Tetanus (Safety Tips on How to Avoid)

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Greetings from the Grange. YEOOOW!!!!! Did anyone out side of Pike County hear me scream Saturday morning? Well my son didn't because he was on the mower, and my wife didn't because she was on the phone, and my other son didn't because he was watching cartoons...Well take my word for it, if you would have been here and not been preoccupied you would have heard me scream. I was not screaming because I dropped my favorite tool (Black & Decker 9.6 V cordless drill) into the water trough...which I did. I was screaming because I had ran about an inch and a half of a ten penny nail into the arch of my foot.

Why would someone do that you ask. Well stupidity comes to mind with carelessness running a close second, again followed closely by stupidity.

I try to keep a clean barn...oh did I mention the nail was in the barn covered with goose poop? Like I said I try to keep a clean barn and I have had several comments on how nice it looks but there is always room for improvement.

This accident might not have been so bad had I not told my son earlier that morning to watch out for nails in a board and not to step on them. (Not the same board, not even in the same location. It was something we were tearing down)

Being a homesteader there is always work to be done. When you start one project you see several others that need done. I was installing a self watering tank in the temporary goose pen. This pen had not been used for a while and I had haphazardly tossed some used lumber in there to be used latter. At the time I knew there were nails in the lumber, That is why I stored it in the pen. No one ever went in there and it should have been safe till I could find the time to pull some nails. Well you never know when you are going to run across a deal and when you do you have to take it. The deal that came up was four geese. These geese were bigger than our others so we placed them in this pen till our geese got some size on them.

Still more important than pulling a few nails (Yes they should be pulled for the safety of the geese also) was getting the geese a constant supply of water. I scavenged a small water system tank and some used lumber and I was building a raised platform for the tank. The object of this is so I can fill the tank once a week and it will fill the water trough with the help of a float valve. I use the tank system because I am on a well and with the tank system if there is a problem with the lines or the float valve, it will not run my well dry.

When I got the tank into the barn to install it I noticed that the corner where I was going to work was a little dark. Note to self, install more lights. The note should have read BEFORE you start to work on the water tank. I also noticed that the geese had knocked down some of the stacked lumber. Note to self, Remove nails and re-stack lumber. That note should have read BEFORE you start work on the water tank

While I was working I was looking at the nail riddled boards laying there in the dark (Well almost dark) And I could hear my own words to my son from just earlier that morning. "Watch that board and don't step on a nail"..... Safety Tips from The Organic Grange #1. Always work in a well lit area #2. Always work in a clutter free environment #3. Never store used lumber without first removing the nails. #4. Keep the date of your last tetanus written down where you can find it.

Tetanus- a noun, An often fatal bacterial disease marked by muscular spasms and rigidity, esp of the jaw

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), July 22, 2001

Answers

Response to Tetanus

Safety tip #5. Don't throw hay to your cows in your slippers. You might jump off the hay stack onto a nail. It hurts.

-- Julie (julieamc@eagleslair.net), July 22, 2001.

Response to Tetanus

Tetanus is childs play if you gain ostiomylitius (rotting bones). I spent 31 days in a hospital in 1981 and had the first toe socket removed due to it, big toe, left. Redness, swelling, soreness, progressive worse; $38,000.00 later I can walk bi pedal still.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), July 22, 2001.

Response to Tetanus

Sorry to hear about you dropping your cordless drill in the water trough.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), July 22, 2001.

Response to Tetanus

Grant I have screamed bloody murder on our property before when we first moved out here. Family of rats were trying to move into my stored washing machine, when I opened it up and yep......they jumped out and I screamed. Nobody came to my rescue! I have always wondered just how long I perhaps would have to lay in the woods, after some sort of mishap before somebody would wonder where I was.

You can get your tetanus boosters quite inexpensively where you get kids vaccinations. Full price isn't but about 10$ here. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 22, 2001.


Response to Tetanus

Safety tip #6) Don't weed your cactus garden with sandals on. Those prickly pears have really BIG stickers on them, and they're barbed. Had to go to the emergency room to get a thorn removed from my big toe (felt like such a wuss sitting there, too) but I couldn't get a good grip on it myself - bad angle. Tetnus and $300 bill. Ouchie. You thought I yelled when I stuck my foot! Sorry about the drill ;)

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 22, 2001.


Response to Tetanus

The Drill still works

-- grant (organicgrange@yahoo.com), July 22, 2001.

Response to Tetanus

The idea that tetanus comes from old nails is an old wives fable. tetanus is a bacteria that lives in old manury dirt. Barnyards. So old rusty nails that were stepped on were blamed for the desease, when all those nails actually did was to open a place for the bacteria to enter. You can get tetanus from ANY open place on your skin that comes into contact with dirt. Even working in your weel- fertilised garden barehanded with a minor cut on your finger can leave you vulnerable to tetanus.

Moral of the story... GET YOUR TETANUS SHOTS AND THOSE BOOSTERS ON TIME... before tetanus gets you. Better safe than sorry.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), July 22, 2001.


Response to Tetanus

I am one of those who never remember my last tetanus shot. When I nailed my foot to a board last month the ER doc asked me when my last one was and when I said I couldn't remember, he said with a grin if I was asked tomorrow I would... as he was spearing me :>)

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 23, 2001.

Tetanus is part of the natural intestinal flora of horses and cows. My suggestion is to soak your foot in a pot of the hottest water you can stand with lots of salt a few days in a row. Fowl manure likely doesn't contain tetanus.

-- Shawn (shawnna@hotmail.com), July 25, 2001.

I have a slightly different view on the tetanus booster thing. I get my booster in a year that ends in five and get one religiously every ten years. Doing it originally in a year ending in five made it easier for me to remember. Then I just have to remember, hmm does it seem like it has been five years ago or more like ten years ago since I had my last booster. My last one was in 1995 and I easily remember it. Now, why do I do this? Because I didn't like the idea of having a doctor give me a shot when I am already visiting him for being stuck by something else. Just adds insult to injury. So, when the health office at my place of work offered me a free tetanus booster it was in a year that ended in five so I started the routine. It works for me. Also, since you can frequently get stuck by something on the homestead which doesn't really need a doctor's attention but you have to go because you can't remember when you had your last booster shot, you are costing yourself extra doctor visits that you don't necessarily have to have. Now, I only go if it needs stitches.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), July 25, 2001.


It is an old wives tale that horses somehow carry tetanus. Tetanus is everywhere, just waiting to enter an open wound. Horses or no horses, manure or no manure, you should use tetanus vaccines on yourself and your stock. You can get tetanus in the middle of a big city where a horse never has been. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 25, 2001.

when i was out in the middle of no where with the kiddies naked and covered with baked on clay chasing a frog i stepped on something buried in the mud that went so unbelievably deep and i never knew what it was. well, obviously i wouldn't let them go for help for me and let anyone find ME all naked covered with mud which while laughable would not be a pretty sight to see(i was faking the kids out telling them it was an ancient beauty secret mud bath blah blah and just thought it would be funny to see them do it) so i had to jump back in the pond and swim using one foot until i got all the mud off me (hurt too much to used the injured foot) and got dressed.

I got the herbal first aid kit and used my goldenseal based alcohol tincture and poured it into the hole. I massaged and sqeezed and bled the whole, then poured more of that nasty stuff in....over and over. finally, nothing more came out and it healed beautifully.

Moral of the story: only catch frogs fully clothed, preferably not covered in mud.

-- marcee king (thathope@mwt.net), July 25, 2001.


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