I got me a nice little tick bite day before yesterday. It was a baby... looks like a big ol mosquito bite. Searching, I found some nice info that Garnet had posted in the past about Lyme Disease. .. tis' the season. http://www.4042.com/4042forums/showthread.php?t=20193&highlight=tick+bite ... now I'm all nice and worried.
Found one on my little guy the other night. My dog got lyme disease so I'm going to keep the ones that I find on him just in case. Such nasty little creatures. :ack:
I've been bitten twice in the last freaking week! NEVER been bitten before, EVER! Freaking me out. Once here, once at my sisters over the weekend. Ick, ick, ick!! DH has treated our yard here, so hopefully that will be the end of that. I figure it's the dogs bringing them in. (they are on treatment too, but guess they picked up some hitchhikers)
My wife pulled one off me the other day. We stored it incase, but it's been several days and I haven't gotten sick, so I think I'm safe. Mike
Looks like it is going to be a bad year for them. My mom is in KY and said that she has found a couple on her also. One was actually attached, the others were just crawling and she said they were tiny.
Little welcome committee We just moved here a couple days ago and we've seen 3 in our house so far! One on the dog, one in our bed and one on my husband! He's treating the lawn tomorrow.... I told him to do a 6 ft radius outside of our lawn as well! Blech!
Okay ladies & gentlemen. I wish I had time to address "Ticks" and "Tick Borne Illnesses" approriately this morning, but I have to get to work. BUT, peruse my blog to find out more http://jmgarnet76.blogspot.com/2008/09/tick-borne-illness-part-1.html That is the first of many posts I wrote in Tick Borne Illnesses. Most are found in September of 2008.
Also ... Keep the little buggars you find. Put them in a zip loc bag with a moist (water) cotton ball. (zip it up good and tape the opening as well). Write with the sharpie the date and time you found the creature. You can send it off for testing (it costs an arm and a leg, but ... in my experience 350 bucks is better than 20,000 of Lyme Disease treatment and 14 years of pain.)
Lyme can be transmitted a number of different ways even though most MD's will say it can only be transmitted by deer ticks ... I believe that a variety of ticks transmit Lyme. I also believe that it can be transmitted from mother to child. (IE if a mother has Lyme diagnosed or undiagnosed ... the infant can be born with Lyme Disease). One of my online friends ... had a baby that was born with a bullseye rash. There is a question among LLMD's (lyme literate medical doctors) about whether it can be transmitted sexually. The Red Cross won't take your blood if you have ever had Lyme Disease. They also recommend you not donate your organs if you've had it. So: Tick to human transmission, possible mother to child transmission, possible sexually transmitted ... what about blood transfusions? What if you don't know you have Lyme and donate blood? (or you need a transfusion and get blood tainted with Lyme). It is so extremely controversial between medical doctors. If anyone has concerns about Lyme Disease, please PM me about it. I would love to share my knowledge with you.
I've read that the tick has to be biting you for 24 hours before Lyme can be transtmitted, is that correct?
Well some doctors believe that it must be in for 24 hours and others believe that it doesn't matter how short a time it's attached especially if you remove it the wrong way. My *personal* opinion is that it doesn't matter how short of a time that the tick is in you .... if it has the bacteria ... then YOU have been infected. Now the important thing to remember is that Lyme Disease isn't the only Tick Borne Infection. There are so many things that Ticks can carry. When the tick is removed, it will release the toxins that is in his saliva into your blood stream. Now if you remove it carefully enough ... this is minimal. Here is one Youtube video by LLMD Dr. M. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQcSyVLUhw He tells why other methods shouldn't be used and two new methods (one of which can only be done at the doctor's office). Here is another video of tick removal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ziSYsh5lo A documentary will be coming out in June called Under Our Skin. You can already order the DVD since it was so popular with the Lyme Disease patients. We wanted it early. So they have created a "Vanilla Version" of the DVD. However sometime in June it should come out in North Carolina in the theatres. Probably late June as it's starting out in early June in New York. You can see the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxWgS0XLVqw
I didn't realize mine was a tick. I felt something and half scratched it off. It made a snap noise and I figured I'd better find what ever it was! He's in my septic tank now.
I didn't remove them properly either. :? Both times, something was itching me on my back. Neither of them had been on long. But now, every time I have an itch, I'm stripping and looking for one LOL.
I've always thought that with tweezers and making sure the head comes out ack is the way to do it. Is that right?
You just have to VERY cautious with the tweezers method. If you pull it out wrong, you squeeze the belly which makes the tick .. excuse the bluntness .. but it makes the tick puke it's stomach content into your blood stream. Yeah that's the bad thing about ticks ... you don't feel them sometimes until they've been attached for a while. Then you scratch and itch ... and bam ... you realize it's a tick. But by then you've touched his potentially bacterial infested body. The other problem is that sometimes they attach in places you'd never view (IE Scalp .. and other hard to view/reach areas). My doctor recommends Dental Floss technique. (like the straw and thread method)
Imagine me. Someone who battled an unknown illness for twelve years. Finally March 1, 2007 I get an answer that a TICK caused this. Believe me .. everytime I have an itch, I check about every inch of me. And this time of year I am constantly asking my husband to check me for ticks. Check scalps, back of legs, behind ears, in ears, in belly buttons, behind neck, EVERYWHERE ... including places you don't wanna look. You never know where one of those creatures could be taking up residence. http://jmgarnet76.blogspot.com/2009/04/living-lyme-life-bump.html Lyme is my Life. I live the Lyme Life every day. May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month. Bring Awareness by tying a lime green ribbon to your car antennae, mailbox or a tree
