect us. No fun!
Oh, my! I am so sorry for you. I just 'visited' your world having an allergic reaction to hay and dust - usually it doesn't bother me. But, on this occasion, I was miserable.
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better!
Thanks, all, for the good wishes. Somehow it makes me feel better to know that many of you know what I'm going through.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen Anne - believe it or not, the mask I'm using in the photo is a super dense one meant for fiberglass removal, but I also use the lighter ones meant specifically for allergen blocking. :-)
Oh, Cee Cee! I bought 2 tons of this hay - that's about 90 bales! It's something about the time of year. If I get hay that has been stored a while or later season hay, it's not nearly so bad.
Hi Michelle - Yup, that's what this is: Timothy grass hay. It's most predominant around here.
Marigold - that made me laugh out loud!!
Hey, CaliforniaGrammy - So, your question is a little complicated, only because I don't seem to be consistent with in the severity of my allergies each year. To try to answer your question(s), I have suffered with allergies my entire life - when I've done the needle-poke testing (twice over the course of my life), the things I have reacted most strongly to are blooming grasses and cats. After that, certain types of trees cause me grief. I'm not sure what it is about this year's hay, in particular, that has me almost totally incapacitated. This happened a couple years ago, too, but this year is particularly bad.
To answer Ken's question (Hiiiii Ken!!!), I have the hay brought in. We do not grow our own hay. Heck, I'm still working on trying to cultivate a decent grazing pasture. :-)
Hi IanH! Well.....I have tried (and continue to try) everything from allergy shots, OTC allergy pills, prescription allergy pills (all of them at one time or another), nasal inhalers, and antihistamine eye drops, to, finally, ripping off all my "contaminated clothes" and jumping into the shower the second I come in from the barn. Is there another type of remedy you know of that I might explore? I sure could use one because my bag of tricks ain't workin! :-) :-)
That really stinks, Danni :( Until I was about 30 I suffered miserably with grass allergies, but when I got older my allergies seemed to go completely away. Until we moved out here ........ hay will get my allergies going if I handle it too much, and straw breaks my arms out in huge welts if I handle it without wearing long sleeves. I react worse to the straw than hay, and I take allergy pills daily. Ever try Zaditor eye drops for allergy relief? I swear by it for helping to alleviate itchy eyes and I use it twice daily. Good luck, Danni!
ReplyDeleteDanni, I forget if I suggested this here or elsewhere where someone was having allergy problems. I have a Honeywell Quiet Care 17005 Air Purifier which helps. It is a bit noisy, so I tend to run it when I am not home or at night in a room next to the bedroom.
ReplyDeleteI'm so allergic to our small bales too. I can shovel the entire coop out and be fine, but as soon as I break into a new bale to bed up their space... I'm done. Every time.
ReplyDeleteI started with a runny nose today, and was wondering what set me off. Hay, hmm.
ReplyDeleteI fight with the hay alergies, too. Year round. Also, have rag weed blooming right now that is even worse. In the spring it is the juniper trees, and in summer the tumbleweeds. Always something here, even the d---- dirt/sand.
ReplyDeleteYes llama's are death on coyotes. Sometimes I wish I had one for that reason. We have lots of coyotes and can't let the dogs or cats out at night because of them. I think I lost one cat to them and several neighbor cats have been lost. but my neighbor with the chickens hasn't lost any. But he has a big, big dog outside.
I didn't realize I was allergic to hay until I worked a stint as a stable hand. I find that Allegra works well for me. It was always worse in the spring when we got fresh hay in.
ReplyDeleteSince you've not posted for a while I'll assume you're still under the weather Danni. I'm so sorry . . . too bad the critters need to sustain themselves with something you're so highly sensitive to! But we do love our critters and will put up with most anything for them. Sure hope this passes sooner than later!
ReplyDeletePoor you. Glad the mask has helped!
ReplyDeleteOh no! My husband is allergic to something in the Eastern Oregon grass hay that we used to buy. It gave him seizures. So, I was stuck wrestling those 3-string bales all on my own. I must say, I built up some pretty good muscles then.
ReplyDeleteNow, here in Georgia, he doesn't have a problem with the Bermuda grass hay we get. And, the bales here are tiny (35#). So, I don't get much of a chance to build muscle by bucking hay anymore.