Poor health after a session of hirudotherapy (leeches): what to do.

Prices for hirudotherapist services

Hello everyone reading my review.

About five years ago I decided to try hirudotherapy, so now every year I repeat this wonderful procedure. The effect after the course is simply amazing. I feel younger, my eyes shine, my cheeks take on a ruddy color, and my general mood improves.

Below I will try to answer the most frequently asked questions that people have about hirudotherapy.

1. AT medical centers where hirudotherapy is practiced, leeches are destroyed after the procedure. Although they are not carriers, they do so due to the precaution of the Ministry of Health. If you want to take away used leeches, then I think the doctors will allow you to do this. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account the moment that the use of the same leeches will be more effective, because. Leeches produce an enzyme specifically for your blood type. This is due to the fact that the body of leeches automatically adjusts to your blood type, so that it will be easier to process it in the future.
2. Leech care. How such care for leeches does not exist, only if they drank blood not long ago. Well-fed leeches can live in water (without chlorine) for about a year and at the same time, they do not need to be fed anything. Periodically, it is necessary to change the water, after, while it is visually visible that it is contaminated. You also need to be aware that the death of leeches is a common occurrence. Leeches die mainly due to the fact that they cannot digest blood, especially if the blood does not fit according to some criteria for their body.
3. To increase efficiency, leeches are put on.
4. Leech saliva contains the substance hirudin, which thins the blood and prevents instant clotting. Therefore, blood from a wound from a leech bite can go the whole day.
5. For 2-3 days after the procedure, the bite sites can itch very much and itch accordingly. In this case, the rescue cream will help.
6. There are actually very few healing leeches. There is medicinal leech and a couple more subspecies that are suitable for hirudotherapy. Simply put, a leech caught in a nearby pond does not give any effect.
7. Do not think that the leech will stick exactly to the place where you want. Leech in this regard is very capricious. The leech feels the places on the body where there is stagnant blood and that is where it will bite.
8. Wounds from leech bites for someone can heal in a week, and for someone they can remain on a long period. Healing depends on the characteristics of the skin.
9. Contraindications to hirudotherapy include poor blood clotting and low hemoglobin.
10. Cost-wise, it's far from cheap. Calculate for yourself: on average, a leech costs from 60 rubles, 4-5 jokes are used per session + the work of a specialist. 1 course of hirudotherapy is equal to 9-10 sessions.

Now I will tell you about my experience in the treatment with leeches.

With early years, suffered from varicose veins veins. Knowing about all the complexities of this disease, for many years she unsuccessfully tried to be treated. With the advent of the Internet, I began to study my problem more deeply and came across hirudotherapy. In general, I decided to go to the clinic of restorative medicine and hirudotherapy, and fell into the hands of wonderful specialists. I won’t say that after the course everything went away right away, but I was immediately warned that I should not expect a cosmetic effect. Those. my veins on my legs both stick out and stick out, but the swelling went down, the pain stopped, the heaviness disappeared, and outwardly my legs began to look better. The specialist who gave me leeches told me about the miraculous properties of hirudin on the human body. Hirudin displays excess water from the body, and most importantly, it liquefies blood clots, kills all kinds of fungi and bacteria, and perfectly fights salts and stones. For maximum effect, one course is naturally not enough, you need at least 5.

After the first session of hirudotherapy, I barely made it home. The thing is that hirudin greatly thins the blood and after the session, I was pasted over with sanitary napkins and bandaged, but somewhere halfway to the house I noticed that the blood began to ooze through the bandages. I quickly ran out of the subway, ran into the nearest pharmacy, bought ordinary pads and changed all my blood-soaked bandages in the nearest eatery. I was in a slight shock from so much blood. But when I came for the next session, the doctor reassured me. It turned out that I had terrible swelling in my legs (I used to think that they were just thick), and it was not blood that flowed out, but lymph, which in turn was tinted with my blood.

Since that time, 5 years have already passed, and armed with medical literature, I already put leeches on my own. By the way, she also taught her husband to hirudotherapy, he is also very pleased. It is worth noting that the veins on the legs, of course, have not gone away, but they look much better.

