ticks! help needed esp from the German/Swiss contingent

[JJ]

Just found my first tick on my son's head. I picked it off and showed it to my cleaner. (I didn't know what it was -- looks different from the N American ticks I've seen.) She said they're all around here and dangerous. Found out that we're in a high risk zone for tick born encephalitis.

Soo.. what should I do? I can't go to the Apotheke today and ask because my car is being serviced and we don't have one in my village. I'll go tomorrow. I've got the Rausch Willow Bark shampoo that will help keep them off (I think...) and will use it tonight. Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions, knowledge, whatever.

try tea tree oil

I think it is important to remove the whole thing, they use special tweezers. Yes there are some dangerous ones (prevalent in our area too, among the deer) can you keep it to show Apotheke/paediatrician if needs be. I'll have a look for more info but pc is playing up so may be a while....

There is a site here which has some info but in hoch deutsch

Or here or here for general stuff in english.

Hope this helps.

Thanks! I ended up ringing the doctor for advice. She said that if there's any redness where the tick was to bring him in. In the future, I think I'm supposed to leave the tick where it is and get someone who knows what they're doing to remove it (will prob take him to the Apotheke). Blergh.

Thanks again for all the info. He got it while playing in our garden. I think I'm going to have to cut his hair if it happens again. sob

Hi JJ - not part of the Swiss/German contingent, but thought I'd share what we've been told about ticks. The idea is that you shouldn't pick them off, as part of them could stay "buried" under the skin. The best thing to do is to hold a match close to them (hard I know with a wriggling child, and especially hard around hair). Anyway, the heat from the match causes them to react and draw up. Then you can safely remove them with fingers/tweezers with far less chance of anything being left behind.

Advice from the African contingent - well, dh used to work there years ago - is to completely smother the tick with Vaseline. After a couple of days it will drop out. DH had to do this several times, and he guarantees that it does work.

lizs & jj would you mind dropping me a line re switzerland if you have a mo?

sorry - jj - how is your ds now? Did it hurt? Any sign of redness?

No problem Monkey. Have just replied.

Thanks again -- monkey, have emailed you back also.

My son has these lovely, tangled, curly locks, so it'd be impossible to get a match close to the tick. My husband wants me to cut his hair so I'm not letting him read this thread! Thanks for the advice, though!

I'll take him to the pharmacist next time-- the longer they stay in, the worse it is? I'll put Vaseline (are you from the US?) or thick oily stuff on it before we go, though, to get it started. Thanks for the suggestion!

We used to have ticks in our hair all the time at my grandmother's. But it wasn't a big deal because they didn't carry such bad stuff. We did have a "tick check" every night (basically a head massage ... very relaxing, which might have been a big bonus for my mom and aunts now that I think about it.) Hmmm...

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also get the vaccine again TBE. I'm from a part of germany that's reasonably tick-free, but we used to go on holiday to austria occasionally and always had the TBE vaccine before.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about this. Her son is at kindergarten where they do forest walks each week in a particularly high risk area. He has had the vaccine but it only protects against one strain - apparently there is a bacterial and viral version. So you still need to take the other precautions - long sleeves and trousers, check hair etc.

When I lived in Ireland there were a lot of ticks. (The first time we found one on one of our horses, we called the vet out - who looked at us like were were raving when he realised what we'd called over ). They carry lyme disease there, so I don't know how to avoid the diseases you mention. But, we were told to turn ticks anti-clockwise and tug sharply to remove them, or use alcohol as that kills them aswell. (When we did our dogs every couple of days, the floor would be littered! Yeuch!) I only had to remove them from children twice, using the tug and twist (!) method, but they came out completely, and left no soreness. (Sorry if this is entirely irrelevant!)