"Black" Toe - How the hell do you prevent this?

[Below Zero]

Well for the third straight year, it looks like I am going to lose a big toe nail. I thought the new custom liners would prevent this shit, but I guess not. I thought maybe I was bruising my toenail because I was not trimming them properly, but I kept the nail well trimmed all season.

So how in the hell can you prevent this shit?

[Huckwheat]

Get the nails permanently removed.

A bunch of friends and I have discussed this, but none yet have had the courage to actually do it.

Why do we need nails on our big toes anyhow?

[Szyslak]

As Huckwheat said, get them permanently removed. I keep getting black toe, and then the toenail would come back ingrown. I finally had enough and had the right big toenail permanently removed. Looks a little funky, and it is painful for a month or so, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

[Huckwheat]

As Huckwheat said, get them permanently removed. I keep getting black toe, and then the toenail would come back ingrown. I finally had enough and had the right big toenail permanently removed. Looks a little funky, and it is painful for a month or so, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Sweet! You are bad ass......

[ole2planker]

Get a boot with a bigger toe box. Then your big toe won't be compressed by the roof of the toe box. Solved my problems.

[Dromond]

Why do we need nails on our big toes anyhow?

You'll regret it when you have to claw your way out of a pine box with only your left big toe. Happened to a friend of mine, I swear.

[Huckwheat]

You'll regret it when you have to claw your way out of a pine box with only your left big toe. Happened to a friend of mine, I swear.

I am going to go with probabilities. The odd of the pine box thing (maybe 1/500,000).

The odds of doing the below "home surgery" one a year.....about 1/10.



Cant take credit for the toe.....it is my buddies.

[pde20]

I figured I'd post this question in new thread, but w/ search function even the most obscure and disgusting shit pops right up. Sweet.

My contribution here is this: a way to thwart black toe once you have gotten it. This is only a theory right now, but one based on some sketchy half remembered endorsement of the act from a ski buddy in the past, though I can't remember who.

Basically, you bang your toe whether in your boots, or, ahem, taking a mild digger off you bike when the front wheel of your bike gets stuck in the light rail track while crossing a street in downtown denver and the impact of toe in hard leather shoes does the same trick. Not that that would happen to a skilled cyclist such as myself.

I recalled a friend saying that within the first few hours of doing this you need to heat a pin or paperclip on the stove or in a candle, and then stick the hot end through the top of your big toenail, forming a hole that releases the swelling, pressure and build up of blood and related fluids from under you toenail. This in turn is capable of saving your toenail from falling off. So I did this last night and it was awesomely gross. Pin went through toenail, didn't hurt at all, and immediately an aggressive stream of blood/fluid came out. This did not stop for about 45 minutes, and then I bandaged it up and went to bed and it continuned to ooze throughout the night. All the "black" of the black toe is gone and the toe feels much better than it did prior to alleveiating pressure. Whether this indeed saves the toenail in the long run or is just the equivalent of a messy biology expermiment remains to be seen, I'm sure you will all be waiting w/ baited breath. This TR should have had pics included, sorry.

[Arty50]

I recalled a friend saying that within the first few hours of doing this you need to heat a pin or paperclip on the stove or in a candle, and then stick the hot end through the top of your big toenail, forming a hole that releases the swelling, pressure and build up of blood and related fluids from under you toenail. This in turn is capable of saving your toenail from falling off. So I did this last night and it was awesomely gross. Pin went through toenail, didn't hurt at all, and immediately an aggressive stream of blood/fluid came out. This did not stop for about 45 minutes, and then I bandaged it up and went to bed and it continuned to ooze throughout the night. All the "black" of the black toe is gone and the toe feels much better than it did prior to alleveiating pressure. Whether this indeed saves the toenail in the long run or is just the equivalent of a messy biology expermiment remains to be seen, I'm sure you will all be waiting w/ baited breath. This TR should have had pics included, sorry.

