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*gross* infected toe , puss is coming out..

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It's most likely that it's an ingrown toenail. These are quite common though. Go see your GP for advice. They would need to remove part of the side of your toenail which can be done there and then, assuming that's it is an ingrown toenail. Until then, soak your foot in warm water and if you're brave enough, you could try and remove part of the nail that is hurting you? Beware, this is ****ing painful.
Reply 21
Original post by malteser12345
It's most likely that it's an ingrown toenail. These are quite common though. Go see your GP for advice. They would need to remove part of the side of your toenail which can be done there and then, assuming that's it is an ingrown toenail. Until then, soak your foot in warm water and if you're brave enough, you could try and remove part of the nail that is hurting you? Beware, this is ****ing painful.


I don't think I'm that brave. This is really really gross but instead of the pus just kinda coming out of the top it comes out the side of my nail :yucky: . there's no more white nail to cut off.. only pink.. they can't cut pink nail can they? if they do please say they anaesthetise the toe, please god!
Original post by Anonymous
My toe is ****ING killing me... it hurts so much, and puss is coming out of the side of my toe.. I know I need to clean it but I think its ingrown and I don't know what to do? hurts so much!


happened to me when i was younger. go to a medical centre, they will numb your toe and squeeze the pus out and disinfect it etc
Reply 23
ive had this happen.

i squeezed iut the pus and everything was good after that, i may have gotten lucky though
Original post by Anonymous
I don't think I'm that brave. This is really really gross but instead of the pus just kinda coming out of the top it comes out the side of my nail :yucky: . there's no more white nail to cut off.. only pink.. they can't cut pink nail can they? if they do please say they anaesthetise the toe, please god!


Nahh, don't worry, they would definitely anaesthetise your toe, otherwise it would be torture, lol. With regards to whether you can cut off pink toenails, well tbh I'm not entirely sure. Your best bet would be to wait until Monday, and go and see your GP. If it's too painful, then got to A&E and they'll help you out. Bare in mind the wait in A&E will be horrendous, they'll just attend to drunk knobheads before anyone else.

I actually feel really sorry for you because I know what this feels like and it is terrible. But, tbh, it's a common issue and it's nothing to be worried about.
Reply 25
Original post by malteser12345
Nahh, don't worry, they would definitely anaesthetise your toe, otherwise it would be torture, lol. With regards to whether you can cut off pink toenails, well tbh I'm not entirely sure. Your best bet would be to wait until Monday, and go and see your GP. If it's too painful, then got to A&E and they'll help you out. Bare in mind the wait in A&E will be horrendous, they'll just attend to drunk knobheads before anyone else.

I actually feel really sorry for you because I know what this feels like and it is terrible. But, tbh, it's a common issue and it's nothing to be worried about.


Yeah... think I'll just stop trying to get more out because its making it worse, and cover it in antiseptic..

Imagine if they didn't tend to drunk people in A&E.. i'd probably get seen to in ten mins!

Funny thing is,is that my boyfriend also has a problem with his toe and he's debating A&E too.. both got exactly the same toe but different problems haha.
This has happened to me on a number of occasions. Just go to your GP and they will give you a course of antibiotics and a cream to draw out the infection and refer you to chiropody outpatients. For the time being soak it in warm water and cover it with some sort of mepore bandage to stop it catching on anything.

No one will take off the side of your nail or perform any minor surgery whilst it's still infected. Hence why I wouldn't recommend going to A&E. I broke my eye socket a few weeks ago and waited over 7 hours whilst they saw all the silly drunks. It wasn't a fun experience. If it gets really bad I'd recommend giving your out of hours GP service a call over A&E.
Reply 27
as said before, go to chiropedist. If it is ingrown you can have the ingrown bit cut off, it will spend a while healing up, but then will be all better.
My GP was useless with my ingrowing toenail, he would just cut it in half (which REALLY hurt) then hope it didn't ingrow again, which of course it did, every time, for 10 years. Eventually I just stopped going and lived with the pain. I couldn't jog or anything, but I was sort of alright. Eventually though it got worse so I went to a podiatrist, who took one look at it, and said 'yep, thats gotta come out', then looked at my other foot, in which the big toe had only been ingrowing for about a week, and said, 'that's coming out too'. So she said I should go to this other clinic, just to check, and instead of checking, they removed the nails there and then.

