Fish Spine Infection (with pics)

I recently read Nowhereman's "is there a doctor in the house" post (p.s. I hope you've seen a doc/ER by now). Wanted to share my good buddy's story that happened over memorial day weekend while we were diving Big Sur.

We were cleaning fish on day 2 and he lazily threw a carcass at which point the dorsal spine came around and pricked him in the arm. Not bad at all, small pin prick with about 1 second of bleeding. Wiped it down with Neosporin (I can't recall if he used soap first - I think he did). It was just a small bump with redness, like you'd expect. By day 3 he developed small blisters and rash on his forearm, stomach, leg, neck and face. He went to urgent care. They gave him the wrong mix of antibiotics and tetanus shot which caused an even worse reaction by day 4 and 5 (see pictures). He went to ER and they pumped him full of stuff: Steroid shot, antihistamine, steroid pill, etc. It appears to be contained and going away finally after a week.

Just a reminder to play it extra safe. Glad my buddy is doing better and hope to hear good news for NoWhereMan soon.

yikes! no bueno 

Glad it's under control

Eew thanks for sharing this

Whoa, gnarly!

I believe he may have been misdiagnosed. Looks spot on for poison oak rash based on my painfully extensive personal experience with the stuff. Big Sur is loaded with poison oak and the rash typically takes 48-72 hours after exposure to develop.

Whoa. That's is crazy. I got stabbed a few weeks back by a couple of fish and my finger felt numbness and some burning. No big deal? Later that night I had fevers and cold sweats. I was wrecked the whole next day.
I will handle Rockfish with care from now on.

I believe he may have been misdiagnosed. Looks spot on for poison oak rash based on my painfully extensive personal experience with the stuff. Big Sur is loaded with poison oak and the rash typically takes 48-72 hours after exposure to develop.

I would tend agree with you, but both doctors considered it and did not think it was that.

what flavor of rockfish supposedly did that?

Oh man, that sucks I need to be more careful with them now.

I believe he may have been misdiagnosed. Looks spot on for poison oak rash based on my painfully extensive personal experience with the stuff. Big Sur is loaded with poison oak and the rash typically takes 48-72 hours after exposure to develop.

I would tend agree with you, but both doctors considered it and did not think it was that.

From Daniel (dude with rash):

"It was an allergic reaction to the bacteria which caused a similar classification of poison oak but not how I got it. Because of my allergic reaction to the fish bacteria, I was able to get in antibiotics before the infection set in."

what flavor of rockfish supposedly did that?

I cant recall... we killed a lot of fish that weekend. Probably a blue or a kelpie.

I believe he may have been misdiagnosed. Looks spot on for poison oak rash based on my painfully extensive personal experience with the stuff. Big Sur is loaded with poison oak and the rash typically takes 48-72 hours after exposure to develop.

I would tend agree with you, but both doctors considered it and did not think it was that.

From Daniel (dude with rash):

"It was an allergic reaction to the bacteria which caused a similar classification of poison oak but not how I got it. Because of my allergic reaction to the fish bacteria, I was able to get in antibiotics before the infection set in."

  I agree, that looks 110% like poison oak to me  .  Never seen or heard of that from "fish spine bacteria infection," but who knows, I guess they're doctors.

Wow! I didn't know a poke from a rockfish spine could be that bad. Good thing it is all better now.

Looks spot on for poison oak rash based on my painfully extensive personal experience with the stuff.

Yeah that's what I thought too upon first glance at the pic. I've trounced through that area before and luckily was wearing a wet suit so no poison oak.

The slime and toxins in the spines of rockfish are no joke though. Got stabbed once on my knuckle retrieving a guys fish that had a yard sale on the beach. It was a big verm or black can't remember which one but it had my knuckle swollen and infected for about a couple months. Still got a scar from it.

Sticking to my initial reply...........yikes! for whatever it is                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Looks like Poison Oak, I had the same itchy rash after launching from Bean Hollow about 3 weeks ago.  Mine wasnt as bad.  I used an over the counter lotion that took care of it.