tick season fyi

[bandgsmama]

there was a young girl that passed away from rocky mountain spotted fever in the area recently, so i wanted to share this.

if your child gets a tick bite, save the tick & put it in the freezer (we had in the past flushed the ticks or burnt them with a match). & if they start having flu-like symptoms, call the dr. right away! either the health dept or hospital can analyze the tick to see if it is carrying anything.

[LMPC]

Thanks for the reminder. We have loads of ticks in our backyard and I always check DD and myself for ticks when we come in. But that's great advice to stick the tick in the freezer if we find one on us!

[brittone2]

I pulled a big one off of the back of DD"s earlobe this morning. Yuck. I saw it when brushing her hair.

We had them all of the time when we were living in NC. We had a large lot that had woods surrounding the yard on all sides, and it was a tick haven.

[calv]

stupid ? but do you squish it and kill it and then freeze or put it in some sort of ziploc bag and the cold will kill it?

[g-mama]

My 10yo just had a tick on him on Friday. We checked daily and it was clear until last night, it had the red bullseye around it. Took him to the nighttime pediatrician and he is on antibiotics now. I keep praying it will all be okay and not Lyme Disease.

I was sitting outside the other day at his soccer game and in the course of one hour, I found THREE different ticks on my legs!!

Check yourselves and your kids often!

[maestramommy]

Whoa I did not know the Fever was fatal! Scary. We check all the time now, ever since I found a tick on myself and Shep.

[MSWR0319]

DH just got Lyme disease over the weekend. They told us often the ticks that transmit are so small you can't even see them. So check what you think are freckles too! We never saw a tick on DH and he checks every night.

[citymama]

We just found a tick behind DD1s ear after a visit to the countryside last weekend. It doesn't appear to have bitten her - we did a tick check soon after we came indoors, no visible bite on her skin, and when DH squished it there was no blood. However, we just flushed it down the toilet - there's no Lyme disease around here and I didn't really think to save it. Thanks for the PSA and I would encourage everyone to do tick checks - we were just in an orchard for about 15 minutes, and 3 ticks managed to get on us in that time!

[brittone2]

DH just got Lyme disease over the weekend. They told us often the ticks that transmit are so small you can't even see them. So check what you think are freckles too! We never saw a tick on DH and he checks every night.

Yep, they are teeny tiny. BUt you can get ROcky Mountain Spotted Fever from the bigger ticks. When we were in NC I think DH had STARI. He had a weird rash and they were worried about RMSF, but symptoms didn't really fit well. A year or so later we read about STARI and we think that may have been what he had. 95% of the ticks we got in NC were "lone star" ticks, which don't transmit Lyme but can transmit STARI:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/stari/

STARI can cause a bull's eye but doesn't have the possible chronic health effects of Lyme (or isn't thought to at this time).

[LarsMal]

DH just got Lyme disease over the weekend. They told us often the ticks that transmit are so small you can't even see them. So check what you think are freckles too! We never saw a tick on DH and he checks every night.

Yep, the one that gave L LD was a tiny one on his ear. I thought it was a scab because he had hit his head around the same time. The tick was still there when he got the rash.

Make sure to check in and around the ears. I've found a couple up in the top fold of L and C's ears. YUCK!!

[chlobo]

Never, ever, ever squish a tick.

And I highly recommend that everyone buy a tool designed to remove ticks. Its very important not to squish the tick while trying to remove it. If you do, the might regurgitate its stomach into the tick bite and that could transmit lyme. You also do not want to use a lighted match or a glob of goo or anything like that because again, it might cause the tick to regurgitate into the bite. You want to make sure that you get the entire tick out.

If you get a bulls eye rash in conjunction with a tick bite it IS lyme disease and you want to get it treated immediately. If you find an engorged tick you might want to consider abx before symptoms show up. the best treatment for lyme disease is the treatment given the earliest. Gives you the best chance of recovery.