Mechanism of therapeutic action

After biting through the skin, the leech sucks blood for 20-90 minutes, after which it disappears on its own, but bleeding from the wound continues for another 12-24 hours due to the salivary glands hirudin - anticoagulant direct action. Hyaluronidase also enters the patient's tissues, which has a multilateral effect on the body. In total, up to 40 ml of blood flows from each wound. Thus, with the help of 6-7 leeches it is possible in stationary or outpatient settings carry out bloodletting with a volume of about 400 ml. Leeches also have an analgesic and moderate anti-inflammatory effect.

Leech storage

Leeches are stored in glass vessels with a wide neck, closed with a tightly tied linen bandage. The jar should be half filled with raw water from a river, lake, but not rain or well. If necessary, you can use tap water, aged 24 hours in an open container for dechlorination. Recall that you can not hermetically close the vessel with leeches.
To maintain the viability of leeches is very important proper preparation vessel: it must be absolutely clean, previously washed without soap and soda, then the vessel is rinsed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate and lake water. You can not use vessels from under medicines, oils and odorous substances. In a 3-liter jar, you can keep 50-100 leeches, with more, their activity decreases.
During storage, the water is changed daily, washing the vessel from mucus. To do this, the dead leeches are first removed, the walls of the vessel are wiped with gauze, removing mucus and fallen cuticles, then drained. old water through gauze bandage, fill the container by ⅓ with lake water and drain it again through gauze. Finally, the vessel is filled with ½ of lake water and tightly tied, remembering that leeches can crawl out even through a small hole. The hands of a medical worker performing a water change must be clean, without traces of soap, soda, medicines and aromatic (perfume) substances that are detrimental to leeches. Recall that the viability of leeches is reduced by extraneous odors in the room - especially tobacco, alcohol, formalin, fermented foods, etc. The room should be dry, bright, with an air temperature in the range of 10-16 ° C. Abrupt change air temperature is detrimental to leeches; so, at a temperature of 28-30 ° C, they die within a few hours. Harmful to leeches strong light and total darkness. At proper storage leeches remain viable for 5-6 months or more. It is not necessary to feed the leeches, it is desirable that by the time of application they have been starving for 4-5 months, in this case the leeches stick more actively.

The viability of leeches during storage is checked in several ways:

1. In any vessel, up to half filled with water, leeches actively swim or quickly climb the walls, attaching to the bandage. Weak and sick leeches sink to the bottom of the vessel.
2. If you touch a leech in a vessel with any object, its body becomes short, elastic, dense (reflex contraction). When lowering the hand into the vessel, the leeches quickly attach to it and do not come off when the hand is removed.
3. If the leech is placed on the palm of your hand and your hand is clenched into a fist, then its body will instantly become elastic and will contract every time you re-squeeze the hand.

If a medical worker will notice that the leeches lose their activity, you need to change the water 2 times a day, removing the dead leeches, then after a few days their condition may improve.

