I'm allergic to poultry!!!

I'm 48 and could eat chicken/turkey just fine until I was 11. No problem with eggs. I also had a similar experience to some people here and on another website in that no one believed me for several years, which I found interesting. My symptoms are the throat tightening, heartburn and pain in the chest, and pain and indigestion in the upper stomach. I will often have deep burps for several hours after eating.

Strangely, I could eat chicken for several months after the birth of my second child, so I wondered if it could be hormone related, but it seems to happen to both men and women judging from the posts. Then in more recent years I thought maybe it's the additives and have tried organic/no antibiotics/vegetable fed chicken. At first I was fine with it, then it started to give me the same symptoms, only not quite as severe. Most recently I decided to try again, and I had pretty good luck with Whole Foods chicken, but two days ago I prepared it and for the first time in my life (in reaction to chicken), part of my lip swelled temporarily and now I have a canker sore on my tongue. Weird.

It is so nice to see I am not alone - I have never once met another person allergic to poultry. And people do seem confused by it. I do know someone who is allergic to fruit... I guess I'd rather have the poultry allergy than the fruit allergy. And it's pretty easy to avoid chicken and turkey. But I do miss them.

Is it the protein, the additives, something else? Doctors have never had answers for me, and it seems no one else has gotten a good answer, either.

If you're ok with vegetarian stuff, the fake chicken cutlets from Qorn are quite tasty and you would almost think they are really chicken. They're really good on top of a green salad.

Dang dude! That happens to me to! And it sucks.

Oh my. I'm 16 almost 17 & every time I eat anything with chicken or turkey in it my spit gets thick And my ribs hurt and I feel sick .. I have the same problems this helped but I still don't understand why my ribs hurt when I eat it ? Help anyone ?!

That will never get better. Just get used to never eating birds. sorry

Hi everyone, I am a 31 year old male. I started to notice around 5 or 6 that poultry would give me tightness in my chest narrowing of my breathing passages and drooling saliva. At first I just said I don't like it cause it would make me feel this way, which as others have stated, I was ignored like "kids say the darnedest things" I mean who's allergic to chicken. I remember when my Mom and step dad, even at this early age, would pick up a box of hot fried chicken just the vapor in the car would aggravate my breathing.

Then maybe around 8 years old I was at a local salad bar loading up my plate with all the fixings and what I though was ham and if you asked anyone they would say "yeah that's ham" but in fact its turkey ham. Around 11:30 - 12:30 I woke up and called out to my Mom to tell her my light was on, she came in my room and looked at me and her facial expression is still horridly vivid. My lips and mouth and eyes were swollen up so bad, they rushed me to the ER. The ER physician asked what have you had to eat, I told him salad. To be sure they would cover a broad spectrum of allergens I was given 6 shots, epinephrine, Benadryl, and many other antihistamines. The doctor said when your outside starts swelling to that extent your insides ie: airways are already blocked luckily, I was still able to breath about 10- 20%. The ER physician said if I had not woke up, my parents would of found a dead son the next morning, this of course scared my parents.

My Mom set up allergy testing (skin pricks) with a local doctor, he tested me for chicken, turkey, eggs and a few other more common allergens. My skin within minutes bulged up where the chicken and turkey was but not eggs. Finally confirmation I was allergic to poultry. My parents were divorced and my Dad's side of the family, uncle/aunt, grandparents, still said "Oh you can eat chicken" and I would stand my ground and yell "No I can not!!!!!" This has made me seem like a trouble maker, had to turn down many a offer to "stay for dinner", even if I didn't see the bird, I would ask what broth is in the soup oh chicken sorry. Or most time to avoid a long drawn out explanation I will just say no thanks, many times starving to death..

I have to check labels for chicken fat, broth, base, powder, mechanically separated chicken, chicken parts, and you would not believe all the foods that have these things in them, even at first glance you would say, "no way this cheese ravioli has any form of chicken in it" then you check the label and there it is chicken fat...just an example, believe me there are many more, way to many to list.  I also cannot eat anything that has been fried with grease used to fry chicken, most commonly french fries at a fast food shop that also has fried chicken on the menu!!!

I thought at a Chinese restaurant one night I'll try the duck, bad call, got wings, poultry = I'm allergic. Flying in an airplane from Orlando to Washington D. C., they offered a ham sandwich, by this time I was wary about anything that I could not physically look at the label, so as not to be any trouble I ate this "ham sandwich" instantly I knew this was not ham. I had to wait three hours in flight drooling in a coup, beating on my chest, which sometime kinda relieves the tightness, to get to D. C. my dad rushed to the car rental place, got a car, and asked them where the closest pharmacy is. We drove through D. C. with my head out the window like a dog with a steady stream of saliva pouring out of my mouth to the pharmacy, got some Benadryl I took 4 within about 30 minutes my symptoms began to improve and I began to fall asleep. Probably could of had a law suit against the airline. We have learned if going anywhere, car ride, flight, to take Benadryl along.

