ACK! Urticating Hairs in my EYE!

[Immortal_sin]

Its so funny how health care workers will often just assume the worst of people with odd hobbies.

My brother was in the hospital after a motorcycle accident with a type of leg fracture which is very commonly associated with skiing. The nurses were very non judgemental and accepting of the idea he might have gotten it skiing, but the minute he told them it was from a motorcycle crash they would go off on how stupid he was to even ride it. :? People are funny that way.

amen to that! same thing happened to me. As soon as they found out it was a dirt bike accident, a nurse had the nerve to tell me I was *stupid* for riding one in the first place
hope your eye turns out ok, and I loved the comment about tarantulas jumping up and biting lmao!

 

[Gemein]

This may sound odd; however I got hairs all over my hand one time and I found using duck tape acctually took it right off. I just put the strip over the area that was itching like hell; and tore it off. Still itched a little; but most of the burning was gone.

 

[druid8783]

This may sound odd; however I got hairs all over my hand one time and I found using duck tape acctually took it right off. I just put the strip over the area that was itching like hell; and tore it off. Still itched a little; but most of the burning was gone.

The burning was probably from ripping your own hairs off too! :}


That's a good idea, I'll have to try it when my A. geniculata decides he/she is feeling fiesty when I feed it.

 

[Gemein]

hahahaha yeah; you're likely right... but like the one person had said; they're like tiny fish hooks that grab ahold inside the skin. So the tape will remove them and likely give you a cheap alternative to a wax job also :? just kiddin... hope ur ok

 

[bagheera]

I hope you recover quickly. Eyeballs have an an amazing amount of nerves, a fact little appreciated until even the smallest injury leaves you in agony. I have scratched corneas, it hurt like hell. Staying in a dark room really helps. Here is another bit that may help.... If you can lay your hands on a bottle of lidocaine (like your dentist has, or any other aqueous 'caine). Dilute 5:1 and use a dropper to put in your eye.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

I hope you recover quickly and that this incident doesn't interfere too much with your work!

 

[ShaunHolder]

The doctor put something in my eye and said that I had a scratch on it, I may have scratched it while rubbing it like crazy. He also flushed it with something that he said he used on people who get tiny pieces of glass shards in their eyes.

I got a small piece of glass stuck in my eye once while riding a bike. I had the same stuff, it works great. A lesson hard learned, but it made for an interesting story. Glad it turned out ok, good luck with it healing.

 

[Sandra]

Oooo, my eyes were just streaming reading your story! Glad you got to the doc and got their eye wash, and that it appears everything is okay. LOL to the nurses. geez

 

[jdcarrel]

if you have soft contacts, they probably have hairs stuck in them. I would recommend getting out a new pair. This has happened to me once and my contacts took most of the hairs so I didn't have to. I flushed my eyes with water for a while and it slowly stopped bothering me.

 

[galeogirl]

I feel your pain, becca, I got a faceful of T. blondi hair once. I was wearing safety glasses, so I didn't get too many in the eye, but it felt like my face was on fire.

I took the hair off with scotch tape, took a swig of benadryl, and called it an evening. One of the worst experiences in 23 years of keeping exotics.

 

[mimic58]

She also thought that I was bitten in the eye by a tarantula and said, "You really shouldn't have that thing. I guess you just learned the hard way about them jumping up and biting you. I've heard about it dozens of times..."

Wow So Ts really can do a face huger impresion , Do you think she was serious?

Hope your feeling better that sounds like you had it pritty bad , Do you know what class of hairs the T has (type 1,2,3,4,5) A/B ?

 

[Greg Wolfe]

Urticating hair onslaught...

Oh Man Becca,
I'm sorry you had to go through that. It should clear up on it's own. You did the right thing by seeking medical attention. Some people are really sensitive to these barbed intruders, wreaking havoc with the nasal passages, throat and eyes. I have had apophysis hair attacks but never got any in my eyes. With lasiodora and apophysis cleanings I wear goggles and latex gloves.
Benedryl and hydrocortisone cream help too.
I do have an eye flush kit back there. One of those sterile eye flush bottles I grabbed from work, but I hope I never have to use it.
Consider goggles and latex gloves next time you dig around, just to reduce the chance of this happening again. I hope you recover quickly.
Greg

 

[FryLock]

Aphonopelma have type I which are often thought of as mild compared with say type III it just goes to show you can never be too careful around spiders with urticating setae .