Method of application

From a common jar where leeches are stored, a hand with a gauze swab is transplanted required amount leeches (plus 2-3 in reserve) in a separate vessel with a capacity of 50-100 ml. You can't grab leeches with tweezers. You should prepare a boiled tray and anatomical tweezers, a bottle of alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, a vessel with hot boiled water, sterile swabs, wipes, dressings.
In case of cerebral vascular thrombosis, hypertensive crisis, leeches are usually applied with an oral suction cup, 4-6 pieces each, to the skin in the behind-the-ear region (the zone of the mastoid processes temporal bone), retreating 1-1.5 cm from the auricle backwards, vertically down. When applied close to auricle unstoppable may occur venous bleeding. 4-12 leeches are applied at a time, rarely up to 20 pieces. After 5-6 days, occupational therapy can be repeated. When using leeches behind the ear, it is recommended to plug the ears with a cotton swab.
With angina pectoris preinfarction state, sometimes in acute period myocardial infarction, 6 to 16 leeches are placed in the zone of the third-fifth intercostal space on the left, 1-2 cm from the left edge of the sternum.
In case of circulatory insufficiency, leeches can be applied to the liver area, in the right hypochondrium below the costal arch, parallel to it.
With thrombophlebitis, leeches are placed on both sides along the affected vein, in a checkerboard pattern, after 5-6 cm, retreating 1 cm from the vein in both directions.
With hemorrhoids, they are applied to the skin of the coccyx area and perianally; the patient at the same time lies on his side, pressing his legs to his stomach and lifting his upper buttock with his hand. After sucking the leeches, the buttock is released. The entrance to the anus must be tightly closed with cotton wool so that the leech does not penetrate into the rectum.
At eye diseases 1-3 leeches are applied to temporal region at the level of the eye. In this case, it is recommended to cover the ear with a cotton swab to prevent the leech from crawling into the inner ear.
When applying leeches, the patient should be in a comfortable position, lying or sitting. Preparation of the skin in the occupational therapy area is as follows: shave off the hair (if necessary), wipe the skin with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, then rub vigorously with cotton wool soaked in hot water changing the tampon 2-3 times. This is necessary to remove the remaining alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, as well as to flush blood to the skin. Before the procedure, polyethylene or oilcloth is laid under the patient so as not to wet the linen.
Having tilted the vessel with leeches, carefully take the leech with a swab moistened hot water, and, without removing it from the water, apply to the intended point. It is convenient to use a laboratory test tube into which a leech is caught from a jar. When biting through the skin, wavy movements of the body of the leech are observed; at this moment, move the vessel away and place a sterile napkin under the posterior end of the body of the leech, since it is possible to puncture the skin with the posterior suction cup, which will reduce the effectiveness of sucking. If the leech does not stick to the patient's clean and warm skin, another leech should be used. If the leech does not suck up blood well (“falls asleep”), the wave-like movements stop, they try to stimulate its activity by passing several times over the body of the leech with cotton moistened with warm water. If the leech falls off after a short sucking, it should not be reapplied.
Having sucked blood, a healthy leech falls off on its own into a substituted tray, where the blood from the wound also drains. If the leech does not fall off for a long time, it should be sprinkled with a pinch of table salt or touched on its head with a swab moistened with ethyl alcohol. You can't tear off the leech! Dead leeches are killed by lowering them into a vessel with formalin or ammonia.
After all the leeches fall off, a large sterile cotton swab is applied to the bleeding wounds and is not tightly tied with a sterile bandage for a day. When the dressing gets wet, you can apply more cotton wool and bandage it without changing the dressing. The bandage is changed every other day; if bleeding continues, it is stopped with a strong solution potassium permanganate or sterile pressure bandage. In rare cases, it is necessary to sew up the wound or apply a bracket.

Complications of hirudotherapy

Profuse bleeding when biting through the saphenous veins, hemorrhages in soft tissues(when leeches are applied to the eyelids, scrotum), suppuration in violation of asepsis, excruciating itching. In the latter case, suprastin, diazolin are prescribed in usual doses again.

Contraindications to hirudotherapy

Hemorrhagic syndrome, especially hemophilia, use of direct or indirect anticoagulants, anemia, sepsis, collapse, arterial hypotension, general exhaustion.

Leeches must be treated with respect, with tenderness, gratitude and trust.

Buy as many leeches as you need for one preventive or curative course. If this is a preventive use, then these are six sessions: in the first session, put three leeches on the liver, in the second - three on the coccyx, in the third - three on each kidney, in the fourth - three in the region of the heart, in the fifth - two leeches on mastoid processes, in the sixth session - two for the coccyx and three for the liver. Thus, a total of 24 leeches is obtained. With therapeutic purpose usually use 50-60 leeches.

Recommendation two - where to buy leeches or how to properly stock them

But let's say you live far from those places where you can buy leeches, or it is difficult for you to travel for them. In this case, you can stock up on leeches for future use. And if you're buying leeches months in advance for yourself and your loved ones, it's best to store them in the refrigerator. In the refrigerator, leeches do not digest blood, they seem to conserve it, which allows them to do without "nutrition" for up to three months.

But remember: the leeches with which you are going to treat households should be taken out of the refrigerator a few days before setting.

It is best to store leeches with which you are going to be treated in the near future on a windowsill that faces the sunny side. The leech jar should be clean and spacious. It is not recommended to store all 24 leeches in a half-liter jar. Try to create comfort and warmth for your leeches now, and they will definitely answer you a hundredfold.

Change the water in the jar as it becomes cloudy, about two to three times a week. Changing water for a leech is stressful, so try not to change temperature regime water. Leeches do not tolerate chlorine. Keep the water in which you are going to place the leeches for a day in an open container, preferably next to the jar in which your leeches frolic.

