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If you successfully conquered toenail fungus, please share what did it!

6packofun

By 6packofun,
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8circles

8circles

Posted
Posted

I got some kind of fungus after I broke my toenail while surfing. I tried all the standard drugstore remedies and the recommended homeopathic ones with 0 results. It continued to spread. So I *carefully* cut and filed away as much of it as i could and stuck my toes in bleach and used a toothbrush to brush it into the grooves of what was left. Then I showered as usual and dried it off really well. It never came back.

 

I knew it was extreme but I was willing to take the risk.

 

Good luck.

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ILiveInFlipFlops

ILiveInFlipFlops

Posted
Posted

I got some kind of fungus after I broke my toenail while surfing. I tried all the standard drugstore remedies and the recommended homeopathic ones with 0 results. It continued to spread. So I *carefully* cut and filed away as much of it as i could and stuck my toes in bleach and used a toothbrush to brush it into the grooves of what was left. Then I showered as usual and dried it off really well. It never came back.

 

I knew it was extreme but I was willing to take the risk.

 

Good luck.

 

Wow, that is hardcore! I'm glad you found something that worked!

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carriede

carriede

Posted
Posted

DH went to the doc and got some meds... very strong stuff as he had to have blood work done before and after to check levels of something... he had it on many toes before meds, but it's still on one toe after all that.

 

MIL opted to have her toe nail surgically removed.

 

I don't like either of those options, so I want to try Tea tree oil. Just haven't yet.

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carriede

carriede

Posted
Posted

My mom swears by tea tree oil and has used it successfully for toenail fungus. And she's SO not an alternative med-type person. I've never personally used it for toenail fungus, but it has worked miracles on warts and ringworm here. I love that stuff.

Do you know her particular method of application?

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Matryoshka

Matryoshka

Posted
Posted

DH went to the doc and got some meds... very strong stuff as he had to have blood work done before and after to check levels of something... he had it on many toes before meds, but it's still on one toe after all that.

 

This is what finally worked for dh after years of battling it with topical creams. 

 

I don't know that he ever tried tea tree oil; the creams were all antifungals of varying sorts.  The scary meds did kill it.

 

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ILiveInFlipFlops

ILiveInFlipFlops

Posted
Posted

I know. The fungus totally freaked me out. Im too young to get toenail fungus!! :p ;)

 

:lol: I hear you! I'm too young for a lot of things that seem to be happening anyway, darn it!

 

Do you know her particular method of application?

 

I believe she just used a dropper, but I'll ask her more about it and see what she says in terms of length of time, how much, etc.

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3 ladybugs

3 ladybugs

Posted
Posted

I have never had it but I have a funny story about it. My husband used to work at a pharma company that released a treatment for it. When it was released they treated everyone in the company to ice cream. So DH went. There they had all the ads about toe nail fungus playing and all the promotional materials out. Nice viewing entertainment to eat your ice cream by! LOL

 

Sorry, whenever I think of toe nail fungus I always think of ice cream. Yeah we are a bit off in this family. LOL

 

Good luck!

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duckens

duckens

Posted
Posted

Not toenail fungus, but athlete's foot...and a funny story.
 

Loverboy had a professor that had athlete's foot when he (the professor) was an undergrad.  Being poor AND a chemistry major,  he decided to just soak his foot in a bleach solution.  However, the bleach solution didn't seem to work. 

 

So he increased the concentration  (percent) of bleach in the mixture. 

 

After doing this a number of times (and increasing the concentration of beach each time), his foot was still red and itchy after soaking.  He finally decided to go to the student health service for his athlete's foot.
 

The doctor took one look at his foot with the athlete's foot and said, "Hey!  That looks rather like a CHEMICAL BURN!"  :w00t: :lol:
 

The professor went home, quit treating his foot, and the itchiness/burning went away.

