Fungal nail infection

Lovely typo there, SophieSco.

One of my big toes seems to be perpetually infected and every time I grow it, it crumbles and splits. At one time it grew black and fell off while I was sitting by the pool on holiday. A pity DS was watching - he's a bit squeamish. I find that Vicks is as effective as anything, though that's not saying much. I tried teatree oil until I heard someone in the supermarket queue remarking that she could smell teatree. I don't much like the smell myself.

I had an infection for a few years which the GP kept ignoring until it caused a severe excema flare up and it was difficult to walk. I was sent to dermatology who prescribed a 6 month course of tablets. I had to have regular blood tests to check on liver/kidney function but I was fine and this cleared the infection. I was left with a damaged nail bed and the nail is so thickened only a chiropodist can cut or file it. My father suffered with the same - there is a form of excema called Pomphyllox which runs in the family and links with fungal infection.

The pills worked for me, fingers crossed I have been without it for a year now. I would also be interested to know if anyone has tried the laser treatment, my gp said he hadn't heard of it (?), but I would be willing to give it a try if the dread fungus returns

I have tried everything under the sun - Lamisil, Excilor, Curanail, scholl, Boots, Yoffee, vinegar, lavender, teatree and nothing helps. I see my chiropodist once a month to have them filed down (on 6 toes) and also file them down every day. Nothing works completely and I cannot have the oral medication as it's contraindicated with my other pills. I acquired it in hospital and then it got a lot worse after I had two bouts of MRSA when my whole immune system was compromised.

I am too embarrassed to wear sandals in the summer now - I used to paint my nails with varnish but it looked lumpy and silly on top of my nails, and stopped me being able to apply any topical medication to them. I have Reynauds Sydrome (among other things) too so need to keep my feet warm. I've resigned myself to having this problem for life! But any other suggestions are welcome.

Vick. Apply morning and night. Done it. It works

Vick works but I had to be patient. Mouthwash works as well but I forget the name (it had a purple label).Both probably take longer than the £18 stuff but I haven't tried that.

Some months ago I posed the same question as I have had the infection in my big toe for over 3 years, and not a day has gone by without my treating it with over the counter products (after the doc's prescription stuff didn't work) Each product that I have bought costs in the region of £20. I have filed the nail down to the nail-bed twice, to no avail. Am I destined to have this forever????? IF it ever heals I will - via Gransnet- shout it from the rooftops. I am also aware that by now I could have paid for laser treatment!

My Mil used to soak her feet in a bowl of water heavily laced with Dettol everyday. It worked for her but it seems too simple a remedy to me. Anyone else tried this?

My father used to bathe his feet in potassium permanganate (as well as the prescribed griseofulvin - now more commonly replaced by lamisil). The potassium permanganate is fairly cheap and worth trying,

I was prescribed Amoroline 5% Medicated Nail Lacquer by by GP which I used twice a week for a year before it disappeared completely. Then it started to return so I repeated it again until it cleared and now use it once a week to keep it at bay. Nothing has returned since so seems to doing the trick. Good luck with yours as its really not nice is it?

Hi all, I'm Mo and this is my first post.
I found this thread interesting as I have suffered with big toe nail fungus off and on for about 5 year. Went to Drs after first nail started to look awful. Dr wouldn't give me meds as I was already on other meds and said it would go away "eventually"!!!
Well, it didn't! ( surprise surprise!!). So I ventured on trying everything that has been talked about on here with no success either. I would always wear an Elastoplast to hide my nail if I wore open toed shoes or on the beach etc.

My nail was staring to crumble, split and lift away from the nail bed, it looked hideous.
Then I read about Garlic ( yes, I know, smellier than tea tree or Vick ) so in desperation
I cut the nail down as far as I could get it, scraped as much of the crumbled nail away from the nail bed with a nail file, crushed a clove of garlic and pressed it down behind the remaining fungal nail. I covered it in a dressing before I went to bed, and my toe started to sting and throb! Next morning I would scrape and bathe my foot and re-apply the garlic poultice but just enough so I could get an Elastoplast on it to get me through the day. ( sometimes I could smell it, but luckily I'm retired so didn't see many people throughout the day except DH who tolerated it!). I would repeat that process every other day or so but not leave it more than 3 days then eventually a new nail started to emerge! I kept trimming the nail until it was all grown back. It now looks " brand new!"! That was two year ago!
Unfortunately the other big toe nail started about a year ago!! But I haven't been as fussy with that one " yet" as it hasn't got the the crumbling split stage so I guess I've just ignored it up to now even though it would probably be better to tackle it now before it gets any worse!!

I have to say if anyone was to try what I did, Please be very careful when cutting or scraping the crumbled nail especially if you are diabetic, as anyone knows one slip and your toe could get infected. Always practice good hygiene and if it can be avoided don't cross contaminate shoes. Plus, it is a smelly cure! But not half as smelly as a rotten crumbling fungal nail!

HTH

I have had fungal nail in the past and got rid of it with the Boots Fungal treatment, but this time I could not get it to go. I tried three other fungal treatments and they did not help. I had had the fungal nail for two years this time. In the end I got rid of it and this is how I did it.

I started using the Boots fungal nail treatment, but once a week, I got my manicure scissors and scraped down the nail, just like grating cheese. I then continued to apply the Boots treatment. Each week, I was gradually grating down layers of nail for the liquid to soak into. The nail didn't ever get too thin, but I didn't mind if it did get thin as I wanted to get rid of this fungus. The fungus stopped working its way up my nail like it always used to and my nail gradually grew out, with me cutting it very short as soon as I could. Now the fungus has completely gone & if it ever comes back, I will do this again.

I hope that this helps someone else.

Try rubbing Vick on it. Works for athlete's foot, too. As recommended by diabetes clinic.

Hi Janthea,
Like you I tried everything (including 18 months on terbinafine) but the nail didn't respond. I went back to (new) GP who took a nail clipping. It came back as abnormal and more clippings were required to do further tests.

Finally a result - a very unusual fungal infection that usually only affects skin. It will not respond to usual treatments but it should respond to a 28 day course of fluconazole. I'm on day 3 so here's hoping!

I had a fungal nail infection. Spread between several nails and half of the nail came off on my big toe. What contributed to the issue was trying the nail paint solution they sold at Superdrug for about £20 per bottle. It took three bottles before I realised it was doing nothing at all, during which time the issue got worse.

What worked for me was white vinegar. That's all I used, all my nails then grew out and returned to normal, and after several years the issue has not returned. In my case I applied the vinegar direct to the edges and underneath the nails using the little implement inside many toe nail clippers, but it seems the recommended solution is to dilute the vinegar slightly and just soak for a few minutes each day.

Vicks Vapour Rub every night. Slather it on and wear old sock(s). It works. I've done it.

I've had fungal nail infection under my fingernails because I've had to spend a lot of time wearing rubber gloves in the garden trade. I was recommended to use oregano oil on them and it worked well--stings and burns for a while and takes a good few minutes to dry but that's a minor detail if it works. I got mine from a chap who sells on ebay from Greece and it was miles cheaper that the minute bottles of stuff from the chemists.

I use Lamisil weekly and cover it with clear nail varnish - I'm aware that the instructions say not to do this. After many months all my toenails are clear except the smallest ones - not sure if these have an infection or have just been mangled in shoes. I wear clear varnish on my toenails at all times as a barrier.
I'm a daily swimmer but picked up the original infection from XH.

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