Each patient should have their own, personalized jar of leeches.

Some hirudotherapists put the same leech to different patients. We absolutely do not recommend doing this. But it is possible and even useful to put the same leech to yourself: the leech produces its own useful material, she "selects" a special secret of the salivary glands for each person. Therefore, setting the same leech a second time to the same person will bring no less, if not more effect than a new leech.

Just don't use the same leech more than three times. Feeding on your blood, the leech grows, and each new session it needs to drink more of your blood than the previous time. As you already know, the leech consumes 3 times more blood than it weighs itself. Therefore, after the third session, the leech should be discarded.

Recommendation six - on the effect of a positive mood on a leech

Each member of the family must take care of their own leeches. Leeches feel the mood of their "owner", his attitude towards them. If you treat your leeches gently and carefully, then they will bring you great benefits. Should not be in bad mood change leeches water. It is not recommended to sort things out in the room where the leeches are stored. Although, as you know, leeches are able to create a positive atmosphere, and scandals in the house where there is a jar of leeches practically disappear.

Be prepared for the fact that the leech can get sick and even die. And it’s not at all because you didn’t take good care of her. Do not be afraid, no leech diseases are dangerous for humans, but it is better to remove a dead leech from a jar. How to identify a dead leech? It will simply lie at the bottom of the jar without moving. Take it out and throw it away.

Do not worry about the fact that your leeches die: they give their lives for your health.

Quite often, leeches die because in human body there are a number of substances incompatible with the life of a leech, simply speaking, killing it. Some patients are so contaminated: with medicines, and with air, and with food, that all the leeches placed on them die after the first three sessions. And only after the fourth session, when the blood of such a patient has cleared a little, the leeches remain alive.

With shortness of breath, a semi-sitting position is convenient, on the side, at first when setting the leeches while sitting, after sucking them, the patient can lie down. Hemorrhoidal hemorrhage in sitting position may cause fainting. For some time, part of the patient's skin remains naked, and he should not catch a cold. An oilcloth should be placed under the part of the body on which leeches will be placed, and a sheet or towel should be placed on it so that linen and other things would not be soaked with water or stained with blood.

Leeches may not stick to the skin for a long time due to evaporation of the body, its coldness or sweating, hairiness or poor cleansing of various odors and applied medicines. Therefore, before setting leeches, the part of the body selected for the operation must be carefully and appropriately treated to remove any odorous substances superficially present on the skin, as well as microbes. For the same purpose, you should not use disinfectants, alcohol (as many recommend). In the presence of hairline it must be shaved off, the skin washed with warm water and unscented soap. Places with traces of ointments, patches, medicines or purulent compartments are treated, then rubbed with burdock (wooden) oil, washed again and wiped dry with cotton wool.

If the skin is cold, hard, you should put a hot, well-wrung out compress from water at a temperature of 50 - 55 ° C on it, or a poultice with hot or warm milk for a while until the patient begins to feel the loss of heat from it. After that, the skin is again wiped with hot water and wiped dry. This must be done not only to attract blood, but also to remove deep autoflora (saprophytes and pathogenic forms) from its inner layers, which we were able to fully verify by applying the microbial seeding method according to the method of N. Klemparskaya. Another way is to rub the body with a soft flannel until the skin turns red and feels warm.

Ways to cleanse leeches

An incision on the body of a leech

This is one of ancient ways. It consisted in the fact that a small incision was made with a scalpel on the back of an animal that had just fallen off the human body in order to clean the leech by releasing the sucked blood. The method, it was believed, is easy to perform, it is not harmful to leeches and makes them soon (after 8-10 days the wound heals) capable of new use. We consider this method time-consuming and inhumane.

In cases of prefix a large number leeches should be calculated in advance so that the interval between their falling away and purification is about a quarter of an hour. To do this, it is better to first attach one half of the leeches and clean them, and then let in and clean the rest.

Purification of leeches with wine, beer, kvass

Pure grape red or white wine or beer were considered excellent means for purifying leeches. They were immersed in a mixture of equal parts water, or two parts wine and one part water or beer. Submerged animals immediately began to vomit the sucked blood from themselves. After cleansing, the leeches are dipped in clean fresh water, which is changed every day. In another modification of this method, leeches were placed in a mixture of one part wine and three parts water and left in it for 5-10 hours until it became noticeably slimy and bloody. The animals taken out of the mixture were doused with tepid water. They seemed to be very weak and as if dead, but then, washed once or twice with coldish water, they immediately cheered up and after two or three weeks they became again fit for use.

