Snake “bite”

Hasn't happened to me but I do own/rescue/work with animals including snakes and continued to do so while pregnant (non-venomous only). I think what you've done is enough plus just monitor it for any redness etc incase antibiotics is needed. Might be worth just making sure you have an up to date tetanus jab as well? I think worse risk is salmonella from them but as long as you keep decent hygiene practices then it's absolutely fine 💜

Thank you, Since it’s Saturday I won’t be able to call my GP surgery to find out when I last had a tetanus until Monday. Would this be too long to find out do you think ?

I think it's recommended within 48hrs of the injury, is it possible to call 111 or an out of hours Dr? They might be able to call you back? Or I guess a & e they may be able to access your records? If can't at all it's likely fine but call Monday if no luck over weekend.

Or maybe can you contact any of the midwives to see if they can access?

@Jenny I might try that, the NHS 24 has a very long wait time to speak to someone

They couldn’t access my vaccine records but she spoke to a doctor who advised I can call my GP Monday morning and that will be okay so il do that

Aw that's good I'm glad it's sorted! 🤗

I was bitten by a dog on the hand when I was 6 months pregnant, which got infected. I also had to have surgery to make sure the tendon in my thumb wasn’t damaged. Had tetanus, anaesthetic, antibiotics and codeine and baby was absolutely fine. Try not to worry, as hard as it is ♥️

Iv just learned that the whooping cough vaccine I got a few weeks ago as part of my pre natal vaccines covers tetanus, I’m going to call the midwife tomorrow morning just to confirm but according to the leaflet they gave me it says it covers tetanus and so does google 🤞🏻🤞🏻

@Gemma thank you so much for sharing your story it definitely has made me feel better ❤️

Iv been removing the plaster and cleaning it with hibiscrub morning and night and it’s looking really good 🤞🏻 it turned out to be a bit deeper than originally thought but it’s clean looking, not sore, red or swollen 🤞🏻 x

Oh I didn’t know that covered tetanus. They kept asking at the hospital when I last had a tetanus but they didn’t say anything about the whooping cough vaccine either. I did have it so I guess I was already covered too, as well as having the tetanus. You’ll know if it’s infected because you’ll be in a lot of pain. I was in so much agony not even pain killers were touching it.

@Gemma I didn’t know this either until this afternoon I seen someone mention it on a forum. I checked my whooping cough pamphlet I got in my maternity notes and it says on that the whooping cough covers diphtheria, tetanus and polio as well as whooping cough. I’m going to call my midwife just to double check because like you the maternity triage never mentioned the whooping cough jag to me when I asked if I was covered. She just said to call my GP because she didn’t know x

Ahh that’s good to know. Yeah defo call them just to give you piece of mind x

@Gemma just waiting on them giving me a ring back 🤞🏻x

I’m starting to panic now, I tried calling the midwife centre this morning and she said I would need to ask my GP but I asked her if she could at least tell me if Iv had whooping cough and if it covers tetanus, she said she would check and call me back. I still haven’t heard anything and it’s getting to the end of the 48hours. I tried calling my GP practice in the meantime and they also can’t tell me because there’s no record of receiving any vaccines as part of my pre natal appointments even though I’m certain Iv had both whooping cough and flu now. And now I can’t get through to my midwife centre at all !! It’s coming to the end of the 48hours and literally no department Iv called can help me 😭😭

Have you tried your pharmacy?

Otherwise I would ring 111

They eventually got back to me and confirmed that I did have the whooping cough vaccine and it does have a tetanus booster in it. I was being passed from pillar to post this morning midwife centre was directing me to the GP and the GP had no clue what I had done so passed me back to midwives. For some reason your maternity notes don’t get recorded with your general GP notes. So the midwife said I did have a tetanus booster because it’s in the whooping cough but she was reluctant to confirm if I’d be okay so Iv just to hope really because no one can tell me for sure. But based on google searches of the vaccine itself it’s used as a 10 year tetanus booster so at least I know for a fact Iv been covered for tetanus x

It's so annoying when that happens! Like no one wants to take responsibility. If you have access to your pregnancy notes and it says you've had the tdap vaccine (whooping cough) you'll have had tetanus one too (and diphtheria). When I went for mine I had spiked myself on barbed wire so was hoping tetanus was included as I was the same not knowing when my last one was. The first midwife said no it's just whooping cough. When I went in the next room to have the jab i asked again and the second one said yes it's included as they don't do a single whooping cough vaccine 🙈 (at least here anyway?) sometimes I really wonder about how much some of them know about everything going on and how much they BS 🤦‍♀️

Oh in that case I had the booster in the whooping cough vaccine and a separate tetanus. When they asked what vaccines I’d had I said all I’d had was flu and whooping cough but they did say i should have had tetanus too, making me think I should have also had a separate tetanus vaccine. It was all good anyway, so doesn’t seem that doubling up does any harm but good to know you’re covered with the whooping cough.

