To ask for your tips on toe nail fungus please

[Lalliella]

I’d saved the thread the other day to look at later as I’ve suffered from this for years, but it’s been zapped!

Please give me any tips you have but please don’t mention Cilit Bang!

I (think) I have a fungal nail problem on my big toe though it could be a damaged nail, it's sort of a whitish patch in the middle on one side. Is that it? Not sure what it is! The toe nail itself doesn't look damaged and I don't want to bother the GP right now. I've started using Scholl fungal nail treatment for the past couple weeks so it's too early to tell. It comes with disposable files and this clear liquidy thing that you paint on every day. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Fiddlestix2021 Gentian Violet on the itchy skin as well as the nail. I posted earlier in the thread about it.

For people concerned with it spreading you need to wash you hands and feet thoroughly after you've done any filing of the affected nails, then treat the affected nails, put in fresh socks, and then clean the bathroom floor (where all the filing dust will be). Use a separate file from the one you use for healthy nails and throw it away after a few uses. If you don't file the nail surface the products can't get in and also the nail will get bigger and bigger until it's like a whole cm thick and still growing. Google images, it's nasty! If you wear any shoes barefoot you need to regularly wash those too. I put slippers in the washing machine weekly. In summer I wear the plastic flip flops that can be wiped down. The rest of the time I wear socks with baby powder on my feet and change the socks in the middle of the day if my feet get sweaty.

I use disposable Emery boards for the filing, cut them in half and use on half per rotten nail, plus wearing disposable gloves. When I cut my nails I have one set of scissors for the rotten nails, one for the rest of the toe nails. I also keep another set away from those, for my fingernails. I also clean them in tea tree oil when finished cutting nails. If I accidentally touch a nail, fungly or not, it is action stations and OCD cleaning of hands takes place!

I wear washable open slippers. And I have been working at home a lot so they are not enclosed for very long. And all my socks are now bamboo, better for breathability.

My nails aren't particularly built up. They are more crumbly apart from the original one.

I am thinking of taking a supplement of some kind, to kill it from within, Oil of Oregano perhaps. This is in lieu of the prescription tablets which are hard on the liver and which GPs are reluctant to prescribe.

I once read anecdotal evidence of flax seed oil capsules helping.

Amber - that's interesting. Used to use gentian violet purple spray for thrush on my horse's hooves, but was told to not continue because of cancer risks

@AmberItsACertainty Do you mean take them as a supplement? I have been taking them for years, didn't stop me getting the toes of doom, or have they got rid of it.

File it, tea tree oil, repeat every week.

Emuaid - only homeopathic remedy I’ve ever tried for anything after a recommendation and seeing an ad on Instagram. Have had a fungal infection on my big toe since 2012 - tried all sorts. 2 months of emuaid and it’s so much better! Looks like it is growing out nicely - actual nail coming in at the base 😃

[quote ToffeePennie]@Melange99 a chiropodist absolutely 100% should not be prescribing tablets. A podiatrist can, but a chiropodist legally cannot.
I would presume private. There is no way to get foot health treatment in the NHS unless you are elderly and diabetic, they just don’t have the funds.[/quote]
@ToffeePennie Isn’t a chiropodist the same as a podiatrist? It’s just one is the slightly more modern term.

To answer the question, I got rid of mine by applying tea tree oil mixed with other oil twice a day, after filing it down. I now only use porous nail polish.

Mine fell off the other day and I was a mixture of horrified and fascinated by the fungus underneath the nail, it was very thick . I think it pushed the nail off !!

TMI?

The new one is not yet showing signs of black but it is cloudy. I've got curanail from last year - but am just using vicks on it every morning ... wonder whether I should also use curanail weekly, maybe anew bottle..?

Ive had a black nail for years now. gp prescribed the tablets but I decided I'd rather a black nail than the risk of liver damage

Following

Mine fell off the other day and I was a mixture of horrified and fascinated by the fungus underneath the nail, it was very thick smile. I think it pushed the nail off

@tootyfruitypickle that is definitely TMI

My feet - well, foot - is hideous. Hard peeling flaky skin and crumbly nails.