Use of charcoal

Attached leeches are planted in a dry place prepared from fine charcoal powder. Crawling over it and contracting, they vomit the sucked blood from themselves. Then they are washed and for one or two days they are allowed into a container with fresh water mixed with enough large quantity pieces of crushed charcoal for the secondary eruption of the blood remaining in the body. After taking them out and washing them, they put them in a jar with clean water. This method easily and well clears mucus from leeches, and they do not slip between the fingers when blood is squeezed out of them.

The use of salts and acids

To cleanse leeches, alum, table salt, alkalis, weak acids, vinegar, and even wormwood decoction are used. We bring to your attention three ways to cleanse leeches from blood:

1. The dead leeches are placed in a mixture of one part of tepid water and "/4 parts of vinegar for a quarter of an hour. From the moment when her further stay in a bath with a similar composition of water becomes tiring for her, she comes to such a state that she can easily be felt fingers and easily squeeze out the remaining blood in it.After cleansing, the leech is lowered into a vessel, up to 2/3 filled with water, on the bottom of which fine river sand is poured.The container must be covered with a woolen cloth.

2. This method is similar to the first one, with a slight difference: leeches that have fallen off the body are placed in a container with the same solution of vinegar, covered with a piece of canvas soaked in the same solution on top, and kept for 5 minutes, periodically shaking the container slightly so that the animals are immersed in liquid with head, or until their efforts to crawl out cease. At the same time, they begin to move rapidly, contract and spew blood from themselves until they fall into a relaxed state. This method is usually sufficient to empty the leech, but if not, then the procedure, especially for large animals, should be repeated. Leeches taken out of the acidic bath are rinsed with clean water at a temperature of 19 ° C.

If the leech is sluggish, relaxed, the remaining blood should be squeezed out of it, but if it is vigorous, smartly rolls up into a ball and you can still feel blood in it, then for such individuals it is necessary to repeat the acid bath procedure, but only for 2-4 minutes, until it will not become lethargic. At the same time, it was found that substances that are especially irritating can have a harmful effect on leeches, which is recognized by the wrinkles that form on their body, and make them sick, which is why they die. Such leeches should be planted in another vessel; only a few of them recover and become recyclable. And so the most reliable and promising way is the following.

3. Purification of leeches with a solution of sea (table) salt: one part of the salt is dissolved in ten parts of water, the attached leeches are lowered for 3-4 minutes. So that they can be soaked in this liquid, the container is periodically shaken, stirring the animals. After releasing their blood and staining the water, the leeches are transplanted into the same, but fresh solution, where they are purified a second time. After washing, the leeches are placed in clean, frequently changed water.

Caring for blood-free leeches

Caring for leeches after cleaning them is not difficult: they are washed and placed in a jar of settled clean water or a small amount of sugar is added to it. This is where the leeches are kept, changing the sweetened water daily for a week, or until the mucus is separated from them, or until the water turns brown-red. The jar is periodically washed with water and sand. Those leeches that adhere well to the walls of the vessel and quickly curl up into a ball are healthy - they can be stored for a long time.

It has been proven by repeated experiments that properly cleaned and properly stored leeches are fit for new use; they just need to be given time to mature and grow stronger. If after three prefixes and purifications it is seen that the animals are weakened, they need more time for relax.

And yet, the question of the time for the reuse of blood-purified leeches is highly controversial and difficult to resolve, because in each specific case determined by the natural ability of the animal. An interval of 5-10 days to 2-4 weeks is considered sufficient for leeches to rest. Another leech can be used again after 2 - 3 months, and another - after six months. The experience of Bertrand, the physician of the Egyptian pasha, testifies that leeches were used after cleaning every three days for three years. Moreover, he used a method that combined squeezing blood and cleaning, or vice versa, in the reverse order.

When used to purify acids, the skin of the leech should come back into normal condition, except when there is no right process molting, that is, when leeches have depressions and interceptions on the sides and other parts of the body, which characterizes the onset of a nodular disease from which they for the most part are dying. In these cases, it is useful to shorten the time period mentioned above and apply leeches after 6 days.

