>If the fence is rusty from rain but isn't sitting in a damp area (like if it's physically off the ground and in the sunlight some percentage of the day) then there is almost no chance of tetanus being on the fence.
Wow good to know. Yeah it was off the ground and was sitting in the sun for the last two days with zero rain.
I cleaned it with peroxide then soap and water. Guess I'll just keep an eye on it. Thanks for the insight.
The tetanus bacteria is anaerobic, so it thrives where moisture prevents oxygen exposure. That's also why it almost always needs to be in a deep wound where no oxygen is present.
If you have a lot of redness around it, take a sharpie and mark the boundary of the redness and note the date/time on your phone or whatever. If it expands past the border you marked then you got an infection that is getting worse. Also, if it gets itchy, starts leaking puss, or you get striations from the wound then you have a problem as well. If any of these things occur then you need antibiotics. There are tons of options, so get the one with the least side effects.
I like using neosporin to prevent infections and have never applied neosporin to a wound on myself, family, or friends (probably 100+ different times) and had it turn into an issue. However, I know people smart in first aid who don't like it. If you do choose it, pay the extra few bucks for the name brand. Change your bandages at least every eight hours. The more time you spend with no bandage on the better, but that depends on work obligations and how much you're using the bandages to hold the wound together.
That's generally what I do, never had a tetanus shot in my life and I've been working on cars most of my life and have scraped and cut my hands, fingers, skinned my arms getting into tight areas and most of those times was from rusty areas of the car.
Tetanus shots are the original scare tactic.
Could you get tetanus? Maybe. Will you get tetanus? Probably not.
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