How do i remove cactus thorns from my hand?

my girlfriend fell and stuck her hand in a cactus on christmas eve. we couldn't get all of the thorns out, there were some very tiny ones under the skin. now her hand is painful and she has at least one that might be getting infected. how can we remove them, and what are the effects of cactus thorns? i've heard that they can be poisonous.

How do i remove cactus thorns from my hand?
It is rare, but cactus spines can sometimes get really infected. If it is just red and swollen, you might try soaking her had in an Epsom salt solution (you can buy Epsom salts at a drug store), as hot as she can stand it, for 10-15 minutes.





If it is festering up, sometimes it will pop out if you open it up with a needle and squeeze it gently. Often cactus spines have little hooks like a fishhook, and that is why they are so hard to get out. If it continues to get infected and does not get better in a day or two, go to the doctor and have them removed.





If they are still sticking up, try the following method for removing cactus spines, as well as small fiberglass spicules or plant stickers (for example, stinging nettle): Apply a layer of hair remover wax. Let it air-dry for 5 minutes, or speed up the process with a hair dryer. Then peel off the gel or wax with the spicules. You can also try white glue, or adhesive tape, but it is less effective. Pulling on them wih tweezers can just break them off under the skin.








If you don't get them out, they could remain painful for months, and won't work out due to the barbs on them.








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Reply:Hydrogen Peroxide should help draw the thorns out enough so that you can pull them out with tweezers.
Reply:If you have steady hands, use a hypodermic needle and remove the splinters . If not go to a doctor to have them removed. It is not an emergency. Thorns can cause inflammation or infection. Unless removed the process will continue.
Reply:Try running her with hot water. The hottest she can handle. It will open her pores and get alot of them to free themselves. I feel bad. You must be talking about those ones that you can only see when you hold them up to the light. Their misserable little buggers.
Reply:Soaking in a water solution of epsom salt is supposed to help draw out splinters. I don't know if it would help remove cactus thorns.
Reply:Very carefully! (sorry, an old joke)





Umm, well if you're truly concerned about the wound being infected or possibly poisoned, I would definitely see a doctor. Otherwise it's just like a splinter. You can dig in with tweezers. Owie! Or just let it be. It might hurt for a while, but the body eventually will reject any foreign objects lodged within itself.
Reply:they're not poisonous. try breaking the skin with a needle and then using tweezers. just like a splinter
Reply:If it's getting infected I say go to emergency right away
Reply:Irritating more than anything else; not toxic. First thing to try is duct tape: smooth it on the affected area *firmly* and then pull fast and hard. Spreading white glue on the area, allowing it to dry, and then pulling the glue off has also been known to work.


Those are the two effective fast methods I know.





Easier, imo, though more time consuming, is to tape a split piece of dried fruit over the area -- bandaid and split raisin for a small spot, split prune or date for a larger area, held on by adhesive tape. Go to sleep, and generally the glochids (those nasty little stiff hairs) will be out the next morning. This works by shrinking the skin away from the glochids by osmotic pressure of the sugars in the dried fruit. The skin shrinks, the glochids don't -- voila!
Reply:try taking them out with twezers or go to a doctor and someone can you please answer my limewire question
Reply:TRY DUCT TAPE OR ELMER'S GLUE...LET THE GLUE DRY COMPLETELY......OR TWEEZERS
Reply:try a pair of tweezers see if those help with getting them out good luck.
Reply:try tweezers it helped wen i slammed my dirtbike into a cactus..not fun lol good luck