 

[becca81]

Oh Man Becca,
I'm sorry you had to go through that. It should clear up on it's own. You did the right thing by seeking medical attention. Some people are really sensitive to these barbed intruders, wreaking havoc with the nasal passages, throat and eyes. I have had apophysis hair attacks but never got any in my eyes. With lasiodora and apophysis cleanings I wear goggles and latex gloves.
Benedryl and hydrocortisone cream help too.
I do have an eye flush kit back there. One of those sterile eye flush bottles I grabbed from work, but I hope I never have to use it.
Consider goggles and latex gloves next time you dig around, just to reduce the chance of this happening again. I hope you recover quickly.
Greg

Thanks Greg, unfortunately I'm horribly allergic to latex as well. Last year on teacher appreciation day I walked to my classroom door and the principal had strung up latex balloons. Left me itching all day..

My alleriges and asthma have been a bummer all my life. It's the main reason I keep inverts and reptiles. I'm allergic to just about everything else!

 

[metallica]

Becca, are you a member of the ATS, or any other society? if so i suggest ypu write a little article about it, so other peopple get to read about this experience also, and know what to do if they get haired in the face.

Eddy

 

[Martin H.]

Hi,

BTW there are some articles on this subject:

• CHANG, P. C. T., H. K. SOONG & J. M. BARNETT (1991): Corneal penetration by tarantula hairs. Br. J. Ophthalmol. 75: 253-254.
• COOKE, J. A., F. H. MILLER, R. W. GROVER & J. L. DUFFY (1973): Urticaria caused by tarantula hairs. Am. Jou. Trop. Med. Hygiene 22(1): 130-133.
• HERED, R. W., A. G. SPAULDING, J. J. SANITATO & A. H. WANDER (1988): Ophthalmia nodosa caused by tarantula hairs. Ophthalmology 95(2): 166-169.
• KAUFMAN, S. C., S. J. CHEW, S. C. CAPPS & R. W. BEUERMAN (1994): Confocal microscopy of corneal penetration by tarantula hairs. Scanning 16: 312-325.
• KIRK, H. (1997): Augenverletzungen durch Reizhaare von Vogelspinnen. Arthropoda 5(1): 9-10.
• KREMMER, S., J. M. ROHRBACH, A. FROHN, A. ECKSTEIN & H.-J. THIEL (1995): Vogelspinnenhaare als Hornhautfremdkörper. Klein. Monatsbl. Augenheilkd. (206): 277-278.
• RATCLIFFE, B. C. (1977): A case tarantula-included papular dermatitis. J. Med. Ent. 13(6): 745-747.
• RÖßLER, D. (1991): Vogelspinnen - eine gesundheitliche Gefährdung? Arachnol. Anz. 15: 10-12.
• RUTZEN, A. R., J. S. WEISS & K. HARRY (1993): Tarantula hairs ophthalmia nodosa. Am. J. Ophthalmol. 116: 381-382.
• SPRAUL, C. W., P. WAGNER, G. E. LANG & G. K. LANG (2003): Ophthalmia nodosa durch Vogelspinnenhaare. Ophthalmia nodosa caused by the hairs of the bird spider (Family Theraphosidae) or hairy megalomorph (known in the US as tarantula) - case report and review of the literature. Klin. Monatsbl. Augenheilkd. 220: 20-23.
• STULTING, R. D., R. J. HOOPER & C. H. DWIGHT (1983): Ocular injury caused by tarantula hairs. Am. J. Ophthalmol. 96: 118-119.
• VON WIRTH, V. (1991): Bemerkungen zum Bericht "Vogelspinnen - eine gesundheitliche Gefährdung?" von Detlef Rößler im AA 15/1991. Arachnol. Anz. 19: 11.

all the best,
Martin

 

[metallica]

Martin, arethose peer reviewed?

 

[galeogirl]

Becca,

You should be able to get vinyl or nitrile gloves at your pharmacy, they're usually quite cheap, too. I'm latex-sensitive, so I buy the nitrile ones for cleaning cages, etc. They work really well. If you get haired, just peel them off and the hairs will come off with them.

 

[Martin H.]

Martin, arethose peer reviewed?

ROFL

If you include all the people that read it without paying for it, tens of thousands to millions. =;-)

Cheers,
Martin

 

[mimic58]

Aphonopelma have type I which are often thought of as mild compared with say type III it just goes to show you can never be too careful around spiders with urticating setae .

If thats what type 1 does to someone then what might be expected of type 5? ,perminant injury?