Former England soccer star Gary Mabbutt, who has suffered from diabetes for years had his foot eaten by a rat, while he was on holiday in South Africa. Gary suffers from an all to common nerve disorder called peripheral neuropathy. Peripheral neuropathy can be caused by many things, however diabetes is one of the leading causes. Rat, and other animal bites are not all that unusual to us at Healthy Feet Podiatry. I have seen the aftermath of everything from dogs feasting on a foot, to heating pads leave holes in the feet!
Peripheral neuropathy is so dangerous because at its worst, it can make a patients foot completely numb. Therefore, a very grotesque injury caused by a rat having a midnight snack was actually painless for Mr. Mabbutt. At Healthy Feet Podiatry we specialized in treating patients with neuropathy that have developed wounds on their feet due to lack of feeling. Neuropathic wounds don’t typically start with wacky stories like Gary’s, rather all it takes is a trip to the store in a poorly fitted pair of shoes that leads to a blister. Because the blister is not painful, it quickly becomes a full fledge wound. In our offices, we use a combination of wound healing techniques along with offloading devices to heal diabetic and solely neuropathic wounds quickly. Another cutting edge tool at our disposal is Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) which we mix with thrombin ( a clotting factor) to create a “platelet plug”. These plugs are applied to the wound bed, and can very rapidly heal a wound that would otherwise take months to heal!
If you find yourself in Mr. Mabbutt’s position, or simply have any problem your tube sock can cover, call us at Healthy Feet Podiatry, and allow us to get you back on track!
