Mole skin???

[Krewzer]

I'm sure this subject has been discussed before, but, has anyone got a way to make moleskin stick to sweaty feet?

Thanx,
Krewzer

[texashiker]

I'm sure this subject has been discussed before, but, has anyone got a way to make moleskin stick to sweaty feet?

Thanx,
Krewzer

I have never tried it but maybe medical tape?

[Streamweaver]

Duct tape!! I taped a peice of mole foam on my heel last summer and put on my water shoes,wet waded in the river for the better part of 8 hours and the duct tape was still stuck to my heel that evening.Streamweaver

[torch]

Yeah, duct tape is the best. Moleskin and duct tape in combination has been a staple of hiker's blister care kits since the dawn of time! I think some of the cave paintings in France depict such usage! Seriously, the stuff works great!

[Krewzer]

Thanx y'all and I as for the early cave depictions of duct tape... I thought the "Duct Tape Age" began as the "Bronze Age" was ending. Apparently it was much, much earlier.

I guess maybe a better brand. I may have to quit buying the Walmart Duct Tape and get the Home Depot stuff.

I think I'll switch to the new sneaker boot thing-a-mah-dodgers and see if that helps. I don't get blisters often, but when it happens.....geeeezzzzz!!!!

krewzer

[Peaks]

I'm sure this subject has been discussed before, but, has anyone got a way to make moleskin stick to sweaty feet?

Thanx,
Krewzer

Try drying your feet really well by using a alcohol wipe.

[Ramble~On]

Since you need to put it on your foot to begin with means your feet are telling you they need some attention. Take you socks off, let your feet get some air.

Dry them off really well....and put the moleskin on....and yes...I always cover it with Duct tape.....change my socks and problem is usually solved.
Problem is that the duct tape is still there and doesn't always want to come off without a fight.

[SGT Rock]

Duct Tape 101.

It may offens some of you moleskin users or people that use similar products - but moleskin isn't as needed as the manufacturer would have you belive. Good foot and blister care can be done with multi-use first aid items that most of you probably already carry, and a little duct tape. My blister care kit consists of duct tape (AKA 100 MPH tape), alcohol fuel, Neosporin, and some gauze. This is the same thing I use on cuts and burns.

If you have an alcohol stove, then use some fuel to wipe the effected area to dry it prior to applying duct tape or moleskin. A little fuel goes a ong way. Gas will not work for this.

Also, try duct tape on the area before a blister forms. If you feel a hot spot, then stop and tape it prior to needing moleskin. Whenever possible, wrap the tape so that it sticks to itself since duct tape holds better to more duct tape than it does skin. This micht sound hard for a heel blister, but it can be done with some creative thinking.

If a blister does form, then it depends on the blister as to how to treat with duct tape. If the skin over the blister is hard - like it is forming under a calus, then let the blister stay, wrap it with duct tape just like a hot spot. At night wipe it with alcohol and allow it to dry. If the skin over the blister is soft and is the kind that is prone to tear, then lance the blister with a steralized needle. Next, take some gauze cut to the correct size and coat one side with neosporin. Place the neosporin against the blister and cover with duct tape - no moleskin needed.

Another technique that may also works at night before going to bed if the blister isn't too big. Use a steralized needle to make a small puncture at the base of the blister and drain it. Wipe the area with alcohol and allow it to dry overnight, it will turn into a calus. The next day, wrap the effected area with duct tape - no moleskin needed. This will prevent a blister from re-forming while your feet and shoes get used to each other.

All that said, I still sometimes use moleskin, but not on my feet. If a blister forms, sometimes it is from spots inside the shoe that rub your feet wrong. Often this can be changed with wearing the right socks or trimming a little material off the inside of the boots where the manufacturere didn't pad them correctly or left some overhang on the materials. In some cases, the best way to solve the problems is to glue the moleskin over the spots on the inside of the shoe or booot where they contact the feet and cause the blisters.

[jojo0425]

Okay, dumb question here...but does duct tape stick to your skin so well that it rips it off (the skin) when you remove it?

[Speer Carrier]

Great information about treating and preventing blisters. Along the lines of blister prevention, I have a question for anyone out there that might know the answer. When I was in high school and playing football back in the late 1950's, our trainer used to dispense something called, I believe, "tough skin" or perhaps "tuff skin". It was something we applied to areas of our feet that were prone to blisters. For the old high top football shoes of that era, that was usually the heel. It came in a bottle, and once applied formed a hard coating on the skin, that as I recall had to wear off. At any rate it always prevented blisters.

Does anyone know if such a product still exists, and if it does, where it can be purchased.

Skink

[Creaky]

Yeah, in college the trainers used to spray TufSkin on before taping us every day. It's a Cramer product, like Cramergesic and Atomic Balm, common in training rooms everywhere (over time it turns your skin a lovely yellow-green, fortunately removable with alcohol). I think it is simply a spray form of ticture of benzoin, available in any drugstore. It does work to hold tape (and moleskin).