Here is a website that describes the various tools out there to remove ticks. He is selling tick forceps but it also describes the other tools out there that can be found at lots of places, including Amazon. I have never used the forceps. We have the cup with the notch in it and find that it works fine, even with small, nymph sized ticks. I recommend carrying one around with you as quick removal is also key.

http://www.placervillevet.com/ticktools.htm

Once bitten, we take the tick and put it in a ziplock bag, date it and indicate where it was taken from. Then we can reference it later if we need to.

[maestramommy]

Dh has a tick removing tool (I see from the link it's a tick slider), and I've seen these spoon-like things with a V cut out. However, I have used my own eyebrow tweezers in a pinch to remove ticks from a dog. One of Dh's cousin is a Dermo and she has had to remove ticks from patients. How she does it she pulls gently. The tick tends to clamp down. Then she releases, which makes the tick relax, after which she can just pull it out. It just slides out. What we've done is something like that, pull gently, then release, then pull again, then release. At some point the tick relaxes and it pops out intact. It takes some patience, which is really tough when the tick is already engorged and your instinct is to yank it out asap!

Like Chlobo said, don't use any of the other ways (petroleum jelly, match, burnt needle, alchohol swab). They will only irritate the tick and cause them to vomit into you.

[mrshalco]

DH had a tick on him the two weeks ago. We aren't in the habit of doing tick checks since we've never had a problem before. He happened to scratch his hip and felt something and asked if it was a skin tag. I pretty much jumped through my own skin because the bugger was going to town trying to get further in (or whatever it is that it does!)!! I quickly looked online and used blunt nose tweezers to pull it out. I got it all and he has not had any symptoms.

Yesterday I found a tick on my pants (by the button) when I went to go the bathroom. I feel I was very lucky that it hadn't attached because it had been 6.5 hours since I was outside and figure it spent that time walking up and around my pants but never bit or attached itself to me!!! PHEW!!

[Toba]

This concerns me because this is the direct opposite that our walk-in clinic told us.

A few weeks ago, DS came in to snuggle and I was rubbing his head. He has really thick blonde hair that's trimmed sort of shortish. At the crown of his head (directly in a calick DS has) I felt a bump. Upon further inspection, I realized that it was a dog tick and was pretty slim so it couldn't have been on him very long. I screamed for DH who looked it up online, which told us to take a pair of tweezers and gently but with constant pulling to get the tick out. When he got it out, it looked like there was a tiny piece of its head or "beak" still attached to DS. Consulting online again, it said to seek medical assistance asap if there's anything left of the tick in the body. Our pedi is an hour away (and it was about to close), so I called my very long term PCP (who is an internist and doesn't treat children) and asked if he could please just look at his head to see if the tick was all the way out ... I know he would have if he knew it was me, but the nurse didn't give my name and I was told it was out of his scope and isn't covered under his malpractice insurance (this doctor is also a specialist in Lyme's Disease, so I was doubly mad).

Anyway, we decide to take him to the local walk-in clinic, with the still alive tick in a ziplock bag. He told us there is VERY little chance that he would get anything from a dog tick in our area. He put on magnifiers and tried to remove the piece (which we still aren't even sure if it was part of the tick) and it wouldn't move. He told us that it was probably a calcification, but didn't think it had been in his head for more than 24 hours by the look of the tick. We were leery about it being a calcification already in less than 24 hours. He told us to destroy the tick because they don't normally do tests on them anymore (DS was so mad at the tick that he took a 15 lb. sledgehammer and squashed it in the bag ... lol). He hasn't shown any weird symptoms since it happened (about 2 weeks). Were we wrong in listening to the doctor when he said to destroy it?? And what are the symptoms of Rocky Mountain Fever?? We live on the Jersey Shore but are definitely in the Pine Barrens too.

[octmom]

DS had a tick on him last night. It was embedded, but not engorged at all, so it probably wasn't there very long. It wasn't there when he bathed the night before. I called the pediatrician's office this morning and the nurse told me that they don't prescribe antibiotics unless there is a rash or a fever. If either of those things happen, we're supposed to bring him in. We saved the tick in a ziplock bag, but I didn't put it in the freezer.

