Frozen bloodworm allergic reaction!

Oh man, so I've never had a reaction to blood worms although I have heard some people are severely allergic to them. I always though how lucky I was since my fish love them. However, tonight, I learned differently. Due to pollen allergies I rubbed my eye after popping the frozen blood worms out of their blister pack. And wouldn't you know it, 5 minutes later... dun dun dun... good thing I have a brand new bottle of contact solution. I took my contacts out and put them in the peroxide solution to soak over night and I am flushing my eye out like crazy. Also took an antihistamine to help with swelling. Uhg, hope this is gone by morning. Smh.

Oh no - I've never heard of this before. It looks miserable....

I heard of one lady having to go to the hospital because of bloodworms. Luckily this has started to relieve. I dropped the level in my big contact solution bottle by about an inch too though. I flushed the heck out of it. The itchy and raw feeling has subsided. Still swollen and red but not as red. Ooof it sure isn't comfortable though.

You can see in the middle pic I got some small blisters under my eye even. Uhg.

Okay, sounds like you should be feeling good better when you wake up. What are you going to do in the future? Rubber gloves?

fishNAbowl wrote:What are you going to do in the future? Rubber gloves?

Wash your hands first before touching anything else.

Hoping you are feeling better today. Keep us posted.
And now I want to rub my eyes.....

SiRWesDragon wrote:Wash your hands first before touching anything else.

Hi ShortyKiloGyrl,

I too am sensitive to contact from bloodworms (typically a rash); sometimes even when I put my hands / arm in the tank after feeding bloodworms. Washing my hands immediately after with mild soap and water has solved the problem for me.

Much better today, still a little puffy but not like it was last night.

I don't get the skin rash or itching luckily. I stick my arm in the tank to feed with a turkey baster so I know one fish gets most of it. Which has been working well. Guess I just need to NOT touch my eyes until after I wash my hands! Lol I have handled then many times without issue until I touched my eye. So I don't think gloves are necessary, just definitely wash my hands afterwards like sirwesdragon said. Lol

I would still be very careful. One label said 'HEAVY USERS CAN POTENTIALLY BECOME SENSITIZED TO THIS PRODUCT', which basically mean the more you use it the more sensitive you can become.

Ive never had a reaction but Im sure I would if I used it a lot. I react horribly to mosquito bites and Im sure I would break out pretty badly if I used these all the time. It is just an occasional treat.

I feed these to my puffer and featherfin frequently. I will definitely be careful! I don't need an emergency bill.

They are so little my puffer ignores them completely. You could try to feed some of the earthworms sold as bait.

True, those are readily available in my town since we live on a river. My puffer is small enough he goes crazy for them!

Hello, I also have sensitivity to blood worms, I wear gloves when I feed it. When it contacts my skin I get a rash, and when I fed freeze dried, the dust would irritate my lungs in a asthma attack like reaction.... be careful as my reaction seems to have become more sensitive with time an increased exposure.

Oh man. Now I'm getting worried kind of with feeding them.

Does anyone know what specifically is causing the reaction? Is it some type of additive or do the worms themselves have some sort of toxin in them that they use for protection? Just curious. ( I feed bloodworms to my fish about once a week and I let my son feed them too)

It seems the issue is compounded by the fact they are in a high concentration that normally most people would never be in contact with. I cant find a whole lot of info...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2877067/
http://www.ehow.com/about_6686389_bloodworm-allergies.html

you bodies white blood cells react in an inflammatory response, to something it doesn't recognize, it could be anything like a protein in the worms cells or something else, not necessarily a toxin or anything exciting.

ShortyKiloGyrl wrote:Guess I just need to NOT touch my eyes until after I wash my hands!

I try to make this one of my general life policies, but I know it's hard to remember. I work with the public and handle money, so dirty hands are a daily concern. I generally don't think about it either after doing fish stuff, though, so thank you for the cautionary tale, I think I will start always washing my hands as well

I definitely learned my lesson the hard way. Luckily it was mostly gone by morning and by afternoon like it had never happened.

Bloodworms are one of the best foods for getting finicky fish to eat and pretty much any new fish I get will take them soon after being introduced to a tank. I cant get the same response with brine shrimp, mysis shrimp or even earthworms. I guess even freeze dried these things can be dangerous especially if you accidentally inhale any of the 'dust' from them as hobbyorobsession mentioned. I wonder if any who have bloodworm allergies would have the same with the glassworms?

Hmm good question about glass worms.

Well, good news. I fed bloodworms last night. Didn't use gloves, intentionally to see if I got a reaction, I didn't touch my eye, then washed my hands, and took out my contacts touching my eye intentionally to see if I would get another allergic reaction AFTER washing my hands. Waited half an hour and NOTHING!! Woop! So far no skin reaction and if I was my hands no eye reactions either. Glad to know because my fish love these things.

I would still avoid touching them as much as possible, since some allergies get worse the more exposure you have to them as mentioned above. Last thing you want is to go into anaphylactic shock one day from them.

dwarfpike wrote:I would still avoid touching them as much as possible, since some allergies get worse the more exposure you have to them as mentioned above. Last thing you want is to go into anaphylactic shock one day from them.

Very true.   I do have minimal contact now, I have started letting them thaw a few minutes on the counter before popping out of the blister pack so I don't have to touch them as much either. And when I feed I use a turkey baster and a cup.

That's what I do, pop them into a cup and feed them from there.   

Before, if there was one hanging on the side of the cup I would pick it up with my fingers and swish my fingers in the tank to get it in the water. Now I dip the cup until it comes off the side lol. Actually I think I did that the night I had the reaction now that I think about it.

My boyfriend was already in bed and I showed him the pictures and he asked "how are you allergic to worms" and then I showed him the warning label on the box. His next question was "What in the H&!! is in those!" lol

I'm glad the soap worked. Thats gnarly!