piercing infected

[I_love_Ken]

Anyone know of any better tips to heal infected piercings? tried lots of things, TCP, surgical spirits, but everytime I flip up the underside on my ear to see if it's any better, it weeps and has a yellowish pus coming from the back of the hole. Nowt's working and last resort is doctors but they're waste of space lol!

[carrot99]

Stop touching it for a start! Ask in the chemist, the pharmacist will probably be as good as your doctor, but you may have to go to him for antibiotics.

[funkymoped]

firstly, dont mess with the ear too much. you will put germs into a wound that you are trying to clear.

im a big believer in the use of salt. its a natural drying agent. it will dry the wound and keep most bacteria under control.
just allow the salt to disolve in warm water. dab the wound with something like cotton wool balls or q tips.
try not to scrub at the wound, it wont heal as quickly if you keep removing the scab.
:-)

[joko]

you should squeeze it until all the pus is gone - you will know this when you see it is just blood or clear liquid coming out.
if you leave any in there it will just multiply and fill up with pus again, so best to clear it as best you can.

then with clean hands soak with tcp. turn the earing around a lot so the tcp gets inside.

then you could either place a tcp soaked cotton wool ball over both sides of the ear and stick down overnight or smother in savlon or similar - keep covered..

if your ear starts to look huge and gets hot and itchy, you may need a doc as it could be starting to affect your inner ear and throat etc.

i was able to squirt tcp directly into the tiny hole using a syringe, so if you have one try that - it kind of flushes it through.

[carrust]

Why not remove the cause of the infection...er..just a thought??

[CrazyBean]

Savlon Wound Wash is quite good that's what my piercer gave me when she did my belly button and it worked a treat.

[mycats]

whatever you do DO NOT remove the earing, it will just close the hole and trap the infection inside

[crete]

it would be very interesting to see what a doctors advice would be re removing the piercing, at a guess remove immediately,

[carrust]

My daughter had an eyebrow pierced & it got infected when my son hit it with a football. She went to the docs, & he told her to remove it immediately...it cleared-up within days!!

[joko]

it is not the earring that caused the infection - it is the germs that got into the wound while it was being inserted.

removing it will not remove the infection.

most people who get a piercing get a little bit of pus etc, but they keep cleaning it anf eventually it heals over

[carrust]

http://www.ladygodivas.ca/Infections.jpg I hope it's not like this!

[I_love_Ken]

Wow...thanks for all the replies...!
I haven't actually been touching it a lot I've just been twisting it a few times a day and flipping it see if it's getting anywhere
Joko-it originally started when I put my earring in after a while, I've never had problems with it before but when I took my earring out for the night it bled badly, however being on medication for circulation and things, I assume it's normal for it to bleed a bit more.
I've tried squeezing the pus out once but gave it up as it wasn't working and was building up again just as fast
It has become quite large, red and hot but it's not itchy, and it's hard to tell if it's affecting anything else as I spend most of my time singing anyway(bad girl)
I think I'll try the syringe method, thanks!
I think, as Joko says, it was infected when I put my earring in as I haven't worn them for ages because of school etcetera
No carrust, it's not like that ha ha! Ooh gosh I wouldn't want it to become that bad, at the moment it's at the stage of you can't grip the fron't or back of the piercing stud and it's probably about 2/3 of the size of my other ear lobe so :S
Think an appointment may be in need wth the suckish GP who tried doping me up with 2 months supply of medication...lol! Don't do bulk!
Thank you for all your help
xxx