How soon after stepping on a rusty nail do you need to get a tetanus shot? Can you wait a couple of weeks?

Question

My wife is on vacation in Florida and stepped on a rusty nail. It pierced her shoe and left a mark on her foot, but her foot did not bleed. She's wondering if she needs to get a tetanus shot ASAP or if she can wait until she's back home.

Answer 1

Tetanus is rare in the U.S. The offending toxin can live for years in animal feces and soil.

If the nail did not break the skin, there is usually no treatment required. There needs to be a puncture of some sort or even a superficial wound.
Symptoms of tetanus infection can begin within 2 days, but usually appear within 5-10 days. The most common symptom is stiffness in the jaw. Other symptoms include restlessness, difficulty in swallowing, irritability, headache, fever, sore throat, chills, and muscle spasms and stiffness in the neck, arrms, and legs.

Answer 2

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If there were horses in the yard or pasture the fence is in or cows you can also get Blood poisoning and if you have had a tetanus shot in 5 years it would STILL be smart to get another with two rusty nails in your foot! Fever and or red lines proceeding away from the puncture site and leading up the foot and leg would be definite bad news. Be smart and go get it looked at, why worry and wait or wait and have something bad happen?? Good luck!**Here's an Article about it: Tetanus, also sometimes called "lockjaw", is caused by a toxin produced by a bacteria called Clostridium tetani. C. tetani is found all over, including soil (the garden and field kind), stool and manure, and anything lying on the ground. Rusty metal is also a favourite place for C. tetani to hang out, and in fact puncture wounds with rusty nails are a common cause of tetanus. C. tetani grows in wounds, especially closed wounds like punctures, and produces a toxin that paralyzes muscles -- thus the term "lockjaw". In the worst case tetanus can kill by paralyzing the breathing muscles. Although C. tetani itself can be treated easily with penicillin, antibiotics will not destroy or neutralize the toxin. Antibodies to the toxin can bind to and inactivate the toxin before it attacks muscles and nerves.

Answer 3

You have to get it in 24 hours. Tetanus is a bacteria that lives almost everywhere in the dirt, but is for some reason famous for being on rusty nails. When you get the tetanus bacteria put in your foot from a nail the bacteria do not move all over the body and infect it, they merely infect the local area where they were implanted and put their toxin into the blood. The toxin goes to the nervous system and blocks inhibitory neurotransmitters, so the excitatory neurotransmitters are more powerful, leading to severe contractions, lockjaw, etc. When you have a tetanus shot you are injecting a toxoid, which is a mimic of the toxin, but without the bad effects. The reason you need a shot after stepping on a nail is to force your immune system to ramp up the anti-toxin antibodies that it already knows how to make. The bacteria take about 3 days to start making the toxin, but the immune system takes about 2 days to respond to the toxin (even if you have been immunized in the past, it takes 10 days if you have not been immunized at all), and by then the toxin would have done its job and possibly killed your wife. So to keep that from happening you get a tetanus shot that then forces your immune system to get to work before the toxin is present, so that when the toxin is made by the bacteria it will be neutralized before it can hurt your wife. I hope this helps.

Answer 4

RE:
How soon after stepping on a rusty nail do you need to get a tetanus shot? Can you wait a couple of weeks?
My wife is on vacation in Florida and stepped on a rusty nail. It pierced her shoe and left a mark on her foot, but her foot did not bleed. She's wondering if she needs to get a tetanus shot ASAP or if she can wait until she's back home.

Answer 5

I stepped on a rusty nail when I was about 10 years old and because my tetanus shot was still current I did not need a new one. So if her shot is recent enough she would not need a new one if she hasn't had one since she was a child she should go to the hospital, but you said it didn't break the skin in which case she probably doesn't need one at all.

Answer 6

Stepped On Rusty Nail

Answer 7

If there is no piercing it is not so bad. Obviously blood would have oozed out. Otherwise, if it is just a mark it is not that serious. Still, it is good to get it checked.

On the flip side, if there has been any type of the rusty nail's contact with blood in anyway, tetanus shot should be administered almost immediately. The agony of the poison in her blood stream and the aftermath of the shock is not worth the wait.

Answer 8

i stepped on a rusty nail did not get tetanus shot and 3 days later I am having trouble swallowing?

Answer 9

If it broke the skin, she should get a tetanus shot ASAP because the infection can enter her bloodstream.

If it just left a bruise and didn't break the skin, then she probably doesn't need a shot at all (unless she wants one "just in case" so she's vaccinated).

She was lucky. That could have been so much worse.

Answer 10

If she has not had a tetnus shot in the last 10 years then she needs to get a shot ASAP, even if the nail did not break the skin or cause any bleeding.If I were her I wouldn't wait until I came home, I'd go to the nearest hospital triage dept. for an evaluation and a shot. Better safe than sorry!!!!

Answer 11

A Tetanus shot is given every 7 years. How long has it been? I wouldn't wait if I wasn't sure. Check on the internet.