Insect Bite (inc manky photo)

[WillMyFootDropOff]

I know you shouldn't take medical advice off the internet blah blah, but interested what the consensus is on this insect bite...

I was bitten 10 days ago, goodness know what it was (didn't see it), but there was a a little trickle of blood running down my foot. Maybe a horse fly? In the days afterwards, my foot and ankle blew up in an allergic reaction - massive, red and painful. I had a couple of trips to the pharmacist who advised anti-histamines and hydrocortisone cream. Swelling, pain and redness duly reduced so thought I was over it. Insect bite had turned to a blister which popped and leaked gunk everywhere (another trip to the pharmacist ensued). 10 days later, the blister site still isn't healing. It's still leaking gunk and sometimes hurts (esp if I've been on my feet a lot); I think the red patch around it is getting redder.

I've been dousing it in TCP and keeping it covered with a plaster as I'm paranoid about secondary infection.

Looking at the photo, do you think this warrants another trip to the pharmacy (or even the GP, if I can magic up an appt)?

TIA.

Ouch!!! That's nasty! Walk in appointment for you, way past pharmacy advice.

Do you have a walk in/non emergency clinic at your local hospital? Definitely head there ASAP.

Really? Bugger.

Or GP if you can conjure up an appointment tomorrow morning.

Head to the hospital with that one ASAP, it's tracking...the red lines = it's spreading. You need IV antibiotics or very strong ones to stop the infection

I had a nasty bite last week. Hydrocortisone cream helped immensely. V.cheap from Boots. My bite tracking was much larger and I resolved it at home. If it doesn’t help overnight then seek further guidance.

If it is spreading at all I'd get it checked tonight. In my area that means calling 111.

In a rare example of NHS efficiency (!) I have a course of antibiotics. I remembered we'd had a leaflet through from the Urgent Treatment Centre a few weeks ago, the route for getting an appt is via the 111 website. So I filled out the consultation form, it routed me to a pharmacy at my Dr's surgery. Got there 10 minutes later, had a consultation with the pharmacist and he's given me a course of flucloxacillin.

This must count as the fastest treatment ever! Fingers crossed it does the trick!

Thanks everyone for your advice; with the NHS as it is, it's easy to think you'll keep soldiering on until something drops off rather then get a timely intervention.

Blandford fly would be my guess, nasty little things. Were you by a river/lake when you got bitten?

Nope, I was in my garden pegging out the washing. No water nearby (apart from the neighbour's pond). To add insult to the injury, it started raining half an hour later so I had to hobble out to get the washing back in again. Little fecker.