Immediate Infection From Bass Dorsal Fin?

[tcbass]

I was killing bass this weekend before cleaning them and when I whacked the fish with a metal rod it's dorsal fin punctured my pointer finger. The area where my finger was punctured immediately swelled up and got hard. It hurt for a day and was swollen and hard for that day also. Eventually it went down. I don't know if it hit a vessel and blood filled the finger or what, there didn't appear to be any discoloring or bruising.

What happened?

I now got cheap rubber coated gloves that I'll wear when killing fish. I don't want to experience that pain and chance of infection again.

[OroBass]

What happened? Well you got stuck by its fin! I've done it before it freaking hurts. Nothing to worry about just keep it clean.

[Tartan34]

My buddy and I were fishing, and he landed a small fish and released it.  He stuck himself with a fin.  A couple of hours later, his hand swelled up, and was painful.  A couple of days later, it got worse.  He didn't do anything, and it didn't go away, so he saw a doctor.  

 

XRays were taken, and the doc showed him a piece of fin that was stuck in his hand.  He was told he needed surgery, it would cost 20k, and he would be put under for surgery.  After he declined, the doc did it in his office, and stitched him back up.  The piece of fin was about 1/2" long

 

Be careful with those fins!!.  

[tcbass]

What happened? Well you got stuck by its fin! I've done it before it freaking hurts. Nothing to worry about just keep it clean.

I've had it happen before. It's never swollen up and gotten hard like that before.

[Bluebasser86]

Sounds like your bodies reaction to the introduction of the dirt and slime into your body, swelled up to try to prevent anything else getting in. Make sure to clean stuff like that really well or it can result in a nasty infection. 

[Preytorien]

Whether it be a puntcure from a hook, fin, or any other small pointy objects, I've long sworn by a weird method.

 

Put a drop of honey on the puncture hole, then put a band-aid on it. Weird I know.

 

Often times I see the hole almost healed within hours. I read somewhere that honey contains very effective anti-bacterial properties that speed up the body's ability to heal itself.

 

I don't know the in's and out's of why it works, I just know I've done it for years and it works pretty much every time I have a hook or fin "poke" as I call them.

 

Check this out.....it's a bit more technical than I usually read, but it seems to offer some backing to my claim that honey's a good antibacterial agent

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609166/

[SoFlaBassAddict]

Can happen from any fish. Really, it can happen from any foreign material entering your body. It's just your bodies natural reactive to stave off illness, bacteria, etc.

Could be any number of reasons why it happened this time. Piece of the spine broke off, slime coat, bacteria. Who knows. Clean it and disinfect it as well as possible. Keep an eye on it. If it persists for an extended period of time or swells excessively, then you may want to think about medical attention.

Odds are it's nothing to worry about.

You should see my hands if I go lobster diving without gloves on. Lol

[ColdSVT]

Inflamation, yes. Infection, no well not yet lol

Keep it clean

[Broadcreek karl]

I've got a question to add to this posting. I always carry a bar of soap on the boat but don't always have fresh clean water in the boat. How effective do you folks think it is to wash with soap using the water you are fishing in?

[ColdSVT]

I've got a question to add to this posting. I always carry a bar of soap on the boat but don't always have fresh clean water in the boat. How effective do you folks think it is to wash with soap using the water you are fishing in?

Its not

Take a drop of that water and look at it under a microscope

Even worse take a drop of that same water and grow a culture on some agar. Omg! All kinds of stuff will grow

[Bankbeater]

Could have been something in the water that stayed on the fish. 

[Montanaro]

Sounds like your bodies reaction to the introduction of the dirt and slime into your body, swelled up to try to prevent anything else getting in. Make sure to clean stuff like that really well or it can result in a nasty infection.

Sounds like some people use too much hand sanitizer.

[Sam]

Tetanus shot???

 

We all need a tetanus shot and an annual booster.

 

If you don't get a tetanus shot and an annual booster than you get infection, pain, life threatening brain eating bacteria, Eobla, STDs, surgery, big hospital and doctor bills, have your hand amputated and have to sell your fishing gear.

 

OK. Just kidding about selling the fishing gear.

 

PLEASE - PLEASE - PLEASE get that tetanus shot and an annual booster if needed.

[Fisher-O-men]

Sounds like the bass is getting back at you.  Stop killing them!

[richg99]

Re not having water to go along with the soap..I keep a couple of bottles of drinking water in the bottom of my cooler. It is not cool, but at least it is wet. Would work for the clean up too.

[bassguytom]

It could be lamprey eggs were on the spine. If you feel the urge to latch onto something living and suck all the blood out of it you might want to see a doctor. I always seem to get spiked by those crazy white perch while taking them off the hook.

[ColdSVT]

For the record you only need a Tdap booster every ten years

[Oregon Native]

I carry some bio soap in boat in a bottle...regular soap not that great for the enviroment. (Lindy has some)  Every little bit helps.

[boostr]

You have what they call in scientific terms... COOTIES!

[Master Bait'r]

You have what they call in scientific terms... COOTIES!

 

 

 

Ah man, should have just done the 'ol "circle, circle, dot dot"...  Would have been fine!  

[SudburyBasser]

Didn't Gerald Swindle have to go to hospital last year after he got spiked by a fin (on account of inflammation)? I could have sworn seeing something on his Facebook at the time.

 

At any rate, I've been spiked more times than I care to count...nothing ever happened outside of annoyance, though I have been wearing gloves more often these days. After a hard day of fishing my hands are usually cut up by fishing line, scratched/cut up by hooks and occasionally spiked by fish.

[tcbass]

Didn't Gerald Swindle have to go to hospital last year after he got spiked by a fin (on account of inflammation)? I could have sworn seeing something on his Facebook at the time.

 

At any rate, I've been spiked more times than I care to count...nothing ever happened outside of annoyance, though I have been wearing gloves more often these days. After a hard day of fishing my hands are usually cut up by fishing line, scratched/cut up by hooks and occasionally spiked by fish.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I've been spike a lot before too, but never had this happen until now.