Infected Boil
How to Treat an Infected Boil
Infected boils can be difficult to treat, plus they can be hard to accurately diagnose if you are not a doctor. Often people will mistake an infected pimple or cyst as a boil. Most of the time there will be other symptoms that will be present with a boil, such as a fever. People with diabetes will also suffer from boils on a frequent basis.
There are a number of different things that can cause an infected boil. Boils can be caused by laceration to the skin that becomes infected; they can also be caused by infected hair follicles. Boils can become a problem for people that are taking antibiotics. Though all of these things can cause you to develop a boil, one of the most common reasons for boils is staph infection.
A lot of people will have the bacteria known as staph on their skin and most will not even know it until they develop symptoms, if they do. If you do have boils, staph is one of the first things you should have your doctor test for.
To treat an infected boil at home you will need to use a clean rag that has been soaked in hot water. Place the rag on the boil and let it set there for about 20 minutes; this will help to draw the infection out of the boil. If you can get the boil to drain you will want to wash it with an antibacterial soap and then disinfect the wound with iodine or alcohol to ensure that the bacteria does not get into to the wound and cause further infection.
If the boil becomes too infected and grows large, many doctors want to lance the boil. This isn’t painful, as the doctor will use an anesthetic on the area of the infected boil before using a scalpel or needle to drain the abscess from the boil. After applying an antiseptic, the doctor will then dress the area with gauze so that it can continue to drain.
Those that have a continuous problem with getting an infected boil will want to be tested for the staph bacteria. This involves the nurse or doctor taking a sample from the nose with a cotton swab. If the test comes back indicating that there is staph present, the doctor may want to treat the staph with certain antibiotics.
Due to the fact that bacteria on the skin cause boils, you will want to ensure that you keep all open wounds as clean as possible. Wash them several times a day with an antibacterial soap and make sure that you change the dressing on a regular basis. This is the best way to ensure that you do not develop a worse infection or an infected boil.
If there is more than one person in the home and there is a positive test for staph infection, everyone in the house will likely have to be treated for the infection, even if they are showing no symptoms. The carrier of staph infection can pass it to others, even if they don’t have symptoms of staph.
As long as a boil is not caused by staph or you don’t have an infected boil, you can treat them with commercial products, but washing with antibacterial soap is often just as good as a commercial product. If you do have fever with your boils, or it looks as if your boils are becoming infected, it is best to visit your doctor for treatment so that the infection does not get worse.