To treat or not? - Ticks

[JR]

I have a question for all you tick experts in here.

I found a tick (deer?) on my leg on tuesday evening after being out in the whites until monday morning, then hiking around southern NH monday evening. It was burrowed in but was not enlarged from blood (still flat) and there was no blood around the bite area. The entire tick was removed with forceps. No rash, etc.

The question is:
a) is this actually a deer tick
b) if it is, should I go get antibiotics now, or wait until (if?) I have symptoms?

Thanks for the advice,
JR

if this works here is a pic of the little bugger...each mark on the scale = 1mm

 

[dr_wu002]

You're probably going to get a lot of the standard (and probably best) reply: go see a doctor for advice. At best people here might be able to give you a positive id if it's a deer tick or not. I can't (but it's a cool picture). However, beyond that most of what you'll get here is anecdotal -- not completely useless but it's still not going to help you correctly diagnose your situation and at worst it might lead to more confusion. Doctors can also sometimes be incorrect maggoty jerks and get things wrong but having an MD at least is a start. Find a doctor that hikes. Bring the tick too -- maybe they can test the critter.

-Dr. Wu

 

[DougPaul]

It supposedly takes 24 or more hours for the tick to transmit lyme disease. Don't know about the other tick-borne diseases.

The tests for lyme disease aren't very accurate. I'm not sure there is much a doc could say in the absence of evidence--he would likely just be guessing.

IMO, your choice what to do.

Of course if your get the rash, then you have clear evidence and should see a doc. (The rash will disappear with time--photograph its progression for the doc.)

<#include standard_caveat> I'm not a medical doctor.

Doug

 

[Waumbek]

I doubt that an M.D. would treat you with antibiotics if there are no symptoms. Most likely, you removed the tick before it would have had time to transmit anything to you. I'm taking two or three off every week. I do frequent enough checks to know that I'm aware when they start to burrow in.

What's the HTML code for "but I'm not an M.D. and this is not medical advice...."?

 

[skimom]

Having a child that contracted Lime last year ....

Her test was administered right away, like within two days of the bite (which left an enormous rash) but I was told that it could show a false negative because it takes 1-2months before the body develops enough antibodies for the test to be accurate.

My daughters initial test came back negative, however, they put her on the antibiotics because the the rash, which BTW was incredible. Not only was it really huge (larger than my open hand), it was bright red like a bad sunburn, and extremely tender. She was in a lot of pain from it.

If you're concerned, you need to see your doctor.

 

[rhihn]

Having a child that contracted Lime last year ....

Her test was administered right away, like within two days of the bite (which left an enormous rash) but I was told that it could show a false negative because it takes 1-2months before the body develops enough antibodies for the test to be accurate.

My daughters initial test came back negative, however, they put her on the antibiotics because the the rash, which BTW was incredible. Not only was it really huge (larger than my open hand), it was bright red like a bad sunburn, and extremely tender. She was in a lot of pain from it.

If you're concerned, you need to see your doctor.

I had the same thing happen to me. The classic "bull's eye" rash (though mine wasn't too sore, just fairly hot to the touch), flu-like symptoms that came and went quickly. First test was negative, second one positive. I was treated quickly with three weeks of antibiotics (a standard treatment), and I'm fine now. Note that not all people who contract the disease will necessarily develop all symptoms.

A friend of mine wasn't so lucky (it wasn't caught) and developed neurological symptoms, and some rather intense treatment procedures.

Can't hurt to visit your doctor.

Dick

 

[peakbagger]

I have seen references to some doctors (of which I am not one of them) that do a very short term ( a couple of days?)course of a specific anitbiotic if the bites occur in areas with high lyme incidence. Of course this goes contrary to all the commentary about antibiotic resistant bugs, so time to see the doctor.

 

[NewHampshire]

I have seen references to some doctors (of which I am not one of them) that do a very short term ( a couple of days?)course of a specific anitbiotic if the bites occur in areas with high lyme incidence. Of course this goes contrary to all the commentary about antibiotic resistant bugs, so time to see the doctor.

I know 2 people who got tick bites. Both ticks were not embedded more than a day. 1 went to the doctor and got antibiotics "just in case". The other called the doctor, and the doctor gave him a perscription without even examining him. Both guys were only on them short term (I think it was 10 days at most.)

Brian

 

[JR]

Well, I went to the doc "just in case" and they scheduled a titer for 4 weeks from now along with a 1 time dose of antibiotics. Apparently if you take this one time dose within 72hrs of tick removal you should be set. after that time, the treatment is meds for a month or so.

