infected cut

It looks like a smile full of bad teeth at the moment.

What, no sugar? No honey? No peat moss? Just brine and an immune system?

For shame...

If there's any evidence of infection, please go to the ER or you doctor.

You don't want to lose your finger due to antibiotic -resistant bacteria.

tetanus -boosters are to be given every 10 years

You got a problem with my immune system?

if the brine wasnt effective I was gonna try Tasmannia lanceolata (a plant).
http://www.diemenpepper.com/uses.html

Thanks for the recent info, Miller.

I'm not aware of Peat moss as a herbal.

Point me in the right direction.

Precisely why I don't go for antibiotics as a primary treatment. That and the all singing all dancing world controlling drug companies

You still got a finger DP?

Could always send ya a leach - suck the goop out!!! Nice a? Sympathy abounds now you are less infected

Peat moss (I think that's what "sphagnum" is) has been used for centuries (probably millennia, actually) as a wound dressing. It draws a lot of fluid out of wounds. Has been replaced by sterile cotton wrap and other absorbent materials. Best, I'm sure, not to apply directly to the wound, but as a middle bandage layer (between a wicking internal layer and a protective and/or moisture resistant outer layer).

Don't know of any inherently antimicrobial properties, though it wouldn't surprise me if it had some.

Here's some stuff about it and how it's been prepared in the recent past. http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mossph54.html#pre

I suspect there's a reason you get peat bogs....

PATIODOG!!!!!!!!

This is not good. You shouldnt **** around with infected cuts using "folkways", you could lose a finger or worse. Now find a real doctor.

Psssst.....



He's getting better....

Just finished a book re: the discovery of sulpha (sulfa, here in the USA) for fighting infections. Salt water soaks and washes were the most effective not-drug combatants against bacteria. (See? We really did evolve in the ocean.) The solution has too be really briny to work really wellbut it works better than all the plant based (chop aloe and onion into mush .... .) solutions.

Hope the finger isn't the size of your foot and oozing gas gangrene.

Joe (that would be bad.)Nation

DP, I know a lot about herbal medicine, but there is a time and a place for antibiotics - and this is the time and the place. Human life span doubled after antibiotics were introduced, don't mess with success.

Actually GW its almost healed up now but thanks for your concern. It just goes to show the value of a strong immune systemwith a liitle assistance I guess.
I too have an interest in herbal medicine but really only from the view point of Aust natives and the aboriginal pharmacopia. Most interesting how we have managed to ignore some really good anti fungal/bacterial compounds.