Health question--humanoid

[boondocks]

As I'm feeding square bales of late, I'm noticing more and more that I get wheezy after handling them. (We have terrific winds so half ends up in my face, etc). And where it (hay or even the dust) gets under my clothes, I immediately itch like crazy. I keep telling myself to wear a mask but then my glasses fog. I've always heard that with allergies to anything (whether grass, bees etc), you tend to either become more sensitized or less sensitized with repeated exposure.
Anyone else experience this? I could look into allergy shots but that wouldn't help the ol' lungs...I had "croup" and pneumonia a lot as a kid; it seems to be staging a midlife return and am wondering how much longer I should be risking exposure...

 

[True Grit Farms]

I'd surely wear a mask if your worried about it, this is a case of do as I say not as I do.

 

[wbvs58]

Definitely a case of "hay fever".

Seriously though BD, the dust in hay from moulds etc can be highly allergenic. I used get bad with the danders from cats and in my job as a veterinarian whenever I had a cold it would leave the bronchial tree a bit raw and then when I had to examine a cat those danders would settle on the inflamed surfaces triggering a sever cough and asthma like symptons. Doctors would only prescribe antibiotics which didn't help however if I self prescribed myself a short course of prednisone the symptons would disappear within 24 hrs, usually 12hrs. After a few years I did seem to get over it.

A mask will help but antihistamines and others are worth exploring.

Ken

 

[dun]

A mask will help but antihistamines and others are worth exploring.

Ken

Yupper!

 

[TCRanch]

Maybe TMI but I have a broken nose, collapsed nasal tube and deviated septum (cow incident) on top of allergies. Naaaasty but my ENT Dr. suggested I do a daily nasal rinse made up of water, baking soda (pure bicarbonate), canning/pickling salt & white Karo syrup and take Claritin D. Doesn't address all the dust/mold I inhale when I'm cutting bales (no, I don't wear a mask) but it really does help me breathe better.

 

[pdfangus]

I will often use just a bandana when in a dusty situation....might be handling hay or even cutting grass during dry times of the year....simple step that seems to help me...

I wear bandanas in the cold weather to keep my body heat from escaping through my shirt collar...it really helps...

so people around here are used to seeing me with a rag round my neck....

When I take up highway robbery I will be all set....as I frequently have a gun on my hip as well....but unfortunately everyone will be able to id the perp.....lol.

 

[Ebenezer]

Not just dust but mold. Look up farmer's lung. Remember, dust in the lungs generally stay there. Mask, sounds dumb but keep back to the wind, sinus rinse, ... Our bodies change and what was not a bother yesterday will get us today. I used to could roll in a bed of poison ivy. Now it is just the opposite. Don't die of dust or doing it the old way.

 

[pdfangus]

I once worked on a farm that was owned by a man who also owned a nationwide trucking company.
We raised purebred angus on the farm in Virginia. He also had a large land holding in North Carolina with a large commercial herd.
Every year we got several hundred feeder cattle from Carolina and from Carolina we also got truckloads of corn to support feeding the cattle to finish and slaughter weights. We fed them out and marketed....I dunno why they shipped it all to us instead of doing it in Carolina but mine was not to reason why .....mine was but to do and die....
The corn came to us in regular freight box trailers from the trucking company....I have no idea how it was loaded but it came to us in a freight box trailer about four feet deep in corn. scale weights were a factor.

To unload it we had about a four foot square piece of heavy plywood with old fashioned plow handles bolted to the back. One man would go in the trailer and take a bite of the pile and another on a tractor would pull the bite to the door into an auger hopper....this process continued until the truck was empty and then we had to sweep it out....dusty nasty work for the man in the trailer....we would get enough trailers to fill the considerable storage bins we had at the mill.

we liked to get them as close together as possible because whoever had the inside the truck job was going to be sick with a nasty head and chest cold for about a week....our simple laymans philosophy was lets get em all done and be sick one time rather than numerous times throughout the feeding season....we took turns in the truck as it was tough duty so we all got sick at the same time...and working the farm we worked sick or well...

eventually the Carolina farm was sold and we kept 200 heifers to establish a commercial herd at the home farm and increased our own corn production...

We celebrated the fact that the hated unloading job was over....we burned the plow horse skidder device.

Today an employer would probably be jailed for asking people to work in those conditions....It was just part of the job back then...

 

[Logar]

As I'm feeding square bales of late, I'm noticing more and more that I get wheezy after handling them. (We have terrific winds so half ends up in my face, etc). And where it (hay or even the dust) gets under my clothes, I immediately itch like crazy. I keep telling myself to wear a mask but then my glasses fog. I've always heard that with allergies to anything (whether grass, bees etc), you tend to either become more sensitized or less sensitized with repeated exposure.
Anyone else experience this? I could look into allergy shots but that wouldn't help the ol' lungs...I had "croup" and pneumonia a lot as a kid; it seems to be staging a midlife return and am wondering how much longer I should be risking exposure...

Might be time to switch to rounds and use a tractor to feed.

Keeps you out of harms way.

Cheers.

 

[boondocks]

I will often use just a bandana when in a dusty situation....might be handling hay or even cutting grass during dry times of the year....simple step that seems to help me...

I wear bandanas in the cold weather to keep my body heat from escaping through my shirt collar...it really helps...

so people around here are used to seeing me with a rag round my neck....

When I take up highway robbery I will be all set....as I frequently have a gun on my hip as well....but unfortunately everyone will be able to id the perp.....lol.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[boondocks]

As I'm feeding square bales of late, I'm noticing more and more that I get wheezy after handling them. (We have terrific winds so half ends up in my face, etc). And where it (hay or even the dust) gets under my clothes, I immediately itch like crazy. I keep telling myself to wear a mask but then my glasses fog. I've always heard that with allergies to anything (whether grass, bees etc), you tend to either become more sensitized or less sensitized with repeated exposure.
Anyone else experience this? I could look into allergy shots but that wouldn't help the ol' lungs...I had "croup" and pneumonia a lot as a kid; it seems to be staging a midlife return and am wondering how much longer I should be risking exposure...

Might be time to switch to rounds and use a tractor to feed.

Keeps you out of harms way.

Cheers.

With our harsh long winters, we use a mix of rounds and squares. I took everyone's advice and wore a mask yesterday. Couldn't see squat but it seemed to help. Read up on farmer's lung and it scared the bejeebers outta me.

 

[gizmom]

Boondocks

I can't google that kind of stuff the hypercrondric comes out in me and I will scare myself to death! I am glad the mask helped, this past year I had to start wearing one when I mowed grass, I had never felt the need before, but this year I decided being able to breath was better than the discomfort of the mask. This getting old sucks!

Gizmom