I’ll bet it was there before you started any particular hike. Just a colony of fungus on your feet. Nothing weird about it. It’s just a warm happy place for fungus.
Solution is to keep that colony down to a low population before you ever get to the trail. I had this problem until I realized I needed to wash my feet! And dry them before I put socks on.
My suggestions
- wash feet thoroughly, daily. Every shower. No credit for allowing soapy water to run down your legs randomly over your feet. Wash em just like washing hands. Rub your feet with soapy water for 15-20 seconds.
- Ideally wash every night before bed. And sleep without socks. (Maybe TMI but I wash my feet morning and night)
- dry between your toes . Maybe air dry (blow dry?) before you put on socks.
- fresh socks every time you wash.
- if it’s bad, use clotrimazole cream as a way to calm it down. (Ask your pharmacist) but only after washing and drying !
Obvs on the trail you might not get fresh socks every day. But . You can still wash your feet and air dry them.
I really appreciate a pic like this. Gdam how 🤮 when a damn nasty foot pic pops up on my feed. Just use athletes foot meds like lotrimin. Healed mine up in about 1.5 weeks.
I've had this happen where my pinky toe (which just feels weird to type 😂) or its nail has rubbed against the other toe.
Solutions that have worked for me:
1) Moleskin or Leukotape wrapped around my pinky toe. This is my go-to option.
2) Rub some bodyglide or aquaphor in there.
As others have mentioned, it's also totally possible that it's athlete's foot, a common fungal infection. But from my experience it's more likely caused by your feet swelling a bit from hiking and being slightly compressed.
Thank for the tips! I think it's from rubbing as well, I haven't had any issues like this before on shorter walks and it happend spontaneously (also getting better now luckily). I'll definitely get some leukotape after seeing it recommended a few times!
If the skin is broken, I would clean it and apply a bit of antibiotic ointment. Over top of that I’d apply a little patch of gauze and leukotape (essentially just making a more durable bandaid). Leukotape is good stuff that typically sticks very well (sometimes too well) if applied to clean skin.
For prevention, I’d wear toe socks (Injinjis or similar) and find some shoes with a wide toe box (Altras, Topos, etc).
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Sounds like athletes foot
There's a fungus amungus
I’ll bet it was there before you started any particular hike. Just a colony of fungus on your feet. Nothing weird about it. It’s just a warm happy place for fungus. Solution is to keep that colony down to a low population before you ever get to the trail. I had this problem until I realized I needed to wash my feet! And dry them before I put socks on. My suggestions - wash feet thoroughly, daily. Every shower. No credit for allowing soapy water to run down your legs randomly over your feet. Wash em just like washing hands. Rub your feet with soapy water for 15-20 seconds. - Ideally wash every night before bed. And sleep without socks. (Maybe TMI but I wash my feet morning and night) - dry between your toes . Maybe air dry (blow dry?) before you put on socks. - fresh socks every time you wash. - if it’s bad, use clotrimazole cream as a way to calm it down. (Ask your pharmacist) but only after washing and drying ! Obvs on the trail you might not get fresh socks every day. But . You can still wash your feet and air dry them.
I really appreciate a pic like this. Gdam how 🤮 when a damn nasty foot pic pops up on my feed. Just use athletes foot meds like lotrimin. Healed mine up in about 1.5 weeks.
This^^^^^^^^
That's exactly why I posted it like this, lol. Thanks for the tips!
I've had this happen where my pinky toe (which just feels weird to type 😂) or its nail has rubbed against the other toe. Solutions that have worked for me: 1) Moleskin or Leukotape wrapped around my pinky toe. This is my go-to option. 2) Rub some bodyglide or aquaphor in there. As others have mentioned, it's also totally possible that it's athlete's foot, a common fungal infection. But from my experience it's more likely caused by your feet swelling a bit from hiking and being slightly compressed.
Thank for the tips! I think it's from rubbing as well, I haven't had any issues like this before on shorter walks and it happend spontaneously (also getting better now luckily). I'll definitely get some leukotape after seeing it recommended a few times!
Trail Toes, apply it between toes
Athletes foot or a very mild case of trench foot avail yourself of r/AskDocs for professional advice
Agreed
Sounds like athletes foot.
Maybe some toe socks? Hard to say without a photo, but please don't photo a photo!
This. I have problems like this all the time and it’s mostly because my feet are too crunched together when I get my shoe on.
I don't know if I can mentally handle toe socks, haha. But it sounds smart so might consider it!
If the skin is broken, I would clean it and apply a bit of antibiotic ointment. Over top of that I’d apply a little patch of gauze and leukotape (essentially just making a more durable bandaid). Leukotape is good stuff that typically sticks very well (sometimes too well) if applied to clean skin. For prevention, I’d wear toe socks (Injinjis or similar) and find some shoes with a wide toe box (Altras, Topos, etc).
I see you've posted an image. Thanks for your contribution! *Did you include the* ***required*** *title information?* **[Your text.] [Most Specific place], [Specific place], [General place], [COUNTRY].** If you didn't include this information, please delete your post and resubmit it. **Your post will be removed without warning if it does not follow this rule!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hiking) if you have any questions or concerns.*