[wencit]

DS1 had an engorged tick on him a couple months ago. I did manage to save it, but the pediatrician's office said they don't routinely run tests on ticks anymore for Lyme Disease because the tests aren't really accurate (I can't remember if they give false positives or false negatives), and you have to pay for the lab work out of your own pocket. DH ended up destroying it. (No idea what he did with it, I just knew I wanted it out of my house and DEAD, LOL!) Maybe different practices have different policies.

[maestramommy]

DS1 had an engorged tick on him a couple months ago. I did manage to save it, but the pediatrician's office said they don't routinely run tests on ticks anymore for Lyme Disease because the tests aren't really accurate (I can't remember if they give false positives or false negatives), and you have to pay for the lab work out of your own pocket. DH ended up destroying it. (No idea what he did with it, I just knew I wanted it out of my house and DEAD, LOL!) Maybe different practices have different policies.

Erica, ticks and Lyme have been a hot topic on my local yahoo group because someone's daughter was diagnosed with it months after she kept getting sick and showing symptoms (they never saw a tick). Our town also seems to be a hotbed for Lyme. I know several people who've had it. The test ARE accurate, but they aren't very sensitive. I'm surprised your ped's office didn't at least order 24 hours worth of of antbx because around here the protocol is one or two rounds for antbx for tick exposure, esp. if the tick was engorged. However, you are right the protocol is different everywhere, and that makes it very difficult to diagnose and treat.

I would save the tick in the future, just in case.
I'm glad your DS didn't get sick. And FYI, you don't always get a rash.

[chlobo]

There are two tests that are most frequently used for lyme testing. One is a screening test and if that's positive they go on to do the Western Blot. The problem is that the screening test isn't very sensitive to it can miss some cases. The Western Blot is more sensitive but there is debate about what constitutes a positive test so the interpretation of that second test is different dependent on who is interpreting it. Why they bother with the first test is beyond me. They should just do the Western Blot.

That said, tests can still be negative for a number of reasons even though the person has lyme. They could be mounting a poor immune response and the #s aren't high enough to detect or the person could not have had lyme long enough for it to show up on tests.

There is another test that is not widely known that supposedly is much more accurate than the other two tests. It is also covered by insurance. However, if your doctor is not familiar with it then they probably will not order it. You can read more about it here:

https://www.neurorelief.com/uploads/content_files/mylymebrochure.pdf

Lyme should be diagnosed by SYMPTOMS and not *just* test results. If you have been bitten by a tick, live in a lyme endemic area and show flu-like symptoms (or other odd symptoms) within 30 days, you probably should be treated for lyme. Not everyone will get a rash. Its not possible to tell how long a tick has been attached just by looking at it. A tick can transmit lyme, even if its only been attached for a few hours if it has recently bit someone else.

I don't mean to be alarmist but with lyme I wouldn't fool around.

Prevention is critical. There is lots of information online about how to make your property less prone to ticks. There are also some products on the market aimed at reducing tick populations in your yard. There are also chemicals you can spray to eliminate ticks in your yard. Deer are not the only problem. Small rodents, especially deer footed mice are a big problem as they play host to the smallest of ticks and are actually the transmitters of lyme to the ticks.

Here's an article about making your yard less prone to ticks:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1832281/how_to_reduce_ticks_in_your_yard_without.html?cat= 6

Here is one product you can deploy in your yard to help reduce the nymphs that feed on mice:

http://www.ticktubes.com/

Here are some of the chemicals that you can spray to kill ticks in your yard (note that most also kill beneficial insects, including bees, as well)

Telstar
Tempo
Pyrethrin (related to permethrin, which is available to spray on clothing)

If you are going to be out in an area where there might be ticks, looks into getting a spray specifically geared towards ticks, whether its natural or chemical. There is a product called permethrin which can be applied to clothing (read directions carefully and note that it is TOXIC TO CATS) that is going to be worn outdoors.

I believe ticks are the scourge of this decade and that the government is doing nearly enough to address the problem at a national or local level.

[liz]

This is a timely thread for us. We recently found ticks on DH and me. In DH's case, it was attached. Yuck!

Thanks for the info chlobo. I think we are going to have to be very proactive in getting rid of ticks even though I hate to use chemicals. The other tread about mosquitos has me feeling very leary as well. We live in EEE and lyme country.