catfish fight

[keith meador]

my brother in law and myself made a nightime raid on the lake monday night. all went well, we caught several one and two pound channel cats in a fairly short period of time....during this process my bil started using pliers to remove the hooks without touching the catfish. one of the catfish fell at his feet, so he took his foot and attempted to slide the fish into the water. somehow, the catfish managed to get a fin thru the shoe, and bury it deep into the side of his foot.

he yelled "boy that really hurt"...i kinda laughed, not knowing what he had done, and the manner in which he said it really didnt alert me that something was really wrong. he asked for my pliers, and a flashlight. he said he needed to remove the fin from his foot. after he took the shoe off, all heck broke loose...he was bleeding very badly from the side of his foot. he grabed the remaining fin with the pliers, gave it a tug and almost passed out. the fin broke off, about 1/4 inch or so. he asked me to take him to the ER....

a short trip later, at the ER we tried to explain to the woman at the recetpion counter what had happened. evidently this is not common. the ER doc was french canadian....i have my doubt he knew what a catfish was, or what getting finned was.

after some numbing to the affected area and a lot or morphine, the doc made a small cut along the side of my brother in laws foot, and attached a hemostat to the fin. he began pulling, but could not remove it. he asked me what could be holding it in place, and at that point i honestly felt it may be stuck in bone. a few more cuts and a little more tugging still didnt yield the fin. the doc began cutting deeper into the foot, along the fin. after about one inch of cutting, the fin let go. 1.5 inches long....

now for the questions....i had always heard, that a catfish fin had toxins or poisons. i had also heard they were barbed, and that was very evident at a close look to the barbs on the fin. now, back to the toxins, is that a wives tale or fact. i know my bil was in a lot of pain, the fin made it all the way under the big toe, and the pain as he described it radiated in his foot. he also stated that it burned horribly.

after some peroxide flush, chlorine and water wash, antibiotic ointment and a prescription of antibiotic and pain killers, he is doing quite well, but says his toe is still numb. i suspect that the fin or the extraction may have damaged a nerve, but have no way of knowing. the ER doc did not xray the foot, but i am confident he removed the entire fin. after seeing the fin i dont thing it penetrated the bone.....so, for the experts, are there toxins in the fins, or does the whole experience just burn like the dickens and time will heal his foot....

[AteUp]

http://fish.dnr.cornell.edu/nyfish/Ictaluridae/ictaluridae.html

Catfish Family

Ictaluridae

Members of the catfish family Ictaluridae range from very small to very large fish, do not have scales, and possess eight sensory barbels, or "whiskers", around their mouth - four on the chin, two on the snout, and one on each corner of the mouth. They have three median fins: anal, adipose, and dorsal. The anal fin has a long base and is located on the underside of the fish. The dorsal fin is located on the back and has a single sharp spine in the front part. The adipose fin is a small, fatty fin situated between the dorsal fin and the tail. Two sets of paired fins, the pelvic and pectoral fins, are also present. Both pectoral fins have a single spine along the front section of the fin, and the madtoms have poison glands associated with these spines that are capable of inflicting a painful, but not dangerous, wound.

Members of the catfish family in the U. S. were originally distributed in most states east of the Rocky Mountains, but various species have been widely introduced into western states where they did not occur naturally. Mature individuals among the species range in size from several pounds for the channel catfish to only a few ounces for the tiny madtoms.

Catfishes are generally warmwater fish that are more tolerant of water with low oxygen and low light levels than many other groups of fishes. They are often nocturnal or feed during the day in turbid waters, using their sensory barbels to feed upon insects, crustacea and fish.

Channel catfish are the most common farm-raised fish in the United States, primarily in the southern U.S. Although bullheads and the larger species of catfish are commonly caught by anglers, madtoms and related small members of this family are seldom observed. After hatching in late spring, adult bullheads protect schooling young for as long as two weeks after hatching, during which time compact schools of small bullheads may be observed close to shore.

[AteUp]

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/fish/pafish/fishhtms/chap13.htm

General identification: Catfish are scaleless, with a tough, smooth skin. All species have eight appendages on the head called “barbels,” four on the upper jaw and four on the chin. The barbels are sometimes called “whiskers.” They are fleshy, supple projections that narrow to a tip. The barbels don’t inflict the notorious sting of the catfish. That’s done by the strongly developed pectoral fin spines, one on each side of the fish, and the dorsal fin. The species have variously developed poison glands at the base of these spines, which can inflict a mild to beelike sting. The madtoms are especially known for their stinging spines. There is disagreement among scientists whether it’s the gland at the base of the spine or the membrane around the spine that has the poison. Catfish also have a stout spine at the leading edge of the dorsal fin. On madtoms, the adipose fin, a fleshy lobe between the dorsal fin and the tail fin, is joined with the tail fin. On other catfish, the adipose fin is separate. Some catfish have moderately to deeply forked tails. Albinism, which results in a white-colored, pink-eyed catfish, is known to occur.

