Am I allergic to Oysters?

[Headtime]

A few years ago on a trip to to Brittany, I sampled fresh Oysters for the first time. I absolutely fell in love with them. However the last four-or-so times that I have had them, I have become VERY violently ill. The thing is, each time it's happened it's been between 24 and 36 hours after having the Oysters. This would lead me to believe that it couldn't be the Oysters as surely any food poisoning or allergy would happen much more quickly. But it just seems too much of a coincidence. I don't dare have them again till I know. Has anyone else experienced this?

[comloulou]

It could be an allergy but it might be where you get the oysters from, shell fish can often be contaminated by dirty waters and as you eat them raw you'd be getting the contaminate pretty myuch fresh.

[chijiki]

Bacteria are found in many seafoods, including those from the cleanest of waters. There is a particular bacteria in many oysters to which many people are very susceptible. This can affect you usually between 12 and 36 hours after eating raw and sometimes cooked oysters and the illness will last from 1 to 7 days. If you drink alcohol the effects can be much more serious. My advice to you Headtime would be to leave oysters alone. They obviously don't agree with you. I don't want to worry you but I think that you should do a google search for 'oysters+illness' and see just what the consequences could be if you are in the at-risk category.

[woodpam]

Don't go near them again, Headtime, it's almost certainly the oysters. I ate some seafood one lunchtime, felt fine, went to a concert in the evening and didn't feel bad until the next morning when I woke up late and feeling like death, so the time delay you describe is normal. I was ill for five days and can only remember a doctor coming and giving me injections to try and stop the sickness - I thought he was an alien at the time. I had a form of botulism complete with halucinations and other symptoms you can probably imagine. You become allergic to foods on the second or subsequent occasions that you eat them and it sounds like this is what has happened to you.