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kinda gross yea. With trail runners and breathable non wp boots now I’d say trench foot is much less likely. I know my feet dry almost instantly in the summer. But what about winter. I wear a bread bag against my skin during the day and a vbl suit at night. Has anyone ever experienced this issue in the cold of winter from a stuffy boot or a vapor barrier liner?
An old technique, dating to WWI, when you know you’ll have cold, wet feet for weeks or months is get your feet as dry as possible, coat them in Vaseline, put on your cleanest socks and leave them in your boots from then on.
I’ve only gone as far as to apply a bit of anti-fungal ointment between my toes if I expect to have wet feet for more than a day – I’ve found I get some nastiness there if I don’t, but I can avoid it by pre-treating.
Dry feet is, indeed the solution. My doctor also suggested rubbing alcohol after you dry your feet—not so much to kill any germs, but to make sure that your feet are really dry.
This is the major reason I try to avoid hiking for days with wet feet!
If I’m doing prolonged cold & VBL, I make sure to dry my feet a couple times a day, & dust with a little anti-fungal powder. If I’m in a VBL at night, for example, I’ll force myself to take my socks off when I wake up, dry & dust, and dress for the day. Repeat at bed time.
My winter recommendation of always using 3 mm. sealed neoprene divers’ sox VBLs with light poly liners REQUIRES drying your feet every night, turning the neoprene VBL sox inside-out and wearing new poly liner socks every day.
Doing this VBL routine I’ve never had foot problems. But, to reduce the “stank” I do rub my feet with some hand (& foot) sanitizer! Can’t imagine putting that stank into the foot of my sleeping bag.
I’d always associated “Trench Foot” with vasoconstriction due to cold coupled with inaction and an associated swelling of the feet due to blood pooling which is followed by cell death via anoxia.
Similar in may ways to cell death in diabetics and post surgery complications when inactive and bed ridden. We got told the same PJ & sock routine in basic training, I thought it was BS 40 years ago and I still think its BS but it is good for morale and that I think was the purpose of it.
Movement and good blood flow is to my current knowledge the best treatment as is prevention by good warm footwear and a set of static position exercises.
I just had major surgery in a hip replacement and was lectured about this just a week ago by the nursing and OT team attached to the surgery ward I was recovering in, some of my post surgery pain is it seems identical to those who have suffered “TrenchFoot” and I am doing the static exercises 4 times a day to reduce that painful swelling in my foot
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