Infection from Live Rock - Personal Experience

[HeavyWater]

Reef Central,

Over the years I have read a variety of posts on the RC stressing the importance of wearing gloves when working in your tank/ handling live rock. Two Saturdays ago, I scratched my forearm on a piece on a piece of LR while moving my tank to the new house.... this "scratch" has turned out to be an absolutely hellish experience.

I sustained the scratch on Saturday afternoon and did not think anything of it. I have nicked my hands probably a hundred times in this hobby and never had any negative consequences. On Sunday morning, at about 7 am, I woke up in severe pain. My forearm was EXTREMELY swollen and I clearly had a fever/ chills. Now, I don't normally go to the doctor unless I am about to die, but in this instance I immediately asked my wife to take me to the ER.

At the hospital, I was put on an IV and given about 5 different medications to help with the pain, swelling, and infection. I felt a little bit better after the meds and was sent home on Sunday afternoon.

Day 1 - Pic from the ER



On Monday, the scratched area still hurt, but there was no swelling or fever. Around noon, I noticed that the red area around the scratch had begun to spread all over my forearm. I made an appointment with my family practice doctor, and by the time I got to his office, a read streak had run from up forearm up my bicep. My doctor took one look at the infection and instructed me to go back to the hospital.

Day 2 - Going back to the hospital



I was admitted to the hospital on Monday afternoon and was seen by an Infectious Disease doctor. I received infusions for approx 40 hours, and was given a mix of 3 different antibiotics. Blood cultures came back as negative, so the infection was considered to be localized and not systemic. Despite this news, I was scared to death... no one really knew what kind of bacteria was causing the infection and I saw no real improvement for the first 24 hours.

As of Wednesday morning, the redness finally stopped spreading and the red streak began to regress down my arm.

Day 5 - Leaving the hospital

[owenspackman]

Holy cow. I would have never thought........

I'm glad you realized the seriousness and came over our 'manliness' of not needing doctors. Who knows what could have happened, you could have saved your arm by those trips to the ER and Doctor.

So whats your plan for working in the tank now, gloves to the elbows?

Glad you're doing okay and through the worst of it

[James77]

Yeah, that is scary. Glad you are alright

I cannot count the times I have been scraped, jabbed, or pricked (with blood) on live rock. Still, I have not used gloves consistently. I shall be now...screw that, that looks nasty.

FWIW people....harbor freight sells some heavy duty arm length gloves for above $7, less with a coupon.

I remember handling some type of zoanthid, and thinking nothing of it. The next day I literally could not open my eys they were so dry and painful. The ER claimed it to be a co-ink-e-dink...but I know it was not.

[Reefmedic79]

Glad to see things worked out in the end.

Looks like it could have been a vibrio infection, do a search and you'll realize how lucky you are. You can also catch it from your fish if you get stuck with a spine or bitten.

Aside from taking the proper precautions when handling our critters, I might add that proper wound management is key as well. If possible wash all wounds with a mild soap and the hottest water you can handle, then clean it out with a betadine, peroxide, rubbing alcohol solution really well. Here in Florida, I keep a small pray bottle of 10-1 bleach solution, when I'm out fishing, just in case I get stuck.

This is especially important for those living within the landlocked states, as your ER Docs may have never heard of it or seen anything like it before.

[AdamSabina]

I'm buying gloves tomorrow... Wow

[JLee1469]

Thank you for sharing this traumatizing experience with us. It will make me think twice about handling LR. Relieved to hear you're OK!

[Joe0813]

looks like when i got mersa/blood poisoning

[brandon429]

I feel really bad about mouthing siphon hoses for two decades.

[Griznock]

the guy who owns the lfs gets this when handling tear down tanks over 10 yrs old..he told me the hospital freaks out when he comes in cause they never see this stuff in oklahoma

[pmcarbrey]

This thread is exactly the reason why if I get cut or stung in my tank the site immediately gets washed and coated in mecuricome. It's not worth taking any risks!

[jamesbaur13]

Alhcohlol kills germs... ty Jim Koch for making it so tasty.

[LuchoTocado]

Thanks for posting this im sure a lot of people will learn from this. Me included

[HeavyWater]

Originally Posted by Reefmedic79

Glad to see things worked out in the end.

Looks like it could have been a vibrio infection, do a search and you'll realize how lucky you are. You can also catch it from your fish if you get stuck with a spine or bitten.

Aside from taking the proper precautions when handling our critters, I might add that proper wound management is key as well. If possible wash all wounds with a mild soap and the hottest water you can handle, then clean it out with a betadine, peroxide, rubbing alcohol solution really well. Here in Florida, I keep a small pray bottle of 10-1 bleach solution, when I'm out fishing, just in case I get stuck.