Yeah i don't think two would do any harm if u did have two .. I really wish they'd keep better track of what we all have had and give us the right information! It's really frustrating 😑

@Jenny I’m past the point of 48 hours since injury now so no point in getting a second one. Just hoping il be fine based on the fact Iv had a vaccine for it and Iv been reassured that the particular injury I got is unlikely to transmit tetanus so all I can do is keep everything crossed. Other than that it’s healing really well, Iv been cleaning it daily and changing the plaster and it looks really good, no redness in sight, it’s not sore or swollen 🤞🏻x

@Gemma yeah I don’t think many people know that the vaccine also does tetanus. I think it’s because midwife’s don’t bother with tetanus they’re only concerned with the whooping cough so they don’t think about it. The vaccine I had was Adacel which is used primarily to protect against whooping cough and as a tetanus vaccine/booster according to the adacel vaccine leaflet. When you had the tetanus jag after your bite was it a booster vaccine or some form of precautionary tetanus treatment ? x

I’m not sure to be honest, they just said they’d have to give me a tetanus to be on the safe side x

@Jenny exactly, It says online that there is no such thing as just whooping cough, the vaccines all cover multiple diseases with tetanus and diphtheria being the other two. But based on my experience chatting with the various health professionals the last 2 days not one of them seemed to know for sure ! So I’m then like yous are giving us vaccines and your not even sure what they cover ??? x

Omg crazy 🙈 they should totally know this! Sounds like you've definitely had it so will be ok anyway 😊 x

The "whooping cough" vaccine also has tetanus and diphtheria as its a combined vaccine. Any medical professional should have known this, there is no single whooping cough vaccine in the UK, same with a "tetanus booster" is the dtap vaccine

@Heather I don’t understand how they didn’t seem to get it. Firstly the receptionist at my GP surgery was questioning me on if I had even had it by saying “you sure youv had whooping cough ? You don’t get that until week 28” she was getting confused with that and the RSV vaccine. The woman who works in the midwife clinic had no clue that the whooping cough covered tetanus until I mentioned it to her. It was my actual assigned midwife who confirmed it when I eventually got to speak to her. The cut has healed over really nicely and I’m much less worried now about tetanus but trying to get that reassurance from the NHS was insane. None of them knew what to do or what to say to me. They all kept trying to push me to my GP but I couldn’t get an appointment and the receptionist was no use. So I just hoped

I do have to say though the midwife I spoke to at triage when it first happened was amazing ❤️ she instantly calmed me down and started distracting me from panicking. She reassured me about general infection and gave me all the right advice. It wasn’t until later on that tetanus crossed my mind. I was so grateful for her making me feel better when I called her in a panic ❤️

Thats wild that they didn't know That side when I was pregnant with my now 18 month old I electrocuted myself and the hospital didn't have a clue if I would be ok or if baby would be ok as they'd never encountered it before hahaha

@Heather oh wow ! How did you do that if you don’t mind me asking ? Did they just do nothing other than tell you to monitor baby’s movements like normal ?

Hahaha pregnancy brain! I was making cakes for mothers day with my now 11 year old and was cleaning the whisk and stupid ar$e me didn't unplug the hand whisk Thankfully the electric safety cut out kicked in and I went to be scanned and monitored and she was OK thankfully I was OK too other than a racing heart and tingle in my arm 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@Heather people underestimate the pregnancy brain Iv found but it’s absolutely a real problem sometimes 😂 that’s good that they got you in and monitored you for a bit, glad everything was okay in the end !

It's really bad this pregnancy brain thing lol Hope you're OK btw

@Heather I am thank you ❤️ I’m feeling better and less worried about infections. Next thing on the worry list now is my GD test tomorrow 😅😅 keeping everything crossed that comes back clear 🤞🏻🤞🏻