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LJPPKGFGSC

LJPPKGFGSC

Posted
Posted

I damaged both of my baby toes from shoes that fit poorly and one really long day on my feet.  And so a few weeks later I developed nail fungus.  I used grapefruit seed extract to heal the nail.  Every single time you get out of the shower, put a drop on the nail.  It works even faster if you soak your feet other times during the day in order to apply the grapefruit seed extract multiple times per day.  Never skip a possible application.  Sooner or later, the thick, damaged nail will loosen and fall off to leave a normal nail.  I think that tea tree oil will work in a similar way.  Just be consistent.

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Miss Tick

Miss Tick

Posted
Posted

I know two success stories. In both cases they used a little spray bottle of white vinegar. Give the toenail a spritz once or twice (or more) a day and let that air dry. That was it. They did that for as long as it took for the toenail to grow out. Good luck!

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imagine.more

imagine.more

Posted
Posted

I've used tea tree oil successfully. I had a case for 1.5 years because well I had a baby and didn't realize what was wrong with my toenail at first. Anyway, so I finally got annoyed this November and started applying tea tree oil every day I could remember. I'd do it after the shower and just drop 2-3 drops on the nail and let it dry. I trim regularly as short as I can without causing problems. It's almost entirely gone now and I finally painted my toenails for the first time in like 5 months today :) 

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Mimm

Mimm

Posted
Posted

The only thing that worked was completely cutting away the part of the toenail that had the growth so I could treat the skin underneath. I did this and it disappeared for a year or so and came back. I ruthlessly did it again, cut away the entire part of the toenail and treated the part under it. It's been years now and it's gone. *knock on wood* It did take a while for that one corner of the nail to grow is such a way that it wasn't kind of stabbing my toe and feeling like it was about to be an ingrown toenail because my toe had been so long without a full nail up in that corner. (Not sure if I'm explaining it clearly.) So it was kinda sore, but now it's not.

 

If you do it, go slowly and careful and soak the nail first so that it's nice and soft. Toenail fungus is so extremely stubborn and I feel like I tried everything under the sun before I got this aggressive with it.

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ThisIsTheDay

ThisIsTheDay

Posted
Posted

Tea tree oil here too, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'd heard it here on the boards.  I dunked a clean Q-tip in the bottle and then rubbed it across the nail and as much as I could underneath.  I would do that every day or two.  It worked pretty quickly, with a noticeable difference within the first couple of weeks and then gone within maybe a few months (not sure of that part).

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Tap

Tap

Posted
Posted

Diflucan cleared it up for me.

I had a slightly discolored nail that I figured was from fungus.   I was treated for a possible candida infection with a month of Diflucan.    I didn't have candida overgrowth (finally figured out it was a food allergy), but my nail cleared right up.  LOL

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6packofun

6packofun

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DH went to the doc and got some meds... very strong stuff as he had to have blood work done before and after to check levels of something... he had it on many toes before meds, but it's still on one toe after all that.

 

 

 

Is this an oral or topical medication?

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goldberry

goldberry

Posted
Posted

Do I have toenail fungus?  I have a discoloration under my big toenails and a couple of other toes.  The discoloration does not cover the whole toenail.  However, the nail itself is perfectly normal besides the discoloration.  It isn't raised or ridged or anything.  Is that discoloration fungus???

 

I figured it was fungus, but when I look at pictures of fungus they always look much worse than mine.   :confused1:

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5of5

5of5

Posted
Posted

Oral. Can't remember for the life of me what it's called. Another poster mentioned the blood work tracks liver function.

 

Several doctors I've seen won't proscribe it just for toe fungus; they think it isn't worth the potential risk to the liver.

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hornblower

hornblower

Posted
Posted

Dd has been battling hers for 3 yrs. She gets too busy to really stay on top of it. Daily treatment for 10 months is what the podiatrist told us. Or have the nail removed and hope it grows in normal, though there's no guarantee. She has 3 toes affected on one foot. The littles get better quickly but the big lingers and it keeps reinfecting the others. She's now using a UK product called Curanail and she's hopeful about it because it's only once a week tx.