You are right on about proper wound care. When I sustained the scratch, it was so superficial that I wrote it off as nothing.... I have cut/ scraped my hands so many times that I did not have a sense of urgency in treating this wound.

While wearing gloves is important, I think that ALL scrapes sustained from our tanks should be treated with the same urgency as an open wound. Peroxide, neosporin, and rubbing alcohol should all be handy in the event that you sustain even a superficial injury.

[HeavyWater]

Originally Posted by pmcarbrey

This thread is exactly the reason why if I get cut or stung in my tank the site immediately gets washed and coated in mecuricome. It's not worth taking any risks!

Good idea!

[HeavyWater]

Originally Posted by Joe0813

looks like when i got mersa/blood poisoning

Yeah when I saw the streak up my arm, I freaked out.... I have always heard that is a sign of blood poisoning. The ER doctor told me that it means the infection is traveling up the lymphatic system, and typically represents a pretty serious situation.

That first night in the hospital was horrible. I was scared to death and did not sleep at all... I was so worried about my arm that I could not think straight. None of the cultures had come back, and there was no telling what medicines where going to work.

The first day in the hospital the infection actually spread despite the antibiotics. The nurses would draw an outline of the infection of my arm (the pen marks in the pictures) and track how much it was spreading every few hours. It was not until Tuesday night that the redness FINALLY stopped spreading. By Wednesday morning it started to retreat

[Uglyman]

3 months ago I had the same experience as you after handling liverock and scratching my knuckle in the process. The next day I had a severly swollen knuckle, extreme pain in my entire hand and could not move the infected finger properly. The knuckle took 4 days for the swelling to go down and 3 months later I still have pain in that knuckle from time to time.

Strangely now everytime I just touch some liverock or even have my hands in the tank for too long I break out in a case of the itches and get swollen fingers and hands.

I have to admit the experience takes some of the fun out of the hobby

Glad to hear you came through ok

[ninja66999]

i couldnt imagine... this hobby is expensive enuf! lol

[Sakura251]

Terrible I should use gloves now when I put my hand inside the fish tank. Thanks for sharing.

[dkeller_nc]

You can have issues with several different bacterial genuses that are common in both saltwater and freshwater tanks (it's not confined to live rock). Vibrio is one, but there is a syndrome called "aquarium granuloma" described here that is caused by mycobacteria:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycobacterium_marinum

While gloves are a reasonable precaution, proper wound care is the key to preventing these sorts of issues. You don't actually have to have sterilants like hydrogen peroxide or betadine - simply thoroughly washing the wound with warm water and soap is sufficiently bactericidal to prevent most infections.

[AmberFL03]

It makes total sense that an infection occurred. The reason we get an infection if an animal bites us is because of the bacteria in their mouth, bacteria colonize the live rock so you would think we'd view a scrape on live rock the same as a bite from a fish...but it's totally understandable that the correlation was only made in hindsight!

Thanks for sharing this, you can never be too careful! I'm so glad I'm an OCD hand washer lol!!

[HeavyWater]

I was released from the hospital last week and put on oral antibiotics. While I am still dealing with the infection, I am continuing to heal and feel better.

I have been following up with the infectious disease doctor every few days and he has been pleased with my progress. The swelling has gone done a good bit, and the pain is pretty much gone. One big improvement is that the tissue in the surrounding scratch has begun to soften... it was hard as a rock while in the hospital (I am told that this is a VERY good sign). I am probably going to be on antibiotic treatment for a total of 4 weeks, but things are going in the right direction. I am ready for this to be over!

Day 6



Day 9



Day 12

[LuchoTocado]

Wow, it is incredible that a simple scratch can do that

[MBC2012]

OH may. This is crazy.
I have been reading that people are using cipro to treat anemones and that it very worryness for me. Ciprofloxacin is the only antibiotic that I am not allegoric to. I have a fear that tanks will stop responding to this drug and I will be in world of hurt if I get an infection.....
What drugs did they use?

[Sugar Magnolia]

Sorry you're dealing with this. Sharing your story will help others, thanks for that.

[dkeller_nc]

Originally Posted by MBC2012

OH may. This is crazy.
I have been reading that people are using cipro to treat anemones and that it very worryness for me. Ciprofloxacin is the only antibiotic that I am not allegoric to. I have a fear that tanks will stop responding to this drug and I will be in world of hurt if I get an infection.....
What drugs did they use?

It's likely that there are some other antibiotics that you aren't allergic to, they're just not in common usage (i.e., you don't typically get prescribed those drugs from a general practitioner). Nevertheless, as long as you're not using ciprofloxacin to treat your own tank, the likelihood of a cipro resistant strain of bacteria existing in your reef is very low.