This post contains information relating to potentially serious and long term outcomes from tick bites; the information provided is my own personal opinion and should not be relied on as a sole source of advice. I do not accept any liability for consequences arising for others who follow my own advice.
Removing ticks rapidly and effectively seems to be critical and is also one of the most contentious aspects of the Lyme's disease issue. The advice we received from the hospital was to use a small amount of alcohol or preferably petrol to anaesthetise the tick before removing with tweezers. This goes against the advice on many websites although is endorsed on some. My own trawl of the web has taken me through many hundreds of pages, if ticks are why you have stumbled across this blog I advise taking a look here http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/information/tick_removal.htm the site seems one of the best in my opinion. They sell tick removers that cost very little and should prob be carried by anyone tracking in the hills or bush during warm weather- carrying a couple of little bits of plastic is far more practical than herding your ow flock of guinea fowl wherever you go. The site contains some important advice:
Do Nots
* Do Not use your fingers.
* Do Not squeeze the tick.
* Do Not use a burning match.
* Do Not use a cigarette.
* Do Not use petroleum jelly.
* Do Not use cleaning fluid.
Again the following advice is my own opinion - it seems rapid removal is important; rapid as in within a few hours of the tick attaching, if you don't notice a tick I guess under armpits or groin or anywhere it is likely that it will be squeezed accidentally in some way by natural body movements or even undressing, this might well increase the chance of infection.
1. If you are in tick country be self aware of any irritation and carry out a whole body inspection especially of children within 4 hours or every 4 hours.
2. if you find a tick and do not have a removal device to hand you may have to use tweezers or if you have them long fingernails. Personally I have removed a fair few over the last 40 years intact by using long fingernails. I start a few mm away from the tick rucking the skin into a little ridge as I close in on it. As the nail contacts the tick I start twisting anticlockwise as I lift the tick out via a fairly rapid extraction. Keep the tick if possible, this might be useful for medics if you do get an infection.
3. Inspect with a magnifying lense if possible - a Swiss Army knife comes in handy. You are looking to see if any mouth parts have been left behind - these are really tiny but can cause a range of infections. I have seen these destroyed in the field by a red hot knife end and also cut out with a sharp knife end - I do not know if either strategy is advisable but they would seem sensible actions to me. If anyone has any advice on this please leave a comment.
4. If you are in an area where Lyme's disease is known to be prevalent take the tick with you to a medic and explain what has happened. If you don't have any grounds for suspecting Lyme's infection you should keep an eye out for a spreading rash that can develop over the next 3 - 7 days. This is characterised by a red outer ring expanding away from the bite site. If the rash develops go straight to a medic do not delay but do not panic or rush or call an ambulance either. At this stage antibiotic treatment should defeat any infections and reduce the potential for any long term problems.
5. Not every one develops the rash, keep vigilant for other symptoms - aching joints, fever, irrational or unusually moody behaviour seem to be prime symptoms - not relating these (or a host of other nervous system symptoms) to the tick bite episode seems to be one of the main causes of misdiagnosis. Unfortunately these symptoms may not manifest for weeks, months or even years.
Lyme's disease is serious and can lead to heart block, facial paralysis, para or quadriplegia, and a very wide range of conditions associated with the nervous system. it is thought that many cases go unreported and undiagnosed - if you are at all suspicious of any insect bite you should seek medical advice - being wrong and finding there is no problem is a great outcome; if you ignore a potentially life changing bite you might regret it for the rest of your life.
Showing posts with label Ticks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ticks. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Lymes disease
Lymes disease - not two words we were really looking forward to but the erythma migrans rash on Rowan was pretty unmistakable and centers on a tick bite so we were pretty sure what had happened, we got the tick out before it had started to swell up visibly and it came out clean; one week later a circular rash started slowly expanding around the bite site. Our van is off the road awaiting a new alternator so we had to ask Graham to run us to Ferrol this morning to the centro de saude urgencias who sent us straight on to the hospital urgencias. We were really impressed with the attitude and the systematic investigation, 'reassuring, relaxed but competent staff' was how I felt afterwards anyway after spending a few hours in hospital having some blood tests taken and a thorough examination today a very brave Rowan has now has started antibiotic so hopefully all will be well. Two weeks of amoxycillin then a revision and the results of the blood tests will decide what further treatment is needed.
I spent a lot of last night trawling the web and never have I met such a range of potential symptom and prognoses; as the possible infections enter the nervous system there are many many potential effects. One thing I did not find after two hours of searching was how urgent it was to get to hospital only many references to late diagnosis being difficult and early diagnosis being critical to the outcome of treatment. At 3 am worried about my son I wasn't sure what timescale early and late were operating...I wanted to find a sentence like "If you suspect Lyme's disease go to hospital immediately" or "....go to hospital as soon as is convenient but within a few days/12 hours" or whatever the recommendation is.
For every site that says carefully remove the tick with sharp tweezers there is one saying use clinical alcohol or petrol to anesthetize the tick for a few minute before puling it out so that if relaxes its grip and comes out clean. Others say don't use alcohol etc as it stresses the tick that then regurgitates some of the stuff it has sucked out back in again along with infective parasites so vastly increasing the risk as does disturbing or squeezing the body.
I found general alignment on:
80% of infected bites cause the radiating rash.
infection can occur with no rash symptoms - other symptoms may manifest after weeks or months and be difficult to relate back to the bite episode.