Basically, they injected the base of my big toe (I'll admit that it stung a bit) and did the same to the other toe. They recommended that I didn't watch, and I felt quite small amounts of pressure, but no pain, after about 5 minutes, they said I could look now, they had already covered it. They showed me the nails, and they were pretty huge. They told me that they had put some pretty powerful acid, where the nail grows from, which prevents nail regrowth. I had to go back 2 weeks later for redressing, I saw it and nearly fainted, so yeah don't look.

Now I don't have any nails on either big toe, as they didn't regrow, the nerves are slightly damaged so it doesn't hurt at all. It doesn't look that bad either, I just wish my bloody GP had sent me to the podiatrist in the first place.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 29
Original post by pickled onion
*podiatrist :smile:

Take some painkillers and wait til Monday and go see your GP, who'll refer you to a podiatrist. Or go see a private podiatrist.

They're the same thing :smile:
Original post by BefuddledPenguin
My GP was useless with my ingrowing toenail, he would just cut it in half (which REALLY hurt) then hope it didn't ingrow again, which of course it did, every time, for 10 years. Eventually I just stopped going and lived with the pain. I couldn't jog or anything, but I was sort of alright. Eventually though it got worse so I went to a podiatrist, who took one look at it, and said 'yep, thats gotta come out', then looked at my other foot, in which the big toe had only been ingrowing for about a week, and said, 'that's coming out too'. So she said I should go to this other clinic, just to check, and instead of checking, they removed the nails there and then.

Basically, they injected the base of my big toe (I'll admit that it stung a bit) and did the same to the other toe. They recommended that I didn't watch, and I felt quite small amounts of pressure, but no pain, after about 5 minutes, they said I could look now, they had already covered it. They showed me the nails, and they were pretty huge. They told me that they had put some pretty powerful acid, where the nail grows from, which prevents nail regrowth. I had to go back 2 weeks later for redressing, I saw it and nearly fainted, so yeah don't look.

Now I don't have any nails on either big toe, as they didn't regrow, the nerves are slightly damaged so it doesn't hurt at all. It doesn't look that bad either, I just wish my bloody GP had sent me to the podiatrist in the first place.


You poor poor thing :frown: Can I ask why they made it so the nails don't grow back? Because surely you would want your big toe nails to grow back, I do :frown:
Reply 31
Ok, if you can't get to a doctor, a&e or chiropodist do this;

Put you foot in a bowl of hot water (don't burn your foot though), and 10 spoons of salt.

Leave your foot to soak for 30 minutes. This will held to open the skin and help draw out the puss.

Now, this is the best bit, you are going to have to to be really brave..squeeze the toe really, really hard untill all the puss comes out and it starts too bleed.

Its really important that you squeeze unil it bleeds, cos that shows you have removed all the inflection.

Last, soak your foot again in hot salt water AND SEE A DOCTOR/ CHIROPODIST
Original post by james1211
They're the same thing :smile:



We're not known as chiropodists anymore, most podiatrists will get annoyed if you call them that :wink:
CUT THAT **** OFF NIGGUH! :eek3:
keep it clean and leave it

i had a finger infection last year and although it took a while to heal i didnt have to go to the doctors
Reply 35
Original post by pickled onion
We're not known as chiropodists anymore, most podiatrists will get annoyed if you call them that :wink:


Well my auntie is one, and she and all her colleagues call themselves chiropodists :wink:
Original post by insignificant
You poor poor thing :frown: Can I ask why they made it so the nails don't grow back? Because surely you would want your big toe nails to grow back, I do :frown:


She said it was because the nail often grows back a misshapen mess. Besides it's doesn't bother me at all now. I much prefer not having the nails.
Reply 37
I've had this on and off for a few months now and the one thing that really seems to help with infection is tea tree oil. Buy a little jar like this http://www.boots.com/en/Thursday-Plantation-Tea-Tree-Oil-10ml_537978/
and just pour it all over your toe. Because it's so runny it goes down the sides of your nail and seems to work really well. It's never even stung to put it on either. Usually after a day or two of applying that, the infection is gone.
Reply 38
Sorry to be blunt but if puss are coming out from your toe, the best is to go see a MD...Im sure they will take out a part of your toe (for a good reason) but you need to be safe than sorry.
GP or walk -in centre this morning if possible for a face to toe consultation , and requireed initial treatment.

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