I've heard about using a holy trinity combination of potassium permanganate, surgical spirit and I think curanail. Was told it will come back, and I will have to do it again repeatedly.

Have tried Lamisil Once which reduced the issue, but didn't get rid of it.

Don't want to damage my liver otherwise I'd try the pills.

I've also heard that diet can play a big part - low carb / low yeast / no sugar is meant to really help.

[quote Melange99]@AmberItsACertainty Do you mean take them as a supplement? I have been taking them for years, didn't stop me getting the toes of doom, or have they got rid of it.[/quote]
Yes capsules. That's what I heard from someone who took it for some other reason and found as a side effect the fungal nail they'd had for years cleared up. I've never tried it.

@Fiddlestix2021

Amber - that's interesting. Used to use gentian violet purple spray for thrush on my horse's hooves, but was told to not continue because of cancer risks

Nobody told me to use it. I tried everything else including over the counter nail stuff which did absolutely nothing. Some of the home remedies kept it from getting worse but let's face it they're all time consuming to some extent. It wasn't a question of waiting for the nail to grow out. The fungus was eating the nail as fast as it was growing. I'd have had to keep up the treatment forever.

Eventually I got round to using the Gentian Violet. The worst nail, although it didn't look too bad, was hurting. If I go to the GP about a painful toenail they're just going to give you side eye and tell me to take painkillers. Ibuprofen will eventually give me a stomach ulcer and paracetamol will eventually damage my liver. I may as well take my chances with the cancer risk (not that I knew about it). Seems like everything gives you cancer these days depending on who you listen to. I'm probably doomed anyway. Spent years putting DEET on a sweet-itch horse, whitewashing walls and creosoting fences etc. Doesn't seem to be any less cancer around these days and we've all got to die of something.

I'm not a doctor so feel free to ignore me. But unlike anything else the Gentian Violet is working, together with filing the surface of the nail, which as time goes on I'm doing increasingly aggressively having realised that a) I can without it hurting and b) it's necessary to remove as much of the fungal nail as possible as fast as possible to speed up the treatment working. I've got Gentian Violet BP 5% I paint it on with an artist's paint brush. I've cured 6 nails and the last two are well on their way to being cured. I no longer get athletes foot every two seconds either, the fungus was probably spreading from the nail.

Terbinafine tablets on prescription.

Laser treatment

@nanbread

I've also heard that diet can play a big part - low carb / low yeast / no sugar is meant to really help.

Yes - mine is finally repairing itself since I changed my diet. I think it may sometimes be part of a prediabetic sugar level tendency, along with skin tags.

@atlaspine interesting thanks, were you prediabetic? What's your current diet and did you do anything else with the toe?

My diet's been pretty awful since lockdown 2.

Are you certain it's fungus? I spent ten years trying every OTC treatment I could find with no success, and trying to keep my toddler away from my feet lest she catch it. Then, my psoriasis developed into psoriatic arthritis, and when I started on a biologic drug for that my nails improved too - totally back to normal, and stayed that way for two years. I've been off the biologic drug now for a year, and in the last few months my psoriasis has flared and now my nails are bad again. I never realised how similarly the two conditions could present.

If the fungus has infiltrated the nail bed then there is literally NOTHING you can do to shift it. Topical treatments won't work, because the infection is not in a place which can be reached through applying potions and lotions. The only thing you can do is oral terbinafine, which can be prescribed by a GP. The generally accepted course of treatment is three months, with a liver function test at six weeks (it's a particularly hepatotoxic drug).

@MynahBird so if my nail bed is currently half exposed, it might work to stick stuff on it ? Does curanail lose potency? I've had it a year at least .

.

My podiatrist recommended rubbing Athletes foot cream into my toenails every day . It seemed to help.

Think gingergiraffe upthread I wasted years and a lot of money on over the counter and alternative remedies.
Saw a podiatrist (about something else), they got the GP to prescribe terberfin, and my 10-year old fungus started clearing within a week, completely clear in about 6 weeks. Also had the effect of clearing up long-standing cracked heel that was clearly fungal.
I think the potential liver effects are over-egged as I understand the drug is expensive.