When to Seek Treatment for a Jellyfish Sting in Ocean City, NJ

Jellyfish make great attractions in an aquarium or art display, but jellyfish encounters at the seashore can spell big trouble for careless beachgoers. Below the eye-catching, bulbous jellyfish bodies are long tentacles loaded with barbed stingers that can inject the unwary with venom. The results? Typically, the victim will experience immediate pain, irritation, and red or purplish marks at the sting site, and later symptoms may include burning sensations, itching, and swelling. However, some jellyfish stings can be more severe and require emergency room treatment. If you or a loved one experiences nausea and vomiting, headache, muscle pain, breathing difficulty, drowsiness, or fainting after being stung by a jellyfish, you should call 911 or head to the nearest emergency room for treatment.

For most people, though, jellyfish stings will respond well to home remedies or, even better, to treatment from the highly trained medical practitioners at Cape Regional Urgent Care. Our Marmora walk-in clinic is located only about 5 miles from Ocean City, New Jersey. We offer short wait times and provide treatment for nonemergency jellyfish stings and other non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries during extended hours every day of the week, including weekends. Patients of all ages, from infants to older adults, are welcome.

How to Treat a Nonemergency Jellyfish Sting

While you’re still at the beach, it’s a good idea to rinse the jellyfish sting site with seawater. Other treatments include:

• Using tweezers to remove barbs from the skin
• Soaking the affected area in hot (not scalding) water for 20 minutes
• Applying ice packs to reduce swelling
• Taking antihistamines or corticosteroids to reduce skin reaction and medication to ease pain

Not All Jellyfish Stings Have Obvious Culprits

Ocean City beachgoers are apt to encounter several types of jellyfish during the summer, and they’re not always easy to recognize. For example, thimble jellyfish are a tiny species that measures about a half-inch in diameter. The juvenile jellyfish of this species are even smaller—about the size and shape of specks of pepper—but they’re capable of inflicting pain and itchiness when they’re trapped in a swimsuit against a person’s skin.

This type of jellyfish sting is known as “seabather’s eruption.” The toxins released when these tiny jellyfish sting you can cause a skin rash to develop within a few hours of swimming. The rash is likely to consist of small, red, and extremely itchy bumps, but those bumps may later turn into blisters. Although the rash is most likely to develop on parts of your body that were covered by your swimsuit, it may also occur in your armpits and other areas.

If you suspect you or your child has seabather’s eruption, the home remedies to try are similar to other types of jellyfish sting treatment, except there wouldn’t be any barbs to extract. Additionally, you should remove your bathing suit and wash it in hot water to kill any larvae that are trapped in the fabric.

However, a skin rash can be a symptom of many different health conditions, and it’s typically not easy to identify a jellyfish sting as the cause. At Cape Regional Urgent Care, our board-certified doctors are highly experienced at diagnosing jellyfish stings and other allergic reactions, which is key to providing you with the most effective treatment plan to ease your symptoms and speed your recovery.

Professional Jellyfish Sting Treatment Provides Peace of Mind

At Cape Regional Urgent Care, we know exactly what to do for a jellyfish sting to help you or your child feel better as soon as possible. We also have an on-site prescription medication dispensary, which often allows us to provide the appropriate medication to alleviate painful symptoms during your visit to our clinic, so you won’t have to make another stop at a pharmacy.

Our rates are affordable, and we accept many health insurance plans. For more information about the jellyfish sting treatment and other medical services available at Cape Regional Urgent Care near Ocean City, contact us today.