Many other times at restaurants I will ask what something is made with, I have grown to know the culprits, the waitress either looks at me like I'm crazy or in a not so sure voice says oh no there's no chicken stock in that. I order something else. Most waitstaff have no idea how the food is prepared, most of the time I order something else or If I really want it I will say "Go ask the cook!"

Even though this is pretty long, its just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my fight with my poultry allergy. I now am married with a three year old son of my own, who can thankfully eat and loves to eat chicken. My wife sometimes slips and says you want to try this or do you like turkey; then she realizes. I know it's not common, my poultry allergy, which makes it that much harder to explain to people. I am glad I found this thread cause I am sure you guys can relate to some if not all of it.

And yes the first thing people say is "what do you eat on Thanksgiving" the answer is ham, like i am sure it is the same for most of you all...

Hopefully one day i will be able to eat poultry, but I'm not holding my breath.

Since I am not allergic to eggs, I get a flu shot every year. But if I tell the pharmacy or wherever I am getting the shot that I have a poultry allergy they will refuse to give me the shot. I usually just check no where it says if you have any allergies.
I got the flu when I was about 20, got a flu shot every year since then, I am now 31 and have never had any reaction to the shot!!

Really I don’t have much knowledge about this topic. To the best of my knowledge, avoidance of the offending allergen is best treatment for a chicken allergy. You may need to take help of meditation to reduce irritation. You should also consult health care professional.

I am a lurker, but I am 24 and have been allergic to poultry (not eggs) all my life.   I went to an allergist, along with the standard skin panel, they did blood tests as well to confirm my allergies (which I knew full well were there).  There is nothing that can be done currently for a poultry allergy except to avoid it.  I carry an epi-pen now just in case, along with pseudoephedrine, but if you guys are anything like me, it's pretty easy to avoid after you live with it for a while.

 

One thing my allergist said that was interesting is that he's never seen someone with a poultry allergy that didn't have a slew of other allergies.  Sure enough, my panel came back lit up like a Christmas tree.  The technicians joked that they'd never seen everything lit up.  For me, my other 'killer' allergy is beans.  I can eat peanuts all day long, but a chicken and bean burrito would kill me!

You just described exactly my symptoms of eating poultry. Also wall nuts hazel nuts. Bananas. But mostly chicken and Turkey. I am 42. And I complained of issues I could not describe when I was 5 or 6. Finally putting together it is an allergy. All my life I would try to eat some. Especially fried chicken. Too much of an issue to enjoy chicken. Salivary glands working hard. All mucus going on and throat tightening. All my life I never met another person with poultry allergy. We should start a club. LoL.

I, also, am allergic to fish (not shelled), and dark meat chicken. I fear it will eventually be ALL chicken one day. I cannot touch raw chicken or my hands itch like crazy. I can eat canned tuna, but not fresh (strange, I know). I am wondering if you are able to eat certain types of fish, as I would love to have some! Any advise would be appreciated! 

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I get thick lips, itchy throat and chest pains. I know that feel, man. Poultry allergies do suck.

Born this way, mom says I use to throw it off my plate, chicken and turkey. I am 43 and it only takes a tiny bit or even to touch something i eat. get lots of thick saliva also the worst chest pain that comes in waves of increased pain then subsides for a few seconds then starts all over again usually 45 minutes or so Benedryl helps then my body shuts down just feel exhausted after each episode..usually get hit 3 or 4 time a year, latest was totinos peperoni pizza rolls,  snack on these most of my life,  got sick checked the ingredients like us people do ALOT. so they cheapened up the peperroni with mechanicly seperated chicken..added to the list not to eat.. Always on the lookout, crazy sh*t looks like i am not alone,  nobody has ever heard of this around me..

For 28 years I've had this. For some reason I never looked it up. I did a simple google search for poultry allergy increase in saliva and the first link is this one. At least now I know the same exact thing happens to others.

Mine started right after I had a stomach ulcer so I initially thought it was something to do with that. I told my doc after my ulcer was gone and he said it must be an allergy. I tell others and they are like, I've never heard of a poultry allergy.

About 8 years ago it disappeared for 1 year, and then came back as before. One chicken I can get away with sometimes is a local place called Nelson's Port-a-pit. They use a c**p load of vinegar. Not sure if that makes some difference. When I get it for my kids, I try one bite of skin. If I don't feel much after 15 mins. I eat 1 leg and maybe feel it a little.

The two enzymes is a very interesting idea and makes sense. I am allergic to the dark meat of chicken, but can eat the white meat. I can eat any part of the turkey. My allergy presents a big problem in some restaurants when I ask whether a chicken dish is all white meat and the person doesn't bother to check and tells me yes. When in reality, the dish is a mixture of both dark and white. It's hard to tell when the chicken is shredded and mixed with a sauce..

So I accidentally ate a sub that had turkey in it. Here came the bad feeling. I quickly went thru my medicine cabinet and found some antihistamine in pill form and took it. It sure seemed to help. The feeling never got beyond just the feeling. No pain and was gone in an hour.