Medicine man wanted

[orchard]

A friend just told me this past weekend they went out and somehow one of the kids managed something similar to pick eye. Ouch in the woods in the middle of no where. I guess if I ever camp with them I am taking a first aid kit.

[sticks]

Conjunctivitis or 'pink eye' is usually the result of rubbing your dirty hands in your eyes. Still fairly common for farmers, especially those working with livestock. It can also be an allergic reaction to any number of things from dust to plant pollen.
Most cases go away on their own after 3 or 4 days and all you need is some good saline eye drops to help your natural tears flush out the bacteria. If it lasts longer than a few days or worsens rapidly then a trip to the doctor is in order.

My guess is your friends kids just rubbed their eyes while playing and got dust or whatever in their eyes and conjunctivitis was the result...nothing to fret over. Just keep your unwashed hands out of your eyes.

Saw it a lot as a kid growing up on the farm. At least one person a year would get it and it always seemed to coincide with working with livestock, especially cattle.

[Tubby]

It can be viral as well. If it doesn't clear up quickly, they need to see the doc pronto. Your eyesight is not a thing to take lightly. I would up with viral conjunctivitis once and it took forever for it to resolve. I was not very comfortable.

[IndianaHiker]

Both Sticks and Tubby mailed this one. The most common is bacterial and hand washing or lack of is a common way for it to start. Having been a medic in the Army we always had several cases of this when we were in the field. Flying dirt dust and dirty hands made it very common problem for troops in the field.

[IndianaHiker]

Oh by the way more than likely your First Aid kit wont contain anything that will help and can very possible make matters worse. First thing if you have antibiotic creams that are met to be used on the skin never put them in the eye. All product for the eye are sterile and also PH balanced. Anything that is made for the skin doesn't meet these conditions.

[bachse]

I always carry eye drops in my first aide kit. In fact the eye drops that I carry are made for allergies even though my personal allergies don't normally affect my eyes. That said, the active ingredients in allergy oriented eye drops help to reduce itchiness and swelling, which most others don't. I find them to be way more helpful with most eye irritations than just general eye drops because those don't typically have any sort of medication in them, they are just for hydration and matching the ph level.

One time when I went camping I got bit by a spider on the corner of my eye lid (I am pretty allergic to spider bites). So when I woke up my right eye was huge and puffy and I couldn't open it without using my fingers to pry the lids apart. It wasn't even until after the swelling went down that we could tell it was a spider bite, for all we knew I had just woken up with a gigantic eye for no particular reason. I had to spend the next few days wearing sunglasses at all times to protect it and regularly rinsing it with eye drops to take down the swelling.

[ponderosa]

My kids had bacterial pink eye (strep, in their case) just a couple of weeks ago. For what it's worth, our eye doctor advised me to use OTC polysporin ointment (not neosporin, which has an additional antibiotic ingredient which is irritating to the eye). It says right on the tube, "do not use in eyes," but our doc said to go ahead. He said it was essentially the same as the prescription eye ointment made by the same company. Anyway, we used it twice a day, and their very swollen, red, painful, goopy eyes were completely better within about a day and a half. As an adult, I'd prefer to use a drop because the ointment obstructs your vision for a while, but I'll probably carry some polysporin in our first aid kit after this.

[Lamebeaver]

One of my kids had a problem once. Nearest we could figure, he got into some nettles, the rubbed his eyes. He was not a happy camper.

[SweetSassyLady]

Not good. I would rather hike out as soon as possible and take the kid to the doctor. Like Tubby said, "your eyesight is not something to take lightly". I would rather cancel or postpone a trip than have one of my kids lose their eyesight.