I have a friend gardener who showed me a rash he got during gardening and a lot of questions came to me on how we treat a person who has signs of rash/infection of some sort showing externally. I did ask the question if he had an injury and the answer was yes. It started at the base of the nail, so I suppose there was an infiltration of some kind. Since most of use garden (and do it with out gloves some times ;-)), I thought it would be interesting to know how you recommend treating when an infection like this begins; do you treat the wound just externally, or do you give herbs to help the immune system to fight internally? He has tried many ointments already and he is 70 years old.

You say he has a rash and then an infection. A rash is often an allergic response, an infection is a totally different issue and would not be treated the same way. So does be have a rash - red, itchy, slight swelling or an infection, red, painful, more swelling (usually), feels hot, there may be pus ? An infection would be treated internally and topically if it was mild with antibacterials (essential oil of lavender, EO of tea tree, Myrrh tincture, Goldenseal tincture Usnea tincture, etc). More severe infections (red streaks down the finger or hand, feels hot and is painful, they may also have a fever) need antibiotics. A rash is usually treated topically, although some antiinflammatory immune-regulatory herbs (Turmeric, Sarsaparilla, Gotu Kola) may be useful internally in some cases.

I will try to be more precise in my description ;) he had a wound and gardened bare hand. A bump developed near his nail, and eventually it grew larger and it became bigger and scaled. My first thought David was Fungus (but a very intense fungus attacking the skin), like something resembling Sporotrichosis (which I looked up on Internet... not very a good source of info I know...). He mentioned that he tried Calendula oil (which I would of personally tried first also!) and Clotrimazole (an anti-fungal treatment). I had advised him already that if it becomes red and inflamed (signs of infection) to consult for antibiotics. My intention is how to approach a problem like this, in hopes of helping us understand how to better identify a specific treatment to try. Thank you ;-)

If the infection is in the nail bed, is it called Paronychia?

While I cannot say for certain, I doubt it is a fungus. I suspect a minor bacterial infection, but that too may or may not be accurate. It is difficult to treat something if you do not know what you are treating. I would advise him to go to a dermatologist and get a diagnosis. Also for infections in joints, under the nails or in bone, topical herbs really do not work very well and while oral use of herbs can sometimes have benefits they too often fail in this type of situation.

While I cannot say for certain, I doubt it is a fungus. I suspect a minor bacterial infection, but that too may or may not be accurate. It is difficult to treat something if you do not know what you are treating. I would advise him to go to a dermatologist and get a diagnosis. Also for infections in joints, under the nails or in bone, topical herbs really do not work very well and while oral use of herbs can sometimes have benefits they too often fail in this type of situation.

Yes