Hive type rash, allergy or bite, or other possible cause(s?)

[peeba7]

These situations are puzzling because there is often more than one factor, impossible to extrapolate the cause.  But maybe the wisdom of TV health forum readers can help shed some light.  After spending a fair amount of time out in the forest wilderness and jungle I have learned who many the enemy are, usually some form of poisonous insect while most are benign.  So i suspect this is yet another insect That I disturbed, probably sat on,  that may also be a night creature. 

 

The first signs were an awful itch along my waist line, then my butt and all over my groin and crotch area.  The waistline is a dead give away for many an insect bite, they love that area. So of course I  thought it was ants or such but nothing to locate or find.  The itching intensified to almost unbearable in and hour or two spreading to my arms and legs with red hive like bumps of all different sizes and shapes (new to me.)  Additional symptoms included extremely light headed or low blood pressure, heart like condition or heart burn, often hard to tell the difference.  Later on stomach upset and a some stomach pain with loss of appetite. 

 

After an hour or two I had to lie down my head was so light I could not control my body.  My first thought was a food allergy but what ran through my mind were these possibilities: (food) allergy (ate lots of nuts, some new to me) heart burn, heart attack, heat stroke, real stroke, scorpion sting, etc...

 

After going home and seeing the hives were not only on my arms but allover my crotch butt and legs, all red and raised,  (no wonder the intense itching) and could feel a sore area where the itch seem to originate from, my temporary conclusion is I sat on and was bitten by something.  I had some similar symptoms before from food poisoning but never with the intense rash and itching.  I do NOT think I an allergic to bee spider or ant stings and bites, as awful as they may be.  I have had them all by now or is this a yet new one?  My last awful encounter was with a rove beetle.

 

I have a funny feeling I disturbed something (after sunset) and it retaliated ending in almost a hospitalization.  Any clues, ideas or similar experiences please?  <deleted> happened?   The only other time I had hive like rashes all over my body were from allergic reactions to medications but usually all the same shape and size, without the other terrible and scary symptoms. I was sure it was a food allergy or a combination of things but now I am not so sure at all and thinking it WAS a creature.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read all this and your possible help.

[jak2002003]

Some of the caterpillars are very bad... even just a very small hairy one can cause a big reaction.  I accidently touched on and my finger swelled up huge and I could not move it at all for nearly a month!!!

 

Also been stung by hornets a few times... once on the motor bike one fell down my shirt and stung me on my stomach a few times before I could stop the bike.

 

I sometimes get a massive skin allergy, with itchy, swollen red skin large areas of skin on my neck... I suspect its from something... either the small black ants, or some other creature dropping onto my neck from the mango trees when I do the gardening. 

 

As you found out sometimes you just can not avoid getting attacked!!!

[dddave]

I once got a multitude of ant bites on my back and lower body as a result of using a towel that was infested with them.  The towel had been draped over a balcony railing to dry and a hoard of the tiny red ants infested it, probably because it was moist.  

 

[Sheryl]

No telling what it was, but the key thing is that you had a severe allergic reaction.

 

You took a serious chance in not getting medical help. Don't do that again -- especially as subsequent reactions may be more severe.

 

Next time go to the Emergency Room of the nearest large hospital. It can likely be quickly treated as an outpatient with an injection of cortisone or similiar.  But untreated, this sort of thing can be fatal.

[peeba7]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

I am now thinking it was a small snake bite, never thought it would happen to me but there are two small raise bumps and it is sore where the initial reaction started on my butt, I may have sat on or startled a small snake.

 

Can a snake bite cause an allergic reaction like severe hives?

[lemonjelly]

Ants in ya pants 

[tolsti]

I occasionally have a similar reaction. It starts at the waist and under the arm pits as an itch and develops into a rash. It is generally when I have eaten nuts or prawns. I take an anti histamine tablet and it soon wears off. However I never get it when I buy live prawns and not every time I eat them. I can only assume that it happens when the prawns are not totally fresh.

[jak2002003]

51 minutes ago, peeba7 said:

Thanks for all the replies.

 

I am now thinking it was a small snake bite, never thought it would happen to me but there are two small raise bumps and it is sore where the initial reaction started on my butt, I may have sat on or startled a small snake.

 

Can a snake bite cause an allergic reaction like severe hives?

Could have been a spider bite... they leave 2 small raised lumps.... and their venom can cause such allergic reactions as you describe. 

[Sheryl]

Yes, spider much more likely than snake.

 

I've had local reactions to spider bites several times over the years here though nowhere near as severe as what the OP described, i.e. lacking the allergic component, just cellulitis - in one case a pretty nasty one.

[peeba7]

I think either a snake bite spider bite or allergic reaction as tolsti said.

 

The comment that it may only get worse the next time(s) might have been spot on in regards to severe allergic reactions.

Scary.

As weird as this might sound fatal does not nearly scare me as much as a fate worse than death.