Within 18 hours of an infective bite the spirochetes are in the spinal fluid.
Early treatment is a definite advantage, late diagnosis / treatment can lead to a long drawn out affair and a fight against some potentially life changing / life threatening situations.
A significant proportion of infections go undiagnosed and it is possible that a worrying proportion of these are treated as attention deficiency disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome or a fair few other neurological disorders.
You can spray grass/woodland to control them but what with... I could not find out last night although I was concentrating on finding the diagnosis / prognosis info.
Primary hosts for the larval stages are small rodents ( our hectare of garden has hundreds of those maybe more than hundreds)
Deer and sheep are common primary hosts for the adult stage; reputedly 2500 ticks have been found on one deer. (We have deer wandering the woods all around our garden, although they can't get in the ticks and the rodents that carry the larval stages around will be able too. )
wellies sturdy trousers etc are recommended but it is so hot here that is unlikely to be manageable and they do manage to get through clothing so the only really effective approach to prevention, when in tick rich areas, is to do an all over body check every 2 -4 hours.
Guinea fowl are reputed to love ticks and be a fairly effective means of controlling then - looks like our hens will have some new friends I have always wanted to keep guinea fowl since trying to catch the tails of wild ones from the back of a landrover in Kenya in the 70s. They are great watchdogs er watchfowl shouting at intruders, they eat all sorts of bugs but unlike hens do virtually no damage to gardens, they produce eggs with large yolks that otherwise are very similar to hens eggs and a small flock of them will face up to and often scare off a fox, and they don't mind moving in with hens - done deal if I can find any.
So after a tough year at work and very recently surviving a redundancy situation here I am on the first proper day of my holidays tomorrow and instead of relaxing and de-stressing we have week of being fairly housebound while we wait for the new alternator to arrive and a month of trying to eliminate ticks and wondering what is going to happen with the boys. We have to keep a close eye on Callum too; although he has no symptoms at all I removed a tick from his ear on the same day - it seemed to only just have arrived and was easily removed so hopefully he will be fine and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.
My Grandad Davy Pirnie used to regularly say "Ai ai ai life ey; it happens every day non stop." ...he wasn't wrong.
I spent a lot of last night trawling the web and never have I met such a range of potential symptom and prognoses; as the possible infections enter the nervous system there are many many potential effects. One thing I did not find after two hours of searching was how urgent it was to get to hospital only many references to late diagnosis being difficult and early diagnosis being critical to the outcome of treatment. At 3 am worried about my son I wasn't sure what timescale early and late were operating...I wanted to find a sentence like "If you suspect Lyme's disease go to hospital immediately" or "....go to hospital as soon as is convenient but within a few days/12 hours" or whatever the recommendation is.
For every site that says carefully remove the tick with sharp tweezers there is one saying use clinical alcohol or petrol to anesthetize the tick for a few minute before puling it out so that if relaxes its grip and comes out clean. Others say don't use alcohol etc as it stresses the tick that then regurgitates some of the stuff it has sucked out back in again along with infective parasites so vastly increasing the risk as does disturbing or squeezing the body.
I found general alignment on:
80% of infected bites cause the radiating rash.
infection can occur with no rash symptoms - other symptoms may manifest after weeks or months and be difficult to relate back to the bite episode.
Within 18 hours of an infective bite the spirochetes are in the spinal fluid.
Early treatment is a definite advantage, late diagnosis / treatment can lead to a long drawn out affair and a fight against some potentially life changing / life threatening situations.
A significant proportion of infections go undiagnosed and it is possible that a worrying proportion of these are treated as attention deficiency disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome or a fair few other neurological disorders.
You can spray grass/woodland to control them but what with... I could not find out last night although I was concentrating on finding the diagnosis / prognosis info.
Primary hosts for the larval stages are small rodents ( our hectare of garden has hundreds of those maybe more than hundreds)
Deer and sheep are common primary hosts for the adult stage; reputedly 2500 ticks have been found on one deer. (We have deer wandering the woods all around our garden, although they can't get in the ticks and the rodents that carry the larval stages around will be able too. )
wellies sturdy trousers etc are recommended but it is so hot here that is unlikely to be manageable and they do manage to get through clothing so the only really effective approach to prevention, when in tick rich areas, is to do an all over body check every 2 -4 hours.
Guinea fowl are reputed to love ticks and be a fairly effective means of controlling then - looks like our hens will have some new friends I have always wanted to keep guinea fowl since trying to catch the tails of wild ones from the back of a landrover in Kenya in the 70s. They are great watchdogs er watchfowl shouting at intruders, they eat all sorts of bugs but unlike hens do virtually no damage to gardens, they produce eggs with large yolks that otherwise are very similar to hens eggs and a small flock of them will face up to and often scare off a fox, and they don't mind moving in with hens - done deal if I can find any.
So after a tough year at work and very recently surviving a redundancy situation here I am on the first proper day of my holidays tomorrow and instead of relaxing and de-stressing we have week of being fairly housebound while we wait for the new alternator to arrive and a month of trying to eliminate ticks and wondering what is going to happen with the boys. We have to keep a close eye on Callum too; although he has no symptoms at all I removed a tick from his ear on the same day - it seemed to only just have arrived and was easily removed so hopefully he will be fine and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.
My Grandad Davy Pirnie used to regularly say "Ai ai ai life ey; it happens every day non stop." ...he wasn't wrong.
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