Better safe than sorry I guess....I hate taking meds if I don't have to, but he was pretty well hidden and I just barely found him, it could have been there days without me knowing.

 

[JohnL]

I thought I had removed a dog tick from my leg and I had no problem until about 10 days later when this erupted at the bite spot within 24 hours. WARNING! If you are squeamish, don't look. The spot was about 3 inches in diameter.
So if you are in doubt and want to wait a few days, my advice is to be safe, not sorry. I'm not a doctor but I was a patient.

JohnL

 

[sardog1]

I doubt that an M.D. would treat you with antibiotics if there are no symptoms. Most likely, you removed the tick before it would have had time to transmit anything to you. I'm taking two or three off every week. I do frequent enough checks to know that I'm aware when they start to burrow in.

What's the HTML code for "but I'm not an M.D. and this is not medical advice...."?

My wife had a very early, fairly serious case of Lyme disease with the panoply of infamous symptoms. I have an old tick bite scar and fairly general arthritis.

I had a course of antibiotics a couple years back, after I failed to spot one for about a day. I never had any symptoms. The M.D. who prescribed them is an outdoors type. I saw no reason to question his prescription; in fact, I sought an appointment precisely because I figured it would come to that.

The rule around here is, if it's been lurking overnight or the better part of the day, we're off to the doc.

(BTW, they can have my boots when they pry them off my cold, dead feet. I take a bigger risk driving every day than I do cavorting amongst the various virus- and bacteria-laden invertebrates.)

 

[beverly]

In New York

In New York - you can take the tick and send it in to the state lab,

"The most important thing is to find the tick early," Daines said. "The tick has to feed and be attached for 36 hours before it will transmit disease, so the really important thing is at the close of every day do a tick check on yourself and your kids."

Not sure what kind of tick you found on your body? You can send it to the state lab that will identify the type and determine how long it fed on you. The lab will not test whether the tick has Lyme because the test does not accurately determine human Lyme disease. The Tick ID program tests about 4,500 ticks and another 2,000 through the tick monitoring efforts.

Advice from the NYS Health Commisioner:

Daines said he takes a wait-and-see approach when family members or friends are bitten by a tick rather than leap to antibiotics. "If we tried to do that every time we pulled a tick off, we would be going through bottles of doxycycline," he said. "We pull a tick off every other week."

Albany Times Union Article

 

[DrewKnight]

I was speaking with a friend who's a pediatrician on the South Shore in MA on this very subject last weekend (after a co-worker's wife turned up with a bite, a bull's-eye, and severe flu symptoms). She said that there is a preponderance of false-negatives on the blood test early on after the bite, so their standard protocol is to treat aggressively with antibiotics if the other classic symptoms are present.

 

[1ADAM12]

I thought I had removed a dog tick from my leg and I had no problem until about 10 days later when this erupted at the bite spot within 24 hours. WARNING! If you are squeamish, don't look. The spot was about 3 inches in diameter.
So if you are in doubt and want to wait a few days, my advice is to be safe, not sorry. I'm not a doctor but I was a patient.

JohnL

Hey John!

The link does not work!

 

[MichaelJ]

(now we know who's not squeamish)

I just went through this. If I'd gotten to the doctor within 72 hours of the bite, I could have received a single dose of some antibiotic cocktail which would have taken care of any possibilities. Since I didn't, and my tick was embedded for a long time (> 24 hours before I realized it wasn't one of my hike wounds), I got 28 days of antibiotics. The in-between cases often depend on determination of if the tick is deer or not.

In other words, don't wait around - get to the doctor FIRST and then go from there. They will have the most updated information, CDC reports, treatment techniques, etc. compared to any of us.

 

[DougPaul]

The link does not work!

Works for me. (Seamonkey 1.1.9 on Linux)

Doug

 

[Waumbek]

Hey John!

The link does not work!

Well, here are some more examples in the meanwhile, also not for the squeamish.

 

[JohnL]

It was a test to see who wanted to look at yucky photos. The link is fixed. You can also try here. .

JohnL

 

[1ADAM12]

It was a test to see who wanted to look at yucky photos. The link is fixed. You can also try here. .

JohnL

Works now thanks! WOW that is a sexy leg

 

[JohnL]

Works now thanks! WOW that is a sexy leg

Remember, I did say it was a yucky photo.

JohnL