How to cope with thorns when hiking barefoot?
There are two main factors that cause me to get thorns in the feet when hiking barefoot:
Usually, the forest ground consists of many layers - grass, beneath it rotten leaves, beneath it grass roots, but still aerated. Thorny plants can be hidden beneath the grass and fully invisible.
One can't always look down where he is stepping, therefore encountering from time to time raspberries or blackberries.
When I hit a thorn, it usually hurts quite a lot in the first moments. However, my feet are dirty from walking and seeing the thorn is difficult. Furthermore, even if I locate it, it is usually embedded deep enough to make removal difficult.
How can I identify which thorns are dangerous in the long therm and should be removed promptly (instead of leaving it inside the foot)? How to determine if the painful thing that hit my foot is a plant's thorn, that will dissolve in the body in a few days, or is a tiny piece of stone/glass, that, if not removed, will embed there and hurt indefinitely long?
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/4608. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
Generally, thorns will not dissolve in the body. Very small ones may work their way out, but they may not. Treat them and any other sharp objects as possible sources of infection.
The first thing to do is check to see how badly the skin is broken. A baby wipe can be enough for this. If you can see an entry wound, then you should be able to find whether the object is still inside. If you can see it, and can get it with a pair of tweezers, then now is a good time to remove it. If you can't get it with tweezers it may be worthwhile waiting until your next evening stop, as extraction using a needle will break the skin more so you want to do it in a cleaner environment if possible, as well as let the skin heal overnight.
Once extracted, a big wound should have a plaster affixed over it. Waterproof plasters are a hiking essential - but you will need to fix them to clean, dry skin in order to work. Treat them as a buffer to stop infection.
If you cannot see a wound, then you may just want to check a bit further down the trail for swelling, redness etc.
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