Your verruca was already annoying. Now it’s red, sore, swollen, bleeding or producing something you’re fairly certain shouldn’t be coming out of your foot, and annoying has become worrying. You may now have an infected verruca, and they’re even more annoying than the regular kind.
Yes, a verruca can become infected if the skin around it is damaged and bacteria get in. But not every painful, bleeding or angry-looking verruca is infected. Knowing which changes are normal and which need checking saves you a lot of unnecessary panic, and stops you ignoring the one that does need treatment.
Can A Verruca Get Infected?
Yes, verrucas can get infected when the skin around them has been broken and bacteria get in.
A verruca is a wart on the sole of your foot, caused by HPV, a virus. An infected verruca means bacteria have got into damaged skin around or within it and caused a second, separate infection on top.
That damage can come from picking, cutting, scratching, aggressive filing, friction from footwear or enthusiastic DIY treatment. Sometimes the break in the skin is too small to notice.
Feet aren’t a forgiving place for broken skin, either. You walk on them all day and then shut them in socks and shoes where they sweat, which makes broken skin there more likely to become infected.
What Does An Infected Verruca Look Like?
The signs of an infected verruca are skin around it that’s getting redder, more swollen, hotter and more painful, sometimes with fluid or pus leaking out. The important word is getting: symptoms that are worsening rather than settling are the ones to worry about.
Redness can be harder to see on brown or black skin, so pay as much attention to warmth, swelling and pain as to colour.
Some parts of a normal verruca are easy to mistake for trouble. The tiny black or dark red dots inside it are blocked blood vessels, not pus, dirt or infection, and they’re part of what a verruca normally looks like. A verruca on a weight-bearing part of your foot can also be painful without being infected.
Is A Bleeding Verruca Infected?
Not necessarily. Verrucas contain small blood vessels, so they can bleed if they’re picked, caught, scraped, filed too hard or irritated during treatment. Bleeding on its own doesn’t mean infection.
Bleeding that’s persistent, unexpected or hard to stop should be checked. So should bleeding that comes with increasing redness, swelling, heat, pain or pus.
And please don’t make a verruca bleed on purpose. The idea that it helps a verruca clear is a myth, and so is the one that the black dots are its “root”. Those dots are blocked capillaries full of blood, so digging at them usually means far more bleeding, for far longer, than you bargained for.
It doesn’t clear the verruca, either. What it does do is damage the healthy skin around it, make the pain worse, give bacteria a way in, and spread the virus further across your foot and potentially to other people. There are clinical treatments that deal with a stubborn verruca without doing that to your foot, so why would you do it to yourself?
Why Has My Verruca Become Sore Or Red?
Pressure from walking can make a verruca painful, especially on a weight-bearing part of the foot. Tight shoes and friction can irritate it, pharmacy treatments can make the surrounding skin sore, and picking, cutting or over-filing can leave the area raw.
Mild soreness after obvious irritation or treatment usually settles once you stop. Heat, swelling, spreading redness, discharge or pain that keeps getting worse is different, and can mean a secondary infection.
What Should You Do With An Infected Verruca?
If you think your verruca is infected, stop picking, cutting or filing it, and stop any self-treatment that’s irritating the broken skin. Stop treatment immediately if a verruca becomes unusually painful or the skin around it goes red. Keep the area clean and dry, and cover broken skin with a clean plaster or dressing.
If walking on it hurts, cushioning the area to take some of the pressure off will make things more bearable until it’s been looked at.
A verruca that looks infected needs assessing by a podiatrist and/or GP. Any bacterial infection is dealt with first, which may mean topical or oral antibiotics, or drainage. The verruca itself is treated afterwards, once it’s clinically appropriate.
When Should You Get Medical Help?
You should get your verruca checked if it becomes severely swollen, red, or starts oozing pus, as these are signs of infection. Increasing pain, spreading redness, warmth or swelling need attention too.
So do significant or persistent bleeding, skin that isn’t healing, or a verruca that’s changing in how it looks. And if you’re not completely sure the thing on your foot is a verruca, don’t keep treating it on the assumption that it is.
If you have diabetes, poor circulation, reduced feeling in your feet or a weakened immune system, or you’re pregnant, don’t treat a verruca yourself at all, infected or not. Each of these makes a small break in the skin harder to notice, slower to heal or riskier to treat at home, so get it checked sooner rather than later.
One situation goes beyond a podiatry appointment. If redness or swelling is spreading and the skin is painful and hot, get an urgent GP appointment or contact NHS 111, especially if you have a high temperature or feel generally unwell.
Call 999 if that comes with any of these:
- a very high temperature, or feeling hot, cold or shivery
- a fast heartbeat or fast breathing
- purple patches on the skin
- feeling dizzy or faint
- confusion
- cold, clammy or pale skin
- loss of consciousness
Treating The Verruca Once The Immediate Problem Has Settled
Dealing with an infection doesn’t get rid of the verruca underneath it. You’ll know the infection is settling when the redness, swelling and pain ease and there’s no more pus or discharge.
Once the infection has been dealt with and it’s clinically appropriate to treat, you can decide what to do about the verruca itself. That might be leaving it alone, or choosing between the verruca treatment options, depending on how persistent, painful or troublesome it is.
Attacking the verruca while the skin around it is still inflamed or infected isn’t a shortcut. It just gives an already unhappy foot another problem.
Get An Infected Verruca Checked At Northwich Foot Clinic
If a verruca has become increasingly painful, swollen or red, is bleeding unexpectedly or is producing pus, our podiatrists in Northwich can assess what’s going on. That includes whether it’s an infected verruca, or whether it’s a verruca at all. Once the immediate problem has been dealt with, we can advise when and how to treat the verruca underneath.
Call us on 01606 45077 or book an appointment online.