Why you need to clean leeches from blood

Attention! Reuse of leeches is allowed only at home. When you use them only for yourself and your family members. If you are undergoing treatment in a clinic, make sure that you are given sterile leeches from a biofarm that have not been previously used. On the this moment it has not been proven that leeches carry infection from person to person, however, when dealing with blood, caution never hurts!

An attached leech differs from an unattached leech only shortly after sticking to a human body: it becomes swollen, round, lethargic and clumsy. True, these signs are not entirely true, because old or fertilized leeches before laying a cocoon are also heavy and clumsy. Saturated leeches, as they fall away from the body on their own, placed in a container of water, fall to the bottom and freeze in exhaustion from gluttony. Being in this state for a long time unfit for consumption, they need permanent care otherwise just kept in the water will soon die. If the sucked blood is artificially released from the attached leech, then by no means can it be distinguished from the unattached one.

The feeling of hunger can only return to them when their alimentary canal is either completely empty or their body contains little nutrients. To achieve this goal in nature there is a process of digestion, and in artificial conditions- various cleaning methods.

It has also been noted that those leeches that fall away from the human body faster than others, not completely satiated, recover faster and are easier to cleanse. Such leeches get sick less than those that are too saturated (like a person who is characterized by greed for food and gluttony).

In ancient times, it was noticed that a leech saturated with blood is easily released from it under the action of any irritating or absorbable substances. Crawling over wood ash, sawdust, fine sand, it very soon begins to contract and vomit most of the absorbed blood from itself. Becoming hungry, the leech is ready for a new saturation. It is on this natural property leeches self-cleanse and methods of their artificial purification were founded. Long time they were kept secret, but numerous experiments by scientists in Russia and abroad brought them into wide use everywhere.

Used the most various tricks: exposing the body of a leech to various substances (in dry or dissolved form), squeezing blood out of the body of an animal, a combination of both methods, and even incising the body of a leech to release blood. The methods seem to be simple, and at the same time, the difficulty lies in the fact that their wrong choice and application in the prognostic plan is fraught with negative results repeated use of leeches, or, in the worst case, lead to the death of animals. At the same time, it should be clearly understood: in order to cleanse the attachment leeches in any way, they must be processed immediately after falling away from the human body, while the blood has not yet coagulated, because after a day it, although it still remains liquid, is already thicker and darker than the one that is squeezed out immediately . Later, it is more difficult to do this, the blood from the mouth of a leech is erupted in shreds, in the form of pieces of vermicelli or particles like a tar-like mass, sawdust(in all cases with a very unpleasant odor).

Seasoned Experience

It is difficult to understand why Duremar was among the negative characters. This holy man, in the disgusting working conditions of the swamp, collected medical preparations. Now science calls the use of leeches "hirudotherapy" and recommends it against dozens of diseases. We asked Kyiv hirudotherapists about the treatment with bloodsuckers, and then tried it on ourselves.

Elena Los

To experience the healing suction, I went, I went to the hirudotherapy room at hospital №3 [Petra Zaporozhets, 26]. Here a surgeon retrained as a hirudotherapist takes the highest category Leonid Vladimirovich Sarzhan. “If I had known about the benefits of leeches, I would have dealt with them earlier, because they heal better, are much cheaper, easier and less traumatic. This is a new direction of medicine, although they have been used for treatment for many millennia. There are some nuances, but no need to be afraid. It must be thought that the leech will heal any disease. Leeches feel everything. When you are afraid, she will not suck, you will not force ".

leeches - barometers, float from above to good weather

In any article about leeches, beauties of the 18th-19th centuries are mentioned, before the ball they hung leeches behind their ears so that “the chest would rise, the eyes would shine, the skin would shine and you could dance tirelessly.” So I boldly offered my ears for a bite. It turned out that the ear would become inflamed from it, and the bandage was too massive to be comfortably worn on the head. Therefore, they chose the safest place - the elbow bend. It was terrible to colic in the stomach, but the leeches were capricious, did not want to bite.

