Lyme disease, am I being paranoid?
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| Odds are it is nothing. Ticks are common and a very small % in the midwest are infected and can spread Lyme. And even a Lyme tick doesn't always spread it - the amount of time actually engaged and attached affects that (new fact I just learned about the length of time mattering!). A lump is normal - like any bug bite - for most people or animals. Chewie just had a tick yesterday at the show..... And, biggest risk is from deer ticks - the really tiny ticks. The average dog tick is much less risk...so far anyway! |
| Have you read the oes.org article I had posted on how to identify different ticks? http://www.oes.org/html/how_2_identify_ ... ticks.html If you think it's likely that she had a lyme bearing species of tick, I would just call and ask for a course of antibiotics (doxycycline) without yet another exam. |
| I took the ticks we found on Frankie and Mattie to our vet. He said they were brown dog ticks. I questioned him about needing to get the lyme disease shot, and he says that there has only been 2 areas that have tested positive for lyme disease in the state, and they were on Lake Michigan on the west side of the state. Hopefully this will ease your mind a little but I understand. I was completely in a panic when I started finding ticks on the dogs. Hope Mady is better soon. Lisa Frankie and Mattie |
| There is a quick test they should have in the office: SNAP® 4Dx® Screen This requires just a few drops of blood and will indicate the dog has been exposed or possibly carrying. If positive then the second test should be a : Lyme Quant C6® Test Sorry I don't know the incubation period for Lyme, but the vet should. Unless you were in a hot zone, the chances for infection are small. |
| I think 7 to 28 days; that means that the test becomes usable as early as 7 days in some dogs and as late as 28 days in other dogs after exposure. Link to Clinical Medicine of the Dog and Cat By Michael Schaer on Google Books |
| kim, i think you removed the tick before the process cycle could be accomplished. Lyme Disease is caused by a spirochete called Borrelia. A spirochete is a type of bacterium. It is transmitted to dogs through the bite of a tick. The feeding tick is basically a blood sucker. It must keep its host’s blood from clotting in order to continue sucking so it is able to regurgitate assorted enzymes to keep the blood flow liquid and smooth. It is during this regurgitation process that the Lyme spirochete is brought up from the tick’s midgut to its mouthparts. This process requires a minimum of 48 hours which means that if the tick is removed within 48 hours of attachment, the spirochete cannot be transmitted and the host will not get the disease. Once in the blood stream, it is carried to many parts of the dog's body. It is especially likely to localize in joints. |
| Oh, I am paranoid too! If there is a lump or cirucular redness, I would make a visit ot the vet..But I am paranoid too and probably need a joiunt sessoin with you to the shrink! But in my areas, lyme disease is common, for humans and dogs...I'd rather spend the thrity bucks to see the Vet and in find its nothing then wait and have a problem...Check yourself as well! Hope all is fine! |
| The bump probably just means you didnt get all of the mouth parts when you pulled it off. It will be ejected by the skin in a week or two. |
| Ok, I have to warn this is gross...well to me anyway. This was five years ago and dh and I were cleaning out my dad's house after he died. He lived wayyyyyy up north near Superior and in the woods.... I had a tick attached to me...at the hip. I very calmly walked out of the bathroom(after I found it) and asked dh to remove it. He said how? I said I don't know but do it quick because I'm about to FREAK OUT! He took hold of it and just pulled it off. There was no blood so it was attached and the head/mouth was still in my skin  . A few days later there was a red bump and it lasted a few days and then went away.The moral of this gross story is watch it for a few days and if it changes or doesn't go away then go see the Vet. Oh yeah, and have a few stiff drinks and if that doesn't help then go see a therapist. |