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  • 5 months later...
Negin

Negin

Posted
Posted

My pedicurist told me to avoid cutting toenails too short and to cut them straight across in order to avoid ingrown toenails. Ingrown toenails often lead to fungus. Most people don't cut their toenails properly. 

Also, nails do need to breathe and having polish on them too often will not help. 

Finally, here's what I found about tea tree oil. I would suggest trying it for at least a month or two. Consistency is key. 

 

Tea Tree Oil

Tea tree oil has antiseptic as well as antifungal properties that help a lot in the treatment of toenail fungus. This oil is also used to treat other kinds of skin infections.

Use a cotton ball to apply tea tree oil on affected toenail.

Leave it on for 10 minutes, and then use a toothbrush to gently scrub the affected nail.

Do this 2-3 times daily until you are satisfied with the results.

 

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vonfirmath

vonfirmath

Posted
Posted

I've never had toenail fungus... I am not even sure how one contracts it. But thanks to you, hive, I now have ideas to cure it should I ever have the need :p

 

I contracted it when I stubbed my toe at a hotel years ago. Tried that medicine for a time but it did NOTHING. SO i left it. (13-ish years now) but recently its started bothering me so maybe I'll try the vinegar in a spray bottle.

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Clemsondana

Clemsondana

Posted
Posted

My grad school roommate developed a toenail fungus and soaked her foot in vinegar every night for a while.  She just got one of those plastic rubbermaid shoeboxes and put in vinegar, and then put the lid on it to store for the next day.  Since we had shared some nail polish, I decided to try the treatment as a preventative.  I never got a nail fungus, and my feet were incredibly soft from the acid soaks.  

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gardenmom5

gardenmom5

Posted
Posted (edited)

for dh - he had been doing "listerine" (smh), it spread to his other toenails on that foot

- I took over, and  had him do a  tea tree oil foot soak.  I made him do it everyday.   I also used manuka oil afterwards.

the big toe took longer, the manuka oil wasn't doing it on its own (I started with it),  but was part of the treatment.

Edited by gardenmom5
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Ravin

Ravin

Posted
Posted

I don't actually recommend the treatment that got rid of my mom's toenail fungus. It was eliminated in the course of chemotherapy for breast cancer. Mom is good at finding silver linings in the storm clouds of life!

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teachermom2834

teachermom2834

Posted
Posted

I have had various types of fungus issues. On my feet but also all over my body. I had several prescriptions but nothing worked. I finally used tea tree oil and it cleared up. I am totally not an alternative medicine/oils person (obvious because I tried everything else first). But the tea tree oil worked. I dabbed it straight on the areas and it did burn but it was worth it. In less extreme cases I have used various tea tree oil lotions and salves that help. One of my boys has struggled with foot fungus and the tea tree oil products have worked at least as well as the over the counter stuff.

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  • 3 months later...
Pen

Pen

Posted
Posted
On 4/1/2015 at 2:33 AM, Pawz4me said:

Is anybody else following this thread just in case you need the info in the future???  :lol:

 

Yup.  And cuz I know someone who ignored it and had it go systemic. 

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gardenmom5

gardenmom5

Posted
Posted

since this zombie thread has been resurrected - twice... I got dh a tea tree oil foot soak and made him do it every day.  we'd tried everything - including manduka oil and direct tea tree oil.  his were particularly bad and the soak allowed it to really penetrate the surrounding tissue.

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Pen

Pen

Posted
Posted
On 5/27/2019 at 8:06 PM, gardenmom5 said:

since this zombie thread has been resurrected - twice... I got dh a tea tree oil foot soak and made him do it every day.  we'd tried everything - including manduka oil and direct tea tree oil.  his were particularly bad and the soak allowed it to really penetrate the surrounding tissue.

 

Did it work...at least so far?

On 10/14/2019 at 9:12 AM, Catwoman said:

Spam reported.

What is it about toenail fungus that bring out all the spammers? 😁

 

4 hours ago, Catwoman said:

Reported.

What is it with the toenail fungus spammers lately?

 

2 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

This is one of the grossest titles that will not die...

 

Sort of like nail fungus itself... 

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