Palytoxin Poisoning

Dan, glad things turned around for you buddy! To this day i still feel terrible about it, and partially responsible. As i was walking out the door i thought to myself, maybe i should remind him to wash his hands... nah he will definately do it after i'm gone...
I will never assume again. :(
 
Well after 7 years of keeping zoanthids I managed to learn a valuable lesson yesterday. I have fragged ordinary zoas many times and after time, I too have become lax in taking precautions. The polyps that I was working with are Nuclear Greens, very similar to the Purple Deaths the OP was working with. These varieties secrete a mucous that I don't see from ordinary zoas. I was fragging as usual and subconsiously rubbed the corner of my right eye. Soon it started to feel like something was in it so I washed my hands and went to take my contact out, figuring I got an eyelash in it. The contact had adhered to my cornea. I had to pull it off much like when back in the day when we slept in them and it was dry in the morning. I thought it was weird but whatever, washed the contact off and put it back in. An hour later I couldn't handle it anymore and went to take the contact out and it was stuck again, took it out and put my glasses on.. Soon my vision in that eye was cloudy like looking through a thick fog and it was getting painful, more than just irritated like before. I finally went to the doctor and after putting fluorescein in it and viewing unde uv light, he determined that it was not the result of a corneal abrasion but some irritant. He determined at that point supportive therapy was indicated and I decided to forgo an antibiotic at that time due to it probably being an irritant rather than infection. When I went to bed it was very painful, and the lower lid was quite swollen but the cloudiness had gone. This morning it was mattered shut but the swelling was mostly gone and my vision is normal. At the visit, I mentioned palytoxin but after discussing my symptoms vs what has been reported we determined that it is possibly a different toxin but very strong nonetheless. Some medications used in the eye can manifest systemic side effects due to absorbtion through the conjunctiva and sinuses & GI tract through lacrimal duct drainage so it seems reasonable to conclude that if it was palytoxin, I would have had some systemic symptoms. This it a localized reaction that affected my eye, and my sinus on the right side which was running. Now, just about 24 hours later, the swelling is mostly gone, the eye is still red and mattering a bit and the pain is about 25 percent of what it was. If it is not substantially better by the end of the day I will start on antibotic eye drops as a precaution.
Bottom line, this genus of zoanthids seems to have some sort of powerful toxin / irritant that should not be underestimated.


6 hours - note the blister on the inner lower eyelid
nuke%206%20hours.jpg


9 hours lower lid swollen and eye discharging
nuke%209%20hours.jpg


nuke%209%20hours%202.jpg


18 hours - mattered shut upon awakening
nuke%2018%20hours.jpg
 
Thats insane ! it has never occured to me that this might happen ,never heard of this or seen anyrthing like this before but I tell you now I WILL ALWAYS WASH MY HANDS ,by the way this really freaked me out as I'm legaly blind in one eye already,scary stuff dude!
 
My eye improved a little every day and this morning was back to normal and I was able to wear contacts again today. No apparent permanent damage. Whew.
 
Thanks for all the insight.. I am a new newbie 1st year.. Zoas are one of my favorites. I will keep all your horror stories in mind..
 
Dude I have been doing this reef propagation thing for over ten years and found your experience shocking. This could be me easily! I have terrible habits of not using eye protection not gloves. I have simply been lucky. Thanks for sharing your experience, I will make some changes. TODAY!
 
I've dodged a shot of fluid from fragging Zoas. Guess I better use more caution, versus my split second reaction time (dumb luck) next time. Thanks for the experiences, although not pleasant. BTW, I met a person (will remain anonymous) who, everytime she/he fragged, got sick, and had to be put on antibiotics. Said reacted with bad sinus infections, and it was like had the flu everytime, they ended up getting out of the hobby because of it. Maybe they were allergic to all, and all that comes with the hobby, but something else to be aware of.
 
Thanks to everyone who is joining this thread. I must change my bad habit of cutting zoas and other corals. Man, I was lucky enough to not getting poison when handling them without glasses and gloves, and I know the luck does not always come to me. I should have these pictures on my wet saw as a reminder for the safeness.
 
WOW that eye looks painful, glad to hear you are doing better. My wife is still very upset about the $4500 ER bill I got from my tank. I think it was some zoas that I smashed with my hand that did it. I wasnt wearing gloves had a large cut on my hand smashed the same zoas twice while cleaning the glass. To make a long story short I had enough time to make 3 calls before I couldnt function any longer. Aside from violently throwing up and feeling like I should go toward the light because it would be easier, I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, put on every monitor there for almost 7 hours as I am told until I was somewhat cohereant. The Dr.s said it must have been some good drugs because they had never seen any thing like that. They didnt listen to my explanation as to what happened. They said that couldnt happen. My wife was more upset about the Dr.s accusing me of being a druggie and not listening to us and reading the info that she brought in than she was about the bill. But she was still very po'd about the bill. Hey $25 a month for the rest of my life , no interest, I can live with that.
 
Does anybody have a good recommendation as to what to wash up with after handling z's and p's? One poster said that he washed up with dishsoap and still had a reaction. I personally do dish soap followed by hydrogen peroxide. I don't know if the peroxide breaks down palytoxin or any of the laundrylist of bad chems that these polyps expel, but I've never had a bad reaction, even after getting goo in a cut. When I feel that sting, I've just flushed with peroxide and the pain ceased.
 
Its amazing how zoas have that toxin. They also say that peoples dogs have died from eating a zoa that they had fragged and left it on the floor. Its crazy
 
must be very careful ...
the other day with a scalpel cutting a gracilis Parazoanthus splashed me in the eye and I rinse with water and still I got very red eye.
the doctor sent me a few drops in two days and has regained its color.
 
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