When I was already tired of being afraid and wanted to finish the editorial task, the leech descended to my flesh. It hurts more than a mosquito sting, but not as painful as a bee sting. A minute later, I felt in my hand only small impulses, as if from electric current. After 5 minutes, except for the wave-like moving worm on the arm, nothing reminded me of the experienced test.

correspondent Elena and her tame leech

After 20 minutes, my leech ate, 3 times increased in size, they put some kind of smelly cotton wool under her “nose”, she unhooked her teeth and reluctantly separated from me. A bandage of cotton swabs and half of the female sanitary napkin, everyone was tied on top with a band-aid and a bandage, because leech enzymes thin the blood and the wound will flow for another day. The leech was killed, as here they are considered a disposable tool.

drunken leech

wound after bite

Both of my consulting physicians do not recommend using leeches on their own. Nothing very terrible will happen, but bleeding may open. The main thing is in no case to tear the leech away from yourself by force: it can leave part of the teeth in the wound or “spit it back out.” bad blood”, which will lead to a slight inflammation.

Caring for blood-free leeches

Caring for leeches after cleaning them is not difficult: they are washed and placed in a jar of settled clean water or a small amount of sugar is added to it. This is where the leeches are kept, changing the sweetened water daily for a week, or until the mucus is separated from them, or until the water turns brown-red. The jar is periodically washed with water and sand. Those leeches that adhere well to the walls of the vessel and quickly curl up into a ball are healthy - they can be stored for a long time.

Ways to cleanse leeches: an incision on the body of a leech

This is one of the oldest ways. It consisted in the fact that a small incision was made with a scalpel on the back of an animal that had just fallen off the human body in order to clean the leech by releasing the sucked blood. The method was considered to be easy to perform, not harmful to leeches and makes them soon (after 8-10 days the wound heals) capable of new use. We consider this method time-consuming and inhumane.

Ways to cleanse leeches: squeezing blood

This operation should be carried out by a doctor or an experienced leech handler under his supervision. This method of purification may seem simple, but in fact it requires special skill and experience in execution. Soulless, rude squeezing of blood weakens the leech and can even lead to its death. It should be done immediately after the leech is saturated and falls away from the human body, without exposing it to any influences (which can lead to injury) or after applying any of the above methods of artificial purification.

Purification of leeches with wine, beer, kvass

Pure grape red or white wine or beer were considered excellent means for purifying leeches. They were immersed in a mixture of equal parts water, or two parts wine and one part water or beer. Submerged animals immediately began to vomit the sucked blood from themselves. After cleansing, the leeches are dipped in clean fresh water, which is changed every day. In another modification of this method, leeches were placed in a mixture of one part wine and three parts water and left in it for 5-10 hours until it became noticeably slimy and bloody. The animals taken out of the mixture were doused with tepid water. They seemed to be very weak and as if dead, but then, washed once or twice with coldish water, they immediately cheered up and after two or three weeks they became again fit for use.

Ways to cleanse leeches: using charcoal

Attached leeches are planted in a dry place prepared from fine charcoal powder. Crawling over it and contracting, they vomit the sucked blood from themselves. Then they are washed and for one or two days they are put into a container with fresh water mixed with a fairly large number of pieces of crushed charcoal for the secondary eruption of the blood remaining in the body. After taking them out and washing them, they put them in a jar of clean water. This method easily and well clears mucus from leeches, and they do not slip between the fingers when blood is squeezed out of them.

Methods for cleansing leeches from blood: the use of salts and acids

The most easy-to-use methods of cleansing leeches by exposure to various substances (at the choice of a doctor). A leech that has fallen away from the human body on its own should be placed on the bottom of a faience plate and lightly sprinkled on the back with one of the following substances from the tip of a scalpel or knife: wood ash, table salt, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), emetic root (ipecacuanna), tobacco. When the leech releases blood from itself, it should be washed, planted in an empty cup, sprinkled with sugar, washed again and stored for the next prefix. For the same purpose, leeches can be fumigated with a stream of tobacco smoke, sprayed with cold water, sprinkled with lemon juice or even urine. The leech was irritated even by pinching the tail.

Attention! Reuse of leeches is allowed only at home. When you use them only for yourself and your family members. If you are undergoing treatment in a clinic, make sure that you are given sterile leeches from a biofarm that have not been previously used. At the moment it has not been proven that leeches are a carrier of infection from person to person, however, when we are dealing with blood, caution never hurts!