Hand Therapy ??

[Red Tide]

Is there a prevention or a quick cure for peeling skin on the hands and fingers after cleanning fish? It seems that every time I clean a bunch of fish, my hands peel from the finger tips to the palms. If you ad a few small cuts to this my hands are a wreck for about two weeks.

[junior]

Sounds like contact dermititis. Maybe consider latex gloves since I do not believe that there is a drug on the market that is so effective as to completely prevent the irritation. My wife has the same problem with certain things and her allergist has told her to pretty much avoid what irritates you or wear gloves since the drugs can only do so much.

[Big Pig]

GR

With a thread title like that I expected something a bit different.

My brother has the same problem. His dermatologist gave him something for it. Send him an email if you want more info

[mhuskey]

I will second contact dermatitis – I have the same issue when cleaning lobster. I can usually keep it in check by having some bleach water around and rinsing my hands in it fairly often. I also have a friend that had the same issue cleaning fish and over time I assume his body built a resistance to it as it is no longer a problem for him.

[jfjf]

Use gloves, wash hands immediately with dial soap after each contact and using hand lotion at night (on your hands) seems to help a lot also.

[Dive4Blood]

GR,

I've battled the same red, dry, peeling hands from handling 1000# plus of fish on every Jolly Rogers 2 trip. The actual condition has been labeled by my dermotologist from contact dermatitis as has already been mentioned to dyshidrosis. Regardless, the best preventative is to wear gloves when gutting or handling fish. The kind you get in a grocery store for washing dishes will work, but the heavier duty PVC nitrile gloves that you get at Home Depot or Lowe's are better. They are thick enough that they will also help you from getting finned, but still give you enough flexibility to not feel like you are wearing oven mitts.

I have had success with Kiehl's Ultimate Hand Salve (www.kiehls.com), and Bag Balm (www.bagbalm.com) which is an antiseptic ointment used to treat the teats of dairy cattle of all things . There is always a container of Bag Balm on the JR2 that you can slather on your hands before going to sleep. As far as prescriptions go, see if your doctor will prescribe Ketoconazole which normally is used to treat ringworm, athlete's foot, and jock itch, but does have a good effect on *****ed up hands. I hope this helps, and wishing you nice soft hands soon so you can continue to flog your meat puppet three times per day as you are accustomed to......

[inletsurf]

I have the same problem after every day of diving, red irritated hands, then it peels almost a week later.

I tried to quit beating it for a week but it still happened, so I know its diving related.

I wear the thick blue rubber commerical fish gloves (not the blue-dipped cloth gloves) and it seems to help.

[BwanaR]

GR....that's what deck hands are for!
Seriously everyone gave you good advice. The people I know who are effected use the bleach hand rince afterward and Badger hand balm that you can get at Discount Auto. Also gets rid of fishy smell.
If that's too much trouble use the gloves.
Later Bud,
Richard

[ScottCallais]

My daughter has the same problem after peeling seafood. She has to wear gloves, the Dr also prescribed Coramax cream.

[primalpete]

get the same thing after working on the driftboats in the summer

[Red Tide]

Thanks for all the information. It looks like thin latex gloves inside of my regular dive gloves and the Home Depot blue rubber gloves at the cleanning table.
I might get a tube of the "Jolly Cream" that Armando uses on those all male overnight trips to the Middle Grounds..........

[Grunt]

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread...hlight=Peeling a little more...

[ROBERTO REYES]

Yeap, latex gloves, I also use hand sanitizer.

[JAW]

I have the same problem, latex gloves, bleach water, h2o2 if there are cuts, and corn huskers lotion or even coco butter which those guys from california always seem to have a large stash of.

Jason

It is worse for me when I just gut fish, than if I fellet them

[cmfish]

I have a similar problem with my hands peeling but it seems to happen with just contact with ocean water. Haven't found anything that helps prevent or treat it really. Talked to my dermatologist about it and he didn't have any answers. Kinda sucks because as soon as they seem to be getting better and start to clear up they start again.