I was doing some yard work yesterday and scraped/cut my leg pretty bad on a rusty piece of fence. It's been well over 10 years since my last tetanus shot, but with everything coming out about the corona vaccine I'm hesitant to get a tetanus booster. Should I just hope for the best?
If it's more of a scrape wound, you are probably okay if you clean it well and watch for infection for the next 3 weeks. Tetanus is a bigger threat if it's a puncture wound that pushes the bacteria deep under the skin.
The average time from infection to appearance of signs and symptoms (incubation period) is 10 days. The incubation period can range from 3 to 21 days. The most common type of tetanus is called generalized tetanus. Signs and symptoms begin gradually and then progressively worsen over two weeks. They usually start at the jaw and progress downward on the body.
It's actually not the rust that harbors tetanus, it's moisture. Lots of old outdoor metal stuff is rusted but does not contain the bacteria. 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.
One of the best ways to get rid of tetanus is to let the wound bleed a bunch before bandaging it up. The old school way to deal with this if you had a puncture wound was to cut it open so it could bleed out more. This only applies immediately after the injury and obviously you don't want to create a situation where you have a large amount of uncontrolled bleeding.
If your injury was over half an inch deep, didn't bleed much, and the part of the fence that cut it is damp then it's probably worth the risk to get the tetanus shot. You can't trust doctors or pharma these days, but if you have a broken bone that needs to be set or an infection that's getting worse it's a risk that is worth it in my estimation. Make sure you inspect the vial to make sure you're getting the right one. Ideally you want a just tetanus vaccine, but I don't think those even exist anymore.
All medical decisions, even in clown world, are just a cost/benefit analysis. What are the odds that you'll get tetanus vs what are the odds that you'll get a proper vaccine that works. Neither probably is zero, but both are small at this point.
>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.
Watch it. If it starts to become infected care for it properly.
I wouldnt allow them to shove a needle in my skin these days.
If you get tetanus you are fucked. Treat the wound properly and don't worry about it. I would trust the vaccine of yesteryear but today? Oh hell no
1) Clean that shit out with isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) 2) Bandage it, and replace bandage at least daily (given severity of cut)
First aid advice is hard to give over the internet because, if you're a retard, you may look at a gangrenous cut and say "looks fine to me!".
As for getting a tetanus shot, from my understanding, there's literally no reason to at this point. You already got the cut, giving yourself MORE tetanus right now wouldn't solve anything. The alleged reason to get a tetanus shot is to allow your immune system to build an immunity to tetanus, which has to do with some rusty metal or whatever.
Rusty metal has nothing to do with tetanus. It's a myth. Tetanus lives on organic material like wood and dirt.
put honey on it, that will keep you in good health, honey will kill any infection
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