[Art]

I had a guy I was fishing with once accidentally sit on one and took a fin to the butt cheek. He just pulled it out. He said it was sore but didn't seem to have any ill effects from toxins.

Glad your bil is ok. I bet that hurt pretty bad both physically and pride wise. Did he at least make a sandwich out of his attacker?:D

[quackrstackr]

He'll be fine. The little ones are horrible.

Once they get bigger, they lose those little barbs on the fins and the ends get blunt.

Next time, as soon you get finned, take the fish and rub the belly against the area where it finned you. There's something in the slime on them that neutralizes the poison. Knocks the pain pretty much immediately.

Not sure that would work on one buried up an inch and a half deep though.....

[bcdh1]

That just sounds like it hurts, never mind if it has poisons in it. OUCH

[grouser68]

After having a channel cats fin lodged 2 inches in my hand(between my thumb and forefinger. I was prescribed 500 mg. Keflex, over the following days no less than 5 barbs were pushed out of the wound. My hand was swollen twice it's size for almost 2 weeks. The pharmacist said I was the ninth person he had seen with a catfish wound that summer and the only one that was'nt prescribed some type of anti poison rx. I was told that the slime on the catfish was so nasty that it worked on you as if you were poisoned but that in actuallity, it's just a bad infection from the slime.


BTW, The cat that got me was 24-27 inches and the barbs were flat and shaped like a sharks tooth, or maybe a cats claw, either way, they were nasty!

[Hammer]

I've always heard the small catfish hurt much worse than the big ones. I've never been stuck by a big one to know, but I have been stuck mildly by small ones, and they do hurt in a bad way!

On one of my mission trips in Haiti, we took care of a fisherman who had been stuck by a fish and had a hook bury in his palm. He had a high fever, and his hand was swollen double. We had to do an I & D and he was on IV antibiotics for 5 days. He would most likely have died had we not been there as there is almost no medical care there. Not sure if his infection was caused by the hook or by getting finned or maybe a combo of both.

[trust me]

I was told that the slime on the catfish was so nasty that it worked on you as if you were poisoned but that in actuallity, it's just a bad infection from the slime.


Bingo. I've had some minor fin wounds that got swollen and sore, just a small infection from the nasty slime. The small ones do seem to sting immediately, so i always figured there was some kind of poison at work as well.

Any wound that gets fish slime or river mud in it is going to give you trouble.

[Art]

All this talk of poison slime and bacteria infections is making me want to head out to the Cracker Barrel for some fried catfish. Mmmmm.

[quackrstackr]

That's odd.

I've never had a single infection come from handling catfish slime with a cut on my hands and have used the belly trick several times with perfect results.

With the noodling we've been doing for the last month and all the cuts and abrasions we receive while doing it, we should be minus a few limbs from infection by now... but we have nothing but scars.

The slime on a fish is it's defense against the nasties that cause infection in the water. You remove much of a fish's slime, you sign it's death sentence.. and quick too. Bass tournament organizations even put an additive in the water to help restore the slime coat that is removed while handling the fish to lower mortality rates.

[Art]

That's odd.

I've never had a single infection come from handling catfish slime with a cut on my hands and have used the belly trick several times with perfect results.

With the noodling we've been doing for the last month and all the cuts and abrasions we receive while doing it, we should be minus a few limbs from infection by now... but we have nothing but scars.

The slime on a fish is it's defense against the nasties that cause infection in the water. You remove much of a fish's slime, you sign it's death sentence.. and quick too. Bass tournament organizations even put an additive in the water to help restore the slime coat that is removed while handling the fish to lower mortality rates.

I'd say the bacteria is actually in the water. The fish are probably not bacteria free but i doubt they are a toxic sponge. All I know is that if I had an open wound and decided I wanted to take a dip in the KY river then I'd expect some kind of infection.

http://www.nioo.knaw.nl/SCIENCE/progress_report_2001-2002/pdf/progress_report_01-02_cl_me.pdf

[KY_Fried]

When I was a kid I was fishing in an old farm pond and saw a tiny little catfish stuck in a cows hoof print filled with water right next to the pond. I reached down to pick it up and it finned the palm of my hand. It hurt like crazy as soon as it happened and within an hour my whole hand was swollen so bad I couldn't bend any of my fingers and the pain was really really bad. The next morning it was almost completely back to normal except for a little minor pain.
I've been finned a few times since then and, while it did hurt, it was never anything near that bad. I was thinking maybe the little baby cats have more poison in them then adults to help protect them or something along those lines. I know for sure that it was some kind of poison and not just bacteria in the water because it hurt almost immediately and it felt and reacted just like a bad bee or wasp sting only more painful.

[jarhedhntr]

All this talk of poison slime and bacteria infections is making me want to head out to the Cracker Barrel for some fried catfish. Mmmmm.

If you are going to go to Cracker Barrel, come and support my TMMO (Total Money Make Over) at the on on NewTown Pike. I will be serving there in the evenings starting Sunday.