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[Jundavr]

A giant squirrel got inside my fort and scratched a dwarf's head and finger, tearing apart the chin whiskers and the hair, along with smashing a nail. The head was later sutured (by fairly inexperienced doctors).
In another occasion, while gelding rams (because why not?) the gelder took an unlucky kick on the head, tearing apart the upper lip and chin whiskers. Again, the head was sutured.

Throughout the years, I've noticed that my water reservoir was steadily decreasing, even though I had enough booze. It turns out that these two dwarves are taking seasonal baths due to pus accumulating on their heads, which Dwarf Therapist then showed as being infected.

What exactly are the effects of infections? I've read that they slowly deplete the dwarf's blood, but DFhack's gm-master shows that their blood is always at maximum, even though one of them has a meager 368 recuperation stat.

Do hair wounds ever heal? Looking at the health tab on these two dwarves' status screen shows that the hair and whiskers are still torn apart, after DECADES have passed since the wound. These parts shown as injured never received treatment, only the head, as a general part, got the sutures. Also, the one with an injured finger still hasn't recovered his nail, nor ever got treatment on it.

What are the benefits of more skilled doctors? I'm under the impression that unskilled diagnosticians/suturers/etc perform the exact same as legendary ones. All the wiki says is that higher skill reduces chance of infections, and I'm not even sure if it's during or after the procedure.

[PatrikLundell]

I think infection results in a steady blood loss, but usually the regeneration rate is higher than the loss rate, resulting in no net harm (apart from extra baths).

There are some kinds of tissue that does not heal. I believe cartilage and nails are among those, and probably hair as well.

I can't comment on doctor skill effects.

[Leonidas]

My guesses:

1. A wounded unwashed dwarf has a certain chance per day of becoming infected. Maybe a low-skill doctor also has a chance of causing an infection.

2. An infected dwarf periodically rolls to see if the infection heals, kills the dwarf, or stays unresolved. In the current version, they mostly stay unresolved. It's probably influenced by disease resistance.

3. Only spinal injuries never heal.

4. It's a known bug that injured dwarves who consider themselves healed will never go back to the hospital for lingering injuries. In the past, players would deliberately re-injure dwarves to force them back into the hospital, but right now that's probably too dangerous to be worthwhile. I've seen dwarves with smashed fingers live for years with no adverse effects.

[PatrikLundell]

It's probable that a low skilled doctor is less skilled in preventing infection, possibly both in the cleaning phase and in the healing phase. That's a bit of an argument over semantics, though.

[FantasticDorf]

If you let them wash with soap for 'soapy baths', it should help them auto-disinfect themselves from the pus and give some positive thoughts. Normally i install a bathhouse around (basin with grates in 2x2's directly above the water) in a 'i' activity drinking zone restricted through orders, regulated by a screw pump & bridge water release 'plughole'.

• The specific definition of 'dirt' that accumulates on dwarfs is called the 'grime' meter which tracks infection risk and how often they need to wash by calculating every bit of severe dirt on BP, them spewing pus all over themselves is probably a in-built system so that they clean up to ensure better recovery or get progressively worse over time.

Letting doctors loiter in a guild hall is pretty much advised like letting them do scholarly work in libraries used to be to ensure they're not under-trained for first-response, eventually they can cross-train each other or form a guild to keep the tight knit group of doctors on task.

[Leonidas]

Letting doctors loiter in a guild hall is pretty much advised like letting them do scholarly work in libraries used to be to ensure they're not under-trained for first-response, eventually they can cross-train each other or form a guild to keep the tight knit group of doctors on task.

If you assign your doctors as scholars, be prepared to un-assign them when someone gets injured. Scholars can get absorbed in their studies and leave a patient lying in the hospital for a week or more.