 [ Symptoms ] can cats smell poison ivy on a person  my boyfriend was working gathering brush burning it etc when he got home one of the cats who is very affectionate toward everyone especially him the cat would not go near him and actually had an unusual reaction eyes wide running away we thought he might have smelled his friend is dogs but then thought of the poison ivy the cat went from rolling all over my friend to being scared ideas [ Disease ] not a clue i have never read that cats have the ability to smell poison ivy as far as cats are concerned no one has yet to unravel specific reasons for their unusual behaviors