speared by locust branch

Hunny was walking in the woods and found locust. In his foot. Ouch!

We cleaned it, and put a salve of plantain, mullien, and dock leaves on it. Overnight, we put a salt water Bandage on it to draw any infection out. Right now, there is no redness. No pain until he tries to walk, then it is just sore.

What would you do in this situation?

Exactly what you have done. Keep it clean and dry.

And keep an eye on it for spreading infection. Thorns are notoriously nasty for infections.

Be prepared to seek antibiotics quickly if it does show signs of infection.

Ouch! That has to be rough, locust is no joke! Do you know that you got everything out? I know sometimes, little bits can splinter and stay in the wound, causing soreness and swelling to push them out. It really sounds like you're doing all the right things. I would think some soreness would be normal. I think just continue with the salve and watching for signs of infection and stepping up your approach if you see them. Maybe try an activated charcoal poultice if you have some around. That stuff is darn near magic at drawing out infection and yuck. I'd probably also just put some extra gauze over the wound to cushion it a bit. Elevating the legs for a few minutes a couple times a day would probably be beneficial too. Either legs up the wall or a bit more relaxing is to have the knees bent to ninety degrees and lay the lower legs on a couch, bed or chair. Hope he gets feeling better soon!

Thanks Michael. We're probably a bit too casual regarding infections. I stumbled into great ingredients that grow prolifically in my area. The salve has banished many problems.

But we have a friend who let an infection land him in a hospital. His whole system went septic and he almost lost his hand.

Thanks Heather. I'm hoping he got all the bits out. I can't see anything at any rate. The wound site has a dime sized whitish area that is slightly swollen.

We do have activated charcoal. I'll put that on him next bandage change.

Sorry to hear that he found a locust and it found his foot.

The salve you used sounds really healing.

As long as what you have done is working so I don't think it is necessary to do much more unless it starts swelling and gets more redness.

It is just going to need time to heal.

I feel the activated charcoal will work though if you need something else try honey.

It might not hurt for him to drink some apple cider with honey.  Maybe a tablespoon of each in a glass of water or better make some switchel.

Anne, I had to look up just what switchel was!
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchel
That sounds super good and good for you!
I'll be making up a batch to try it out later today!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Thanks Heather. I'm hoping he got all the bits out. I can't see anything at any rate. The wound site has a dime sized whitish area that is slightly swollen.

We do have activated charcoal. I'll put that on him next bandage change.

I know usually when I get puncture wounds/splinters, they are sore, but if the soreness persists more than a couple days or gets worse, it usually means a tiny bit is still in there. Hopefully not the case here. That there's no redness makes me think you probably got it all. Just mix the charcoal with water to get a wet paste and sandwich it between two pieces of gauze. That'll keep the charcoal from getting into the wound. Keeping the paste on the wetter side will make it more drawing and keep it from drying out and getting charcoal dust everywhere.  

I would soak it in an iodine soaked bandage for the next few days. Not constantly, but like a poultice as long as is convenient.   Any liquid iodine you have available.

My husband got speared by a mesquite a few years ago, and it developed a little pustule.  He didn't think much of that, but it turned out he got sporotrichosis, which is a systemic infection from the fungus sporothorix, which is found all over the world on plants. Over the next year it spread through his arm and turned into these blisters all over his hand.

The infection is also known as "rose-handler's disease": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporotrichosis

The US and industrialized nation treatment is many months of horrible anti-fungal drugs, the big guys.  No "one dose treatment", this takes months of organ-damaging, biome-shifting drugs.

In countries that can't afford these sorts of medicines, they use potassium iodide in the form of SSKI.  I found this on the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/sporotrichosis/index.html

Treatment details:
https://www.patientcareonline.com/view/update-therapy-sporotrichosis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21537756/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8866807/

But here is the problem.  It's way easier to not let the infection spread.  Treating it even with SSKI, though quite effective, is problematic.  That treatment involves large doses of iodide, and this can trigger thyroid problems.  Then you have to treat that.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5707842/

So it is far easier is to avoid the infection in the first place, and use iodine or iodide topically on the injury site.

I'm an herbalist, and was not aware of how to use iodine or iodide before this event.  Now it's in the medicine cabinet!  In my husband's case, we kept trying to treat the weird little injury with all the herbal approaches I knew and also with activated charcoal. Loads of poultices and topical treatments and soaks.  It didn't stop the fungus from spreading, sadly.  I finally figured out what it was, and started reading up on more direct treatments. Doing the SSKI treatment had a lot of challenges, as well, including sourcing it.  He also eventually got a strong reaction to the iodine and had to stop, but thankfully it had already cleared the infection.  And then after getting rid of the fungal infection, his hand became very prone to eczema.  It's very annoying but doing better and rarely flares up now.  All from a silly mesquite poke, something that is not avoidable when living in the rural desert and even just walking outdoors.

My husband and I have been mold-injured and we seem to be more prone to fungal infections than most people.  I don't want to worry you, just let you know about an approach you could potentially try right now.

thomas rubino wrote:Anne, I had to look up just what switchel was!
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchel
That sounds super good and good for you!
I'll be making up a batch to try it out later today!

Thomas,

Here is the thread on switched:

https://permies.com/t/57424/kitchen/Switchel-natural-version-sports-drink

I couldn't find a good thread on honey though I want to say it is one of the oldest known antibiotics.

Garlic is also:

https://permies.com/t/42434/kitchen/garlic-cure-bacterial-infections

The foot is all healed, with no soreness left over, yay!

I fed him stuff with extra garlic, and some teas with anti-inflammatory properties, and we alternated the below topical stuff on the wound.
activated charcoal moistened with colloidal silver poultice
liquid iodine, some red topical stuff
baking soda water poultice
and my salve

Thank you all permies!