Disclaimer- I am a Veterinarian, not an MD so take my advice with a grain of salt(not that you haven't already gotten a bunch of good advice)
Stingrays are of a family of marine animal known as Chondrichthyeans which means they are 100% cartilaginous. They, and they're stinger contains no bone. The stinger is cartilage, which is worse, because as it hits and is pulled out(which is most often the case in accidental stingings of humans), small pieces of the cartilage can be left under the skin. If this happens, you're looking at long-term pain until it is either broken down by your body, rejected and ejected by your body, or flushed out by the ER doc. As you've been told, the barb is coated with slime, which is a natural irritant, but which also allows bacteria to stick to it. The slime is a proteinaceous material, which is why the old fisherman's trick of dunking it in hot water may help. Heat denatures protein. Also, the heat of the water, may kill certain bacteria(by no means not even close to all bacteria).
If seen by an MD, they would likely give you a tetanus shot, eventhough it's not really needed. Tetanus(lockjaw) is caused by the bacteria Clostridium tetani, which does not live in saltwater. The bacteria is a soil contaminant that lives on anything on land, hence you get a shot if you step on a nail. Most Drs give you the shot even if not really needed if you haven't had one in 10 years to cover their asses, and cause all its going to hurt is your arm.
What you do need to worry about is other bacteria. Coliforms(E. coli) and its friends are the ones you'd most likely be infected by. Although rare, a very serious infection would be Vibriosis, which is what makes you sick when you eat bad oysters. If injected, it can cause gangrene, or blood-borne infection(sepsis). Of course there's plenty of other bacteria that could also infect. You'd likely get Rxd plain old Amoxillin or maybe Cipro depending on how likely the Dr thought serious infection was.
The redness and heat you're feeling is likely just inflammation, which is not a big deal. But, it COULD also mean infection which is bad. You could take advil or aleve, and watch it, or even soak it in warm water and epsom salts to alleviate inflammation. What you really SHOULD do is go to the Dr as everyone else suggested, cause the last thing you need is to be layed up for weeks cause you need surgery to remove infected tissue.
I hate going to the Dr, and often just treat myself since I have access to antibiotics, but if this would have happened to me, I would have been in the ER that nite getting it flushed out heavily, and getting the right antibiotics.
Sorry for such a long post and the unsolicited advice, but I thought a good explanation may get you to the Dr.
Hope it heals quickly, and try to lay off the Steve Irwin impersonations in the future(was that joke in bad taste?). Good Luck
Richard
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