Foot wounds and infections
Foot wounds and infections
What is a foot wound?
Your skin is made up of many different layers. Wounds on your feet may be called different things depending which layer of skin they are in.
For example, if the damage to your skin is in the upper layers, it may be called a graze, a skin tear, or a blister. If the damage in your skin goes deeper into the lower layers, it may be called a wound or an ulcer.
All breaks in your skin can cause you problems, but damage to the deeper layers may cause you more damage and take longer to heal.
Looking after your foot wound
To give your body the best chance to fight infection and heal your foot wound, it’s important to take care of yourself and your wound. Here are some simple things that will help:
Resting – try to rest, sleep well and look at ways to reduce the stress in your life. You may need to change your daily routines so that you are not walking or standing as much as usual. You may need to talk to your employer about starting reduced duties to allow you to rest your foot while your foot/feet are trying to heal. This is to reduce the amount of pressure underneath your foot/feet as it can slow down healing.
Eating healthily – will help the healing process, you may need to increase the amount of protein you eat because your body needs protein to help mend your body. This is particularly true if you have multiple wounds, or your wounds are weeping fluid. Try to have a protein source at each meal and include high protein snacks between meals.
Bathing – it’s important to keep your wound/dressing on your foot as dry as possible, so you may need to change your bathing routine. Try switching from showers or baths to a flannel wash. This is because any dirt on your body will wash straight onto the foot wound and may cause the wound to become infected, which will cause you problems. Your podiatrist may arrange for a plastic boot device to be ordered from your pharmacy – wear this in the bath or shower to help keep your foot wound dry.
Footwear – you may need to change what you wear on your feet, especially if your shoes or footwear caused the wound in the first place. Footwear that rubs or presses on the wound will stop it from healing.
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There are many reasons why wounds heal more slowly than they should do – here are some of the most common reasons:
- Smoking – this can really stop your wound from healing quickly. Now is a good time to talk to your podiatrist, GP or practice nurse about help you can get to cut down or stop smoking altogether.
- Health conditions – if you have diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, or other diseases, they might slow down your body’s ability to heal itself.
- Medication – you may be on medication from your GP that helps you in other ways, but unfortunately slows down your wound from healing.
If you have diabetes, it is particularly important to look after your foot wound carefully – find out more on our Foot wound care for people with diabetes page.
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Your podiatrist will look at your feet and use tools to check how well your blood is flowing through your feet and how the nerves are working in your feet. They may remove any hard skin or dead tissue overlying the wound. Sometimes when they remove hard skin, they may find a new wound underneath that you didn’t know you had. They will clean the wound and put a dressing and sometimes some padding over and around the wound, to help it heal and be more comfortable for you to walk on.
They may arrange for you to wear a dressing sandal as the dressings and bandaging they put on your foot may mean you can’t wear your normal shoes or footwear while your foot heals. This video tells you more.
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Sometimes it might be difficult for you to attend your podiatry clinic every time the wound on your foot needs a new dressing. Your podiatrist may discuss with you how you can help by doing some of the dressing changes yourself at home. Watch this video to see how to safely put a new dressing on your foot.
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Please visit our looking after your cast page for full details.
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Ideally avoid driving if your foot is in a cast. The situation may be different, depending on whether you have been asked to wear a heel cast or a below knee cast. It may also depend on whether you have a manual or an automatic car or which foot the cast is on, depending on which pedals you need to use safely with that foot. Discuss the issues with your podiatrist. They may also advise you to contact the DVLA for further discussions, as not contacting them may invalidate your insurance.
If you do not have any feeling in your feet – please read this webpage.