Had one for a couple of weeks. Sore to the touch and it rather entertainingly squirts “toe custard” if I press it.

Can I treat it myself or do I need to waste a doctor’s time?

I would start with a Chiropodist

I dug one out with a knife, years ago. Turned out to be a startlingly large spike of nail sticking into my flesh. I got away with it, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a course of action. Go to the doc’s.

FWIW, you have my sympathies. There are few things quite as high on the ‘size of wound : amount of pain’ scale, mine was agony.

Why do we need toenails anyway? I’ve lost a couple through running over the years and have never missed them during the grow-back.

Dug one out with a Leatherman years ago.

Cue horribly infected toe, frowny quack, limpage etc.

Did the same as Cougar. No lasting effects and saved valuable NHS resources. Depends on how deep it’s grown though…

Oh, I am not a medical expert. 😛

From the above it’s clear that you have to be named after a large North American mammal to dig your own toe nails out of living flesh. Fact.

Dug one out with a Leatherman years ago.

That’s how I’d deal with it if you saw me anyways……

DrP

I’ve dug my own out of both feet, one was easier than the other but both are fine now.
Why would I waste valuable NHS time and money when I can have the enjoyment of doing it myself. The release of pain when you lift it is amazing.

I’m thinking of cleaning, pushing the skin away with a cotton wool bud, anteseptic cream and plasters to start off with.

If that doesn’t work I’m going down the “Hostel” route and having a go with an angle grinder.

In all seriousness, if you can ‘pick’ out the nail after a hot bath, and ‘tease’ some rolled up cotton wool under it, you can promote it to grow normally.
Don’t cut it too short though, or it’ll stick back in.

DrP

I used to be bothered with a recurring ingrown toenail as teenager. I tried to cut it and get it to grow correctly but no luck and had the whole toenail removed a few times for good measure. Ended up having the nail bed scraped out. I watched it all under a wee local anaesthetic. Lovely 😀

Agree on the wound/pain scale too, one of the worst moments was when a paraffin gauze had dried into the nail bed after one removal and the preferred method to extract it was a 5 minute soak in soapy water and sharp rip with some tweezers. I’m sure there’s still nail marks in the ceiling 😯

I dig them out myself. They keep coming back, but I quite like digging them out so I don’t mind.

Leatherman, but use the pliers to yank the nail out in one forceful movement.

Please video this and post the results

save the nhs and go see a podiatrist, £20 later you have a pain free and ‘toe custard’ free toe.

I’ve done 3 today thus far…I also love digging them out (with the added bonus of being paid to do it!)

i had them years ago. Had 2 minor ops which removed all of the nail down one side of each foot Never had a problem since.I was told mine would grow back, hence the ‘body modification’ It was fun watching it being done under a local.

I’ve done 3 today thus far…I also love digging them out

Jesus **** EW

@ carlphillips, Just had a day of Nail surgey… gotta love the smell of lingering phenol..

£20 a pop? That wouldn’t keep me in chain lube! 8)

£20 a pop?

I now have visions of £20 being handed over to a bloke pressing his thumbs either side of the offending pussbag

I used a dart that I “sterilised” on the gas hob, this was then inserted along the edge of the nail and used to tease out the ingrown bit. Then a bit of action with the scissors sorted it.

You’re not too far from the truth pdf!

+1 on DrP advice but one trick i was told was to cut a V shape into the middle of said nail which allegedly encourage growth back towards the middle and away from the edges.

What ever you do don’t cut a wedge in the middle of the nail. It wont work. Ever.

Go and see a Podiatrist/Chiropodist, and if there is any pain/redness/swelling past the end toe joint then go and see your Gp as it is probably infected.

The “custard zone” is in the middle of one side of my big toe nail, taking up approx half the nail’s length. It didn’t hurt until yesterday, when I dropped something on it, and now it is throbbing.

Mmmmm, custard…….

Great thread this, can we have some pictures of the custard.

PS what antiseptic, TCP or do you have Iodine?

Well… you did ask.

Oof. That picture brings back some painful memories.

I’m thinking of cleaning, pushing the skin away with a cotton wool bud, anteseptic cream and plasters to start off with.

Once you’ve finished with that and washed your hands, you should probably go and do something about that nail.

So, did you do some DIY surgery?

Did you press it with a spoon? Dig around in it with a Leatherman? Stick pins in it? Put in in a vice?

We have to know!

@ captain carbon, a wee snip is £20, PNA’s around £175 per side…

I had mine done private through work bupa. Was originally going to be a local but on the day the surgeon said he’d prefer to do it under general. I latterly needed a finger ring block anaesthetic for a badly broken finger, which made me glad I went along with the suggestion, so I missed the fun of the seeing the nail bed excision.

The relief after the swelling had gone away and the infection cleared was amazing. Whether you can get it done private or go to a podiatrist or whatever, get it done properly – well worth it!

salford uni has a school of podiatry, I went there with a bad one when I was a student, good service and cheap – Norman Whiteside looked at my skanky toe (was studying podiatry/physiotherapy after he’d packed up playing wendyball)

I once asked my GP for a chirpodist referral. His response was

“you don’t want one of those, they just dig about under your nails with pointy things. Just pull it out a bit after a hot shower / bath and let it grow out naturally”

it worked.

I had a recurring ingrower on my big toe. Effing painful. I had the offending nail pulled off under local and the nail bed nuked with phenol. No trace of nail ever came back. But the bit where the nail was is still sensitive. Hurts if I drop a sugarpuff on it!

This would be the opposite of an ingrown toenail

image by piemonster, on Flickr

Peat stained for added effect

Cleaning and application of various potions seems to be working. Not seen any “squirty toe custard” since Friday.

Since about ten years old I have had intermittent ingrowing toenails on both big toes, on the inside. Usually dug them out after a hot bath but a few years ago one didn’t want to go away for months, that got sorted with a visit to a podiatrist which was about £22 and completely pain-free. Lasted fine for about six months before some muppet stamped on my toe at an eels gig and broke my nail. I have freakishly big big toes complete with a little mop of hair on each and my feet are so ticklish underneath I can hardly even bear to touch them myself. I had all sorts of worries about kicking the poor podiatrist in the face from being accidentally tickled while they fettled my feet but all was well, one of the best £22s I have ever spent. Phenol & surgery seems a bit like an overkill nuclear option, definitely worth going to a podiatrist first.

I had one of these about 2 months ago now, unbelievably painful!
I went to the Dr’s and they insisted there wasn’t an infection, even though it was bright red and had puss coming out of it.

I self treated it by prodding with sharp things, soaking the nail with TCP and packing it with cotton wool. Seems to have worked too.