Girlski did that in Lenas, and lph got the vid. Sadly, the link isn't valid anymore. But it was superextremognar.

[LaramieSkiBum]

bump, cuz now I'm a member of the club.

I think I'm going to do the heated needle through the nail trick, soon as I find something sharp around here.

My question is this: This is happening to both my big toes. Brand new boots, 4th day on them, went from 29 to 27.5 shell. Footbed and hotform. Boots are tight, but feel fine all the way around the foot and calve except the toe bang.

Do I need more room in the toe box or actually less room so the toe doesn't move? What have you guys done to remidty this? Grind out the toe box, trim the footbed? Boots are tight as fuck, and my feet get pretty cold so I'm thinking that more room is in order, but my bootfitter said "I've never heard of anyone losing a toe nail because the boot was too small, it means the boot is not tight enough" <-- BS?!

I'm going back to the bootfitter, just curious what you guys ended up doing.

[girlski0912]

bump, cuz now I'm a member of the club.

I think I'm going to do the heated needle through the nail trick, soon as I find something sharp around here.

My question is this: This is happening to both my big toes. Brand new boots, 4th day on them, went from 29 to 27.5 shell. Footbed and hotform. Boots are tight, but feel fine all the way around the foot and calve except the toe bang.

Do I need more room in the toe box or actually less room so the toe doesn't move? What have you guys done to remidty this? Grind out the toe box, trim the footbed? Boots are tight as fuck, and my feet get pretty cold so I'm thinking that more room is in order, but my bootfitter said "I've never heard of anyone losing a toe nail because the boot was too small, it means the boot is not tight enough" <-- BS?!

I'm going back to the bootfitter, just curious what you guys ended up doing.

I haven't had toenails for a few seasons for multiple reasons- boots were too tight, huck nail, riding backseat, toebox was too small, footbed was curled into my toebox. Bootfitting is the first culprit as would be your stance. Are your shins in contact with the front of your boot at all times. Also, try tightening the second lowest buckle on your boot cuff- this can keep your foot from slipping forward into your toe box and putting pressure at the front of your foot.

And if you are puncturing the toenail, get the needle hot as shit and jab till you draw fluid. Repeat until you start pushing out air bubbles. Ideally you want blood (as in the blood clotting under your toenail NOT the blood that you draw because you pushed all the way through the nail and into your toe bed), but the clear/orange-ish fluid is bueno aswell because that lends to the pressure that you feel under your toenails. Make sure that there are like 6 dudes all aorund, drinking beer and egging you on...oh and a video camera helps too.

[wicked_sick]

I've just drained a puffy toe myself. I popped the pus bag with a needle not through the top of the nail but under it from the front in a couple different places.

Man was it ever a relief. It doesn't look nearly as gnarly anymore though.. untill the nail comes off

[slippy]

I used to lose nails every year. Then I bought a 1/2 size bigger, which was an increase in the boot sole length only, same fit otherwise. No more black nail for the past 4 years. Having boots that fit tight (making it impossible to shift forward in the boot when getting O.C. in the backseat) and buying some booster straps (for a better fit) probably helped, too.

One year I got a bad throbbing black nail and someone told me to do the paperclip trick. So I tried it thinking that you could do it anywhere on the nail to relieve pressure. I picked the healthy part of the nail, not the black part. When I burnt through the nail it seared my healthy skin and it hurt so frickin' bad. Of course this did nothing to relieve the pressure of the blackened part.

Then I figured out how dumb I can really be, and re-did the black part. Ouch.

[L7]

As counter intuitive as it seems the most common cure is to get a smaller boot. Really depends on the cause and many suggestions are made here but someone mentioned a tight enough boot to hold you in place and most often this is what is lacking resulting in black toe.

[irul&ublo]

you might also try some heel padding or cup, to help lock the heel down and keep your foot from sliding forward.

If you're not using custom footbeds, they might also help.