 

I have read and heard too many horror stories about thai hospitials and seen enough doctors that I would rather not get diagnosed than be misdiagnosed so i did what any thai doctor would do and treated all the symptoms with appropriate medications and cut out the middle man.  Perhaps foolish in some opinions perhaps prudent in others.

 

Cortisone sounds like an option i did NOT consider so thanks, again, for that.  It might have been more effective than an antihistamine or maybe it is one, though it sounds like a more powerful steroid. 

 

I think I do at the very least have a decent pharmacist because she asked me right away if i wanted an antihistamine, and then when i said yes exactly she asked do you want drowsy or non drowsy!  That is smart medical care twice in a row! The same pharmacy that automatically diagnosed the rove beetle contact rash that really freaked me out. 

 

Thanks again decent thread and decent responses. 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2016 by peeba7

[peeba7]

Temporary conclusion: spider or possibly scorpion, I did not yet research on scorpion sting reaction.  It did look like two bite marks but pretty far apart for a spider. Though some of them are huge out  in the woods.

 

I want to back track a little because it is quite possible I was injected with a neurotoxin, which might end up as a fate worse than death. 

 

I appreciate all the input and maybe I should consider or prepare to visit a hospital in an emergency.  More research needed.  

[Sheryl]

I foubt scorpion since you did not feel the sting at the time. Scorpion stings are very painful...you would not fail to feel it.

What you describe does not accord with a neurotoxin but rather a severe allergic reaction.

[peeba7]

Someone suggested it may have been a millipede or centipede. 

 

I have heard of allergic reactions to bee stings but not to other insects or spiders. 

I really wonder what it was but may never know.

A plant even possibly?

 

There seems to be a small leftover allergic or neuro after affect, whatever bit me, NASTY! 

[NancyL]

It very well could have been an allergic reaction to a spider bite or even ant bites.   Sheryl's right, the reaction gets worse each time you're exposed.  

 

When we lived in Texas, a couple times I had a  major exposure to fire ants, like one time when we were laying sod, and I picked up a piece about 1 ft x 3 ft, draped it over my arm and shoulder and started to walk with it before I realized it was full of fire ants.  They're very aggressive ants, and soon hundred were swarming and biting me.  My first instinct strip and run into the shower, but warm water may not have been a good idea.  I became very light headed in the bathroom and asked Hubby to take me to the E/R.  He thought I was over-reacting, but I was unconscious, with my throat swollen and barely breathing by the time got there.  They gave me a shot in the vehicle even before unloading me.  

 

Since then, just one or two ant bites on my hands or arms, even the tame little sugar ants we have in Thailand can cause a hive reaction, usually starting around the waist and and rump.  If ignored, it can become similar to what the OP described.  The best treatment, of course, is to avoid ants, but that's hard to do here where they're so tiny.  I can prevent a reaction if I take over-the-counter antihistamines right away, both the 1-tablet every 24 kind that doesn't make you drowsy AND the shorter acting one that makes you drowsy at the same time, and apply a topical cortisone lotion like T.Man lotion to any itchy areas or hives.  One application is usually all it takes.  If I don't act quickly, though, it can get out of control and soon I'll have hives all around my waistband, rump and upper thighs.  Argh.

 

Interestingly, other insects don't bother me.  In fact I rather like a bee or hornet sting.  (Just one at a time, please)  The next day after those insect stings I don't have any arthritis pain in my joints.  When we lived on a farm in Michigan, it was pretty easy to get bee stung on a regular basis.  Not so, in urban life in Thailand.  But the ants are another story.  Somehow, they manage to make their way to the top of a high rise condo, with their formic acid bites.  

[Sheryl]

I have twice over the years developed nasty cellulitis from spider bites here. Both occurred without any pain at the time of the bite, at least not that I noticed.

 

Also developed reactions to what i think were wood chiggers.

 

It is possible to be allergic to just about anything, no reason why could not have allergic response to spider bite.

 

I have also gotten bad skin reactions from some type of weed here, but as your reaction was around the waistline that is not likely.

 

Spider or other insect is my bet. NOT scorpion or millipede though - you know when those bite you!

[attrayant]

I sometimes get a massive skin allergy, with itchy, swollen red skin large areas of skin on my neck... I suspect its from something... either the small black ants, or some other creature dropping onto my neck from the mango trees when I do the gardening.

Just FYI, mango leaves contain urushiol, the same allergen found in poison ivy & poison oak.

[jak2002003]

20 hours ago, attrayant said:

 

Just FYI, mango leaves contain urushiol, the same allergen found in poison ivy & poison oak.

 

Thank you.  I have come so suspect its the mango leaves.  I used to love eating mango.. but now I have very bad allergy to them if I eat the smallest bit of their skin or sap.... my body becomes very itchy and my skin red.  Now I have to stop eating them.. very sad, as they were one of my favorite fruits.  I think in the garden, if am working with no shirt on... the leaves must have brushed my skin... and maybe the sap got onto me too.. from cuts in the leaves from insects eating them. 

 

 

[Panda13]