Helloooo, I am writing a story that's set roughly between Middle Ages and Renaissance. I have a character who has been sliced fairly superficially from collarbone to bellybutton, and has a small stab wound in his side. He's been using the same bandages for 2 days, with minimal washing. How long would it take for his wounds to get infected? Once infected, how long before it goes septic, if at all? I would like my story to be realistic, so if anyone with a medical background happens upon this, I'd appreciate any feedback, be it an answer or a place to find it. Let me know if I can provide any more details!
DH? Dear husband? You have some leeway in how you write it. If the wound was fairly clean in the first place, and the bandages were clean and dry, the fact the bandages weren't changed would not contribute to infection for a few days. In some cases when you don't want to disturb sutures after a repair, you don't change the dressings for a few days. I've even seen bandages and a splint put on over them which needed to stay in place for a week before the first dressing change. Wet dressings act like a wick, pulling organisms into the wound instead of keeping them out. On the other hand if you want infection to set right in, 24 hours is sufficient time if the wound starts out dirty and doesn't get cleaned up. It could be pretty nasty within a few days.
In the conditions he's in--walking alone in a hot, dense forest--I'd say that the wounds would not be seeing much cleaning, if any. He gets the wounds and, as he walks for three days, he's been taking the same bandages on and off again without cleaning them. I'm planning on having both be infected, at least to some degree by the time the story circles back to him--as long as that's realistic.