| Good info re: 48 hour feeding! As for the lump, that is common. Even when you get the whole tick, not leaving the head behind, there will be a lump. Think of lump with mosquito bite. Most of my rescues have been tick infested messes. Harry was especially bad, we removed at least 120 ticks from him and he was a lumpy bumpy boy for quite some time. We removed all by hand, me mostly as finger nails are helpful and DH never had long enough nails. Takes patience and putting your mind in neutral other wise it is GROSS. Used to stomp them on the concrete, made mess plus it could make diseases airborne. So I'd drop them into a dark bottle with rubbing alcohol in it. When finshed, into the trash. As for ticks on humans, leaving head, even doctors don't get it all. SIL went to the doc who removed the tick.........and 2 weeks later had to cut out what he left behind. Unfortunately it was on her shin where there isn't much skin.........what a mess. |
| yes, on my last runaway dog hunting adventure i discovered a tick stuck near my belly button after supper. fortunately, he was easily removed completely with tweezers. the second day i acquired another of the ugly buggers, but didn't realize it until showering the following day. what i thought was a mole turned out to be a tick deeply imbedded in my upper arm. instructing my youngest and my sis how to get him by the head with surgical tweezers, they ripped his head and left pincers. omg, we'll have to dig deeper to get those, we can't! oh, but you will, don't fear, i can't feel it. what?! you have to dig out all the pieces and i can't feel it because of pinched nerves otherwise i might have known he was there in the 1st place. neither of these ladies woulda been good candidates for med school, so they finally excavated enough to retrieve all the pieces.  i congratulated them of course.if you get a ring or band of rings forming around the bite is when you hurry to the doctors. |
SheepieBoss wrote: As for the lump, that is common. Even when you get the whole tick, not leaving the head behind, there will be a lump. Think of lump with mosquito bite.  Glad to hear words of wisdom from those who have experience with these gross things. I've only seen ticks once before and it was on the neighbor's stray rabbit. I used tweezers to remove them all but that was probably 15 years ago? I've seen 3 of them so far this spring! ICK And I embarrassed myself the other day... Panda came in from pottying and there was a tick crawling on her beard. I holler for Jim to get me something to put it in. It falls on the floor before he can give me a specimen cup so I'm backing Panda and Kobuck away from the thing and go back to retrieve it. My vet wanted to ID it... I thought it was an American Dog Tick but we needed to know for sure since I've had little experience with them. We get to the vet and I figure I should have written something on the jar's plastic lid so I take a ballpoint pen out of my purse and try to write TICK in big letters on the lid. I hand it to the receptionist who's just taking a phone call so Bumble and I step back to give her a little privacy. I turn around and she's unscrewing the lid! "NO, no, don't open it, don't open it!!!" She's laaaaaaughing at me saying, "It's not like it's going to jump out." Oh... yeah... that's right.  I get a call from the office the next day... just a call to tell me that my tick won first place in the jumping contest.  Oh, and it was an American Dog Tick. At least I had ID it properly.  |
| In the super gross department I've removed 3 from me so far THIS month. I haven't seen any since the last time I was in St Louis, but this must be a bad year. None of them attached but oh my god gross. Keep checking the dogs, so far, nothing. One I'm pretty sure I picked up while gardening. The other two??? Apparently I need to be on frontline Kristine |
| Hmm, instead of drawing comfort from these replies, I am now TOTALLY ICKED OUT!!! Ewwwwww!! Good thing I am not squeamish. |
Mady wrote: Hmm, instead of drawing comfort from these replies, I am now TOTALLY ICKED OUT!!! Ewwwwww!! Good thing I am not squeamish. LOL Growing up, my youngest sister was the tick magnet of the family. We lived on a farm, lots of grass and woods, etc. We also had Brittanys, and did lots of field(hunt) training w/ them. At night, it was the norm to check for ticks before bed. My sister Sherry always had them. One night we had a babysitter who was squeamish - she totally freaked when we told her she had to look in Sherry's hair (she was only about 4 yrs old, so couldn't do herself) at bedtime. So me and my other sister had to do it. We still laugh at the wimpy girl ...having a tick isn't fun, but it's totally a normal occurrence. It's just lately with the increased incidence of disease that it's harmful. Before it was just a nuisance. No fancy grabbers needed either - just grab by the body/head as close as you can. They should come off all as one w/ a little chunk of skin in their mouth (OK, that sounds bad, but it's really not). I've done this my whole life and never missed a bit staying in a person or animal...it's not rocket science! |
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