Anyone lost a big toenail?

No – I haven't found one.

The big toenail on my right foot had a stone strike in the summer, which was sore for a day or two and then went black. It's still black and although there is no pain in it, it has obviously suffered some kind of nailbed trauma and it looks like it's about to fall off (completely detached in the top half).

I've lost smaller toenails before from hill running, but never a big one. How long does it take to grow back? Do I have to protect the nailbed while it is doing so?

I have bruised big toe nails on both my feet from a combination of skiing on hard snow and badly fitting ski boots. Did it in March and the new nails that grew below the bruised ones are only just getting to 3/4 of the length of the old ones. The old ones are starting to loosen up and will probably fall of soon. Did the same thing a few years ago and had the same results

Lost about two thirds of my big toe nail last December. Just grown back to full length now but didn't notice anything different, it was just not the prettiest sight. Wouldn't worry about it.

I had my right foot's big toenail removed because it was in-growing recurrently. The nail was removed under local anaesthetic and the nauil bed matrix is phenolised (nuked) to prevent re-growth. It's been fine although it is quite sensitive.

DS

Lost both in the last couple of years. First one from falling over one of my daughter's toys, and the other from running with bad shoes.

Both now grown back perfectly (taken 3-4 months in each case). The new toenail will have been growing underneath the old one since the damage. I'd try to keep the old one on as long as you can, to protect the new nail.

Paul

I lost half of one of mine (lengthways – I can't do anything normal!!) due to ill-fitting boots and a long walk. The new nail finally 'joined up' with the old one about 8 months later. I was amazed how long it took. It was fine in terms of being sensitive after just a few weeks, so it wasn't too bad – just looked horrible.

stuart i lost 3 toe nails on 1 foot after doing an adventure race fellrunning 18 miles having never ran more than 4 miles all year……

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April this year . Pre the nails failling off but you can see they are damaged and the second toe is actually broken

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July this year – lost the big one – the one next to it and the smallest toe nail

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Nearly got my pretty[yeah right] foot back !

Thanks guys.

Trail_rat – you just about gave me the boak there… 😳

I've lost them and split them, the splts seem to take longer to heal in my world

trail_rat should enter an ugly foot competition….

I broke a big toe nail but it stayed on whilst it grew back underneath so was fine really.

I had my large toenail and bed removed in my teens because it was constantly ingroing.
The bed just looks a bit funny and my kids cant believe it doesnt hurt when they poke it but it doesnt!
May post a pic around teatime!

me too. Combination of getting a yorker on the toe, lost the nail with a new one growing back under and then got another ball on the toe which screwed up the regrowing nail. That culminated in a recurring ingrowing nail problem – very painful – and finally having a lateral excision to take the outer 2/3 of the nail and nail bed away which solved it.

Although if you check a recent thread on strange biking related injuries, it's not been entirely incident free since.

My advice would be if you look after it as it regrows, it should be fine but if it does start to ingrow go and get it sorted – well worth the effort.

And don't use half moon shaped clippers / scissors to do your toenails. Cut them straight, allowing the corners to protude a little. The chiropodist told me that was a no-no.

I lost a big toe nail once, took bloody ages to grow back.

On the plus side, when it finally fell out, I kept hold of it.
When the Mrs came home I told her I had a lovely surprise for her….
close you eyes and hold out your hand.

I never made her scream like that on any other occasion so I assumed she loved it!

Got my toe stamped on in April at footy, nail finally came off around the start of august and the new nail had been growing secretly underneath. It has just nearly grown back totally now.

Jesus, this thread definitely did NOT NEED PICS!

I should try and keep hold of it whilst the new one underneath grows. Might take a while before the new one looks normal and is the right shape for your foot modelling career.

You really need to see a podiatrist.

I had a problem with one which had gone on for years (broken initially in a crash – toe and nail)) and she gave me the option of whipping it off and phenol to prevent any regrowth (as per derek starship) or cutting it lengthwise and phenol on the cut half.

1 year later it had returned to normal width and been no problem since.

PS Trail-rat I’m glad I saw that before my dinner

Jesus – I thought this thread was rightfully dead and buried.

Anyway, might as well give you an update…

Toe-nail fell off and new nail was making good progress underneath. Felt a bit vulnerable for a few days (taped it up when I had shoes on) but then it was absolutely fine.

Completely back to normal now.

You want to see photos, don’t you?

Thought so.

Here you go:

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8/365[/url] by stuartie_c[/url], on Flickr

You can click on that and view it larger size if you want. You do want, don’t you?

Yes – when mine fell off i posted it to my wife from work cos I’m such a nice guy 😀

I had both of mine removed because of ingrowing and they didnt do the job properly so now I have very strange toe nails. Even my wife doesnt like them (I thought partners were supposed to love strange things about each other! 🙂 ). Dont really have any issues with it though. If I wasnt just about to go out for a ride Id post a pic up!

Why was this on the front of the forum earlier today, yet mine is the first post in over a year?

Even my foot fetish doesn’t stretch to searching STW for pics of blokes feet.

I’ve no idea…I seem to have a major fungal infection in both big toes which has prevented the nail attaching to the toe – I was on some tablets and they did make a difference but then stopped making a difference…nail just flaps about and chews socks so I trim it right back and file it smooth…royal pain in the backside as the nail growth appears to be incredibly slow and the stuff that is growing doesn’t appear to be attaching. Been like this now for about 3 years so god only knows. Suspect once the fungal mince is gone it is more likely to attach and grow but the chiro-specialist person reckons it could well be a year for full growth of a nail.

@ Yeti – there was a SPAM poster before you who dragged this post back to life. He was selling fungal nail stuff. His post got reported and deleted – leaving your subsequent post.

Jesus, this thread definitely did NOT NEED PICS!

😆 😆 😆

Ah, the mystery is explained. I can go back to looking at sandal collections…..

I think we need a match the toe nail to the rider competition.

A colleague once had his big toe nail ripped off when he slipped on a wet bathroom floor, kicked the door very hard as he went down which then slammed against the doorstop and then swung back very quickly taking the toe nail off in one go. The chiropodist he saw said it could take as long as 18 months to fully heal. After it had healed he managed to drop 2 stage weights, 25Kg of steel, onto the same toe. He no longer has a toe nail or in fact any bone that isn’t powder left in that toe. Fortunately I wasn’t on that job but my other colleagues who had to get him to casualty found the whole experience rather unpleasant as of course did he. I went out and bought some steel toe cap trainers the next day.