Tiny cut - big problems!!

[Bowlander]

Tiny (2mm) shallow cut to my pinky on the local shoots gamecart today (pheasant blood and faeces!)- around 0900, I washed it ASAP but by 1300 it was feeling warm and tingly. Applied Cetrimide. Hand was sore to the touch by 1600. Walked the dogs, got firewood in - any contact was very painful. Slight black swelling below the cut. Steeped the finger in v.hot saline. Numbness in fingertips and sore joints in hand. 1800 went on NHS direct with symptoms - it said get to AE ASAP. Spent 2 hours in Lancaster AE - luckily before the addicts and yoofs arrived. Nearly sick with pain straightening out hand for x-ray. Charming east european doctor cleaned it out - more excrutiating pain! Discharged with course of high strength antibiotics with numerous side effects (black hairy tongue!!). Still in lots of pain and all plans for the weekend are scrapped - not sure if I'll get much sleep tonight!!

What should have I done? I'll definitely be carrying some sort of iodine or povadine with me from now on!

 

[Barn Owl]

All you can do really is what you did.
I suppose Iodine may have helped a bit more but I do believe it's just our Donald Duck whether something infects.

That's going to be a proverbial pain...for a few days.

I've been told I've had so many tetanus shots that I'm covered for life but also heard that may not be the case.
Any medical folks shed light on that one?

 

[vizsla]

Latex gloves for game prep but u did the right thing going to hospital i can remember a horror story about someone preping a rabit a while ago always beter to be safe

 

[tomongoose]

I squirt alcohol hand cleaner onto my cuts stings a bit but seems to do the job

 

[vizsla]

I presume any lotions and potions are useless if it gets into your blood stream,antibiotics and the like are probably the only cure

 

[ateallthepies]

I'm not sure what you should have done as myself I am not prone to infections. I have had many hundreds of cuts and scrapes and never been ill??? Usually clean cuts granted but many are not. Usually it is treated by a bit of sucking in my mouth followed by some electrical tape!

A while ago while a bit squiffy and in a hurry I missed a concrete step while at a barbecue and did a fine Beckham impression and booted it with flip-flops on and took the top of my big toe almost off. Luckily I had a FAK and patched myself up with some Iodine and bog roll and carried on with the squiffyness. It hurt like a mutha but again I was fine!

I don't understand why some people can get a scratch or tiny wound and infect up so much, but it is well documented and even fit as a fiddle soldiers can succumb and also life long gardeners can get a ***** from a plant thorn and get very sick???

I think the bird poo may have been a factor in your infection but don't really know. What I do know is how lucky we are having the Anti-Biotics we do and how much of a life saver they are? Pre 1940's it was a lottery if an infection like yours killed a person!!

Personally I bought some Neosporin from the US which gets good reviews for cuts and scrapes but haven't used any yet. I think letting a wound bleed for a bit and after keeping it clean with soap and water helps and letting it breath and not bandaging it up tight. As usual I will accept medical advice from someone trained but generally for me I don't get ill, maybe it was because I was a right mucky child???


Steve.

 

[Wayne]

Usual rule is to wash 3 times with soap and water. I use a number 12 syringe to create pressure jet. Remember to wear glasses as your creating a fine mist of blood and goo. Cover wound and keep clean. On exped I would prescribe a loading dose of broad spectrum antibiotics.

 

[wicca]

You say 'around 09.00 hrs' and 'I washed it as soon as I could' The time period between getting blood/faeces in the wound and the opportunity to wash it properly I suspect was when the real problem began. Should you be in that situation again, it might pay you to go behind a bush, undo your zip and irrigate the wound there and then. Urine in your bladder (unless you suffer from various internal infections) is sufficiently sterile to be of some benefit...IN AN EMERGENCY...It is not antiseptic obviously, but if you can see dirt or obvious matter/detrius in the wound and you have nothing else, it's worth considering. Allow the urine stream to run for a couple of seconds to remove any bacteria in the tract, and what comes from the bladder thereafter is about as sterile as you can hope for in the situation. You must then get proper attention at the very first opportunity.

 

[BoonDoc]

You have six hours before the bacteria really sets in. I am a fan of forceful irrigation with AT LEAST 3 litres of drinkable water. That sounds like a lot but it works. The force of the irrigation should be so strong that it will be painful.
The proper pressure can be obtained by using an 18 gauge catheter with a 60ml syringe.

But....I am a lazy medic and just usually just use a 3L CamelBak and have someone squeeze the heck out of it to make the pressure go up.

 

[AndyE]

Yeah ,, that happened to me too ,

Good news is... after a few days it stops hurting

Andy

 

[wicca]

Blimey! AndyE, glad that's not my hand I'd have trouble counting me pension...

 

[Robbi]

blimey it's eaten you finger !

 

[AndyE]

tis but a flesh wound

Andy

 

[vizsla]

Looks like that little piggy stayed at the market

 

[Corso]

aside from alcohol the only suggestion i'd make was let it/make it bleed a bit to flush things out

its whats recommended for needle stick injuries

 

[Laurentius]

Can get nasty, a hazard for anyone dealing with meat. My mum who was a cook got full blown septicemia from a fleshwound, not nice.

 

[lannyman8]

i find bunny bones cause little nicks which can get a bit funny, they tend to get a bit hot but then are fine after a while, this does not happen very often though, and have only ever had them abit hot and a little sore....

 

[Shewie]

1-1 to the pheasants

 

[Bowlander]

1-1 to the pheasants

Thats exactly what the doc said! Pheasants revenge he called it!! Wouldn't mind so much if I was doing the shooting!! The scratch came from the sharp edge of a steel rack where we hang the pheasants on - it had been washed off after last weeks shoot but there were pools of water and blood in places, my guess is that the bugs had multiplied in the water. My hands are covered in grazes and scratches and I've only had one reaction like this in the past, again it was from a wounded pheasant which my dog retrieved and it spurred my thumb very deeply, luckily one of the guns was a vet and she put some stuff on it (for animal use only!) and told me to steep it in epsom salts when I got home, it hurt but was fine after a day or two.

The last time I was in Lancaster AE I'd taken 2 shotgun pellets in the face which had to be pickled out - helping out on game shoots is a dangerous business!!

As its work related I'm going to have to go through the accident reporting process - what fun!! I'll recommend they put handsoap and drying facilities at the game larder - theres a sink and hot water but nothing else, which isn't good on cold days.

 

[Andy BB]

Sounds like some qantiseptic handwash would be useful there too - can you still get lye soap nowadays - I remember hearing somewhere it had been banned. Or was that Coal Tar soap?