Rock's recommendations on blisters are very good, but moleskin is my product of preference (not molefoam, which friends swear by but I find too bulky). First, don't wait until you get a blister. Deal with the hotspot as soon as you feel it (pay no attention whatsoever to any "social pressure" to keep moving). Clean the area with alcohol, whose evaporation will also dry the skin. Apply a little t of b. Wait for it to dry (a few seconds, really). Apply moleskin. Wait a minute. Roll sox back on carefully so as not to cause a wrinkle. For me, that's it. I have noticed over the years, though, that different people seem to respond better to one treatment than another. Try a few.

On molefoam: If you have actually developed a blister, you can create a "donut" out of molefoam to go around and protect the blister, which you can then tape or moleskin over without worrying about pulling the separated skin off later. This is also worth doing if you have already lanced the blister or separated the loose skin.

Cheers,
Creaky

[okpik]

.......................

[SGT Rock]

I have spent a long time hiking, rucking, training, etc. I have seen a lot of blisters and seen a lot of ways to treat them. The tincture of iodine treatment works really well if you can stand the initiall pain and you have the right stuff. It is one of the best ways to kill a blister rapidly.

In case none of you have ever seen this method, it works something like this:

1. Pierce and drain the blister with a small needle.

2. Fill a syringe with tincture of iodine. Inject the iodine into the blister throught the drain hole.

3. Scream in intense pain. One female soldier I saw get this done said it hurt worse than child birth. But after it was done her feet were all better.

4. Wipe the area down with the tincture of iodine that comes out of the wound.

5. Put your boots and socks on again and start walking.

The absolute worst case of blisters I ever saw were on the female soldier I mentioned above. We were doing land navigation training at PLDC in Ft Knox and she was wearing cotton socks and had jump boots on two sizes to big. When we asked her why, she said they were more comfortable in the store when they were overly large.

Now we should move on to chigger bite treatments...

[torch]

Now we should move on to chigger bite treatments...

Chiggers...sweet Jesus, just thinking about them make me itch.

[SGT Rock]

I got me a few of them this week in the Ozarks.

[Ramble~On]

Good News....
If you don't get blisters to begin with you won't have to treat them.
Blisters are caused by friction.... "rubbing"
Your feet will tell your brain that something isn't going right in bootville long before you get a blister. This message being sent to the brain is a "hot-spot"
If you stop and dry off the area causing the problem and put duct tape or mole skin on it when it is first noticed you can avoid getting a blister.
On the other hand....there's even more good news
The friction which causes the "hot-spot" which turns into the blister will cause a thicker layer of skin to develop in that area. If in Georgia your brand new boots that you didn't properly break in prior to starting cause you blisters...by the time you get to Maine....the skin on your feet oughta be thick enough to walk on broken glass.

[Jaybird]

Duct tape!! I taped a peice of mole foam on my heel last summer and put on my water shoes,wet waded in the river for the better part of 8 hours and the duct tape was still stuck to my heel that evening.Streamweaver

DUCT TAPE can fix anything!


i've carried a pack of Moleskin in my pack on my section hikes the last three years & have never (thankfully!) had to use it....but, have seen many a hiker pull out the duct tape & cover blisters or patch a tent or repair a backpack!

[icemanat95]

Moleskin and molefoam improperly applied can make blisters WORSE.

Use the stuff as a spacer around the blister by cutting a donut out of it. This surround the blister and takes much of the pressure and friction on itself rather than just adding pressure to the injured area as it would if you merely covered the blister with the moleskin. I always add a single layer of gauze over the donut to protect the blister from the tape that I put over the whole thing to hold it in place. Waterproof first aid tape (or duct tape), is slippery on it's outer surface and that helps reduce teh friction as well.

[flyfisher]

2. Fill a syringe with tincture of iodine. Inject the iodine into the blister throught the drain hole.

3. Scream in intense pain.

Tincture of benzoin may be even better. I learned the trick from an USA medic caring for the Nymegen squads. Screaming is still necessary. I experimented with a drop of superglue introduced through a slit in the edge of a bad blister. It also worked. However, screaming is still necessary.

http://www.4daagse.nl/frameset.asp?lan=eng

describes the events in Nymegen.

Risk, M.D.

[cupcake]

tincture of benzoin was recommended to me by my podiatrist --- (he loaded me up on that and molefoam pads for the heels) -- though thru-hikers lean heavily on the romance of duct-tape, the stuff just doesn't breathe. perhaps find some kind of medical tape that holds just as well and lets air pass through.
i had a hard time finding tincture of benzoin in drug stores --- i found a small bottle at the rei in the first aid section, and a target/walmart pharmacy said they could order, but didn't carry it in the store.
my problem before with blisters was the tape/molefoam/etc would get so wet from perspiration that the adhesive would slide around --- tincture of benzoin, and breaks to air out the feet makes the feet happier.
d