Hi Sam -
Tecnu is best used within hours of contact and ideally within about 15 to 30 minutes. Tecnu is a solvent which will remove the sticky urushiol oil from the skin. Unfortunately, once the urushiol has bonded with your skin you are in for the long haul.
As for your pets, after a walk when I know that my dog has been in some poison ivy I make him go for a swim which seems to work. You could try hosing the dogs off and use a soap. Plenty of water is the key to moving the urushiol oil off the dogs. Here's a link to the How Soap Works section which explains how soaps work. Just hosing of the dogs with a good stream of water should help dislodge some of the urushiol oil. Joy, Dawn - those sort of strong soaps work well. I would think a good pet shampoo provided it contains soap / detergent would work.
I would be concerned about using Tecnu or another similar solvent on a pet as it strips the fur / skin of natural oils. Granted this is temporary but at least with my dog, his skin is too sensitive to use those products. Also, being an Australian Shepherd he's a pretty good groomer (you'd think he was a cat) and I wouldn't want him ingesting any residual chemical. I am not in the veterinary field so these comments about how to treat animal fur is just based on what I know for my dog. |
