Wyoming spring dry cracked hands (health, sailboat, county)

[jody_wy]

this time of year with snow, mud, embryonic fluid, iodine, colostrum, calf saliva, soap and water , my hand get rough and crack and bleed. Yes I tried all the lotions , bag bomb, Vaseline. Then one year the end of April we about thru calving getting ready to start Lambing ,We get in a few ewe and I start shearing. That night I look at my hands and wow they are heal up. Later at a trade shoe a lady took my hands and rubs a cream all over them , it wasn't greasy and it stayed on for hours. The cream was called Merino Cream out of NZ. At another trade show I found another cream that works too, Wool Wax Cream from Terry Mt. I use both all spring till shearing time.

[branDcalf]

I just started Wool Wax this past week. Sure am happy with what it's done to help my hands.

[sunsprit]

As a heavy equipment mechanic for years working around marine powerplants, then stationary equipment in the field conditions just like you work in ... beat up hands year 'round is nothing new. Solvents, chemicals, parts cleaning caustics, fuels, salt water, soaps and water ... all dry out and attack the skin.

After scrubbing up with a laundry brush and lava soap, I've used Bag Balm for over 40 years, and more recently O'Keefe's Working Hands for good results to heal up and protect my hands.

The key to success after applying the stuff in the evening is to wear white cotton gloves to keep a layer of the cream on for about an hour or so. Gives the skin time to absorb the lanolin with the gloves also keeping your hands warmer. If there's an excess residue on the hands afterwards, it usually cleans up with a paper towel. Yes, it's a messy process ... but as one who had "scissor hands" from the time I was a teenager working around sailboats, this was what a skin doc advised to do back then.

I get to do this all year long ... come shearing time, I bring in a crew to do our flock. Something about getting a wee bit older and not able to do this kind of work anymore when there's more than a few show animals to shear.

PS: I've found that most of the "waterless" hand cleaners (GOJO, etc) attack my hands as badly as the work I'm doing. Can't use 'em.

[Wyoming_Medic]

I worked as a paramedic for years and got used to wearing nitrile exam gloves for everything. Now, I still wear them. A set of nitrile under a light cotton mechanics glove keeps all nasty fluids and solvents from my hands. I can work all day and only use a few sets (about $0.10 in total), and my hands feel great.

If you are constantly around harsh stuff, look at surgical gloves. You can get gauntlet length which protect almost to your elbow.

[Ltdumbear]

I've lost count over how many ranchers/cowfolk have given me disgusted looks over how I wear gloves while working, but it is a habit that was beat into me while on active-duty...if I was ever caught without gloves (especially cutting steel-banding that held bombs and other stuff together on wooden shipping pallets) I got wrote-up, and got butt-chewed by boss, etc...so now gloves are 2nd-nature.

Last yr spent fair amount of time pulling calves for a hereford-operation, so hands got ate-up real bad from OB-fluids and washing-up afterwards with Nolvasan...I don't wear OB-gloves to go in, cause my hands are skinny and 'weak' and can't 'feel' nothin' with plastic on them. Does me no good to go in with my OB-strap/chain if I got those darn gloves on cause I can't 'feel' where the dew-claws are, to get the strap further up and fastened tight behind 'em.

...ranchers wife saw what my hands looked like last yr and clued me into 'Cornhuskers Lotion'. Healed-up real quick and not as greasy/slippery as Bag-Balm, Udder-Butter, etc...

"and they DON'T STINK !" as Johnny Bench says, on his Blu-Emu infomercial...

[StealthRabbit]

Healthy Hoof cream,

And yes, while in NZ this winter, Merino Cream. (Manuka Honey for your other ailments)... Not a bad place to spend winters, but I am still totally amazed there are no preditors to sheep... Km after Km of sheep in wilderness and NO shephards / guard dogs / burros... International Shearing competition will be fun in NZ next winter. Watched many 'trainees' knock out sub 1 minute shearing during their HOT 35C January A&P shows. (County Fair in 1 day)

[jody_wy]

Sue order some of this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V70MWS/...b9967167434b_S

[matt fe2o3]

Jody, thank you for the info. I just ordered a lot for my daughter and a friend coming in from Singapore. The C. Booth Almond butter has been OK, and actually great in a pinch - looking forward to trying the lanolin - for the LINK.