Tick bite.

[LadyFlumpalot]

Help! I've just removed a tick from my foot (shudder) and trying very hard not to freak out.

Google is not helping with trying not to freak out as it's basically telling me I'm going to get any number of hideous diseases and die.

Any advice oh wise hive mind?

The jury is out on how long a tick needs to be on to contract lymes but most people agree it's 36-48 hours.

Even if you do Doxycycline knocks it on the head pretty quickly. Dh gets lymes at least three times a year.

Here we're worried more about Powassan, Anaplasmosis or babesiosis and I don't think they are in Britian yet.

Don't just rely on a bullseye rash though, about 20% of the times dh has got lymes he's not gotten the rash. Look more for lethargy, aches and cold symptoms.

We found a tick in ds leg four weeks ago, as he developed flu like symptoms a few days later he was prescribed antibiotics for two weeks. He had a blood test that came back negative but that is being redone next week.

Ds did not develop the rash.

Blood tests for lymes are notoriously crap unfortunately.

How are you supposed to remove ticks-any fail safe methods?

Nope just a good tick puller.

This style is by far the best and get the smaller ones too.

But for the tiny nymphs you need tweezers.

The main thing is to do it as quickly with as little fuss as possible because if you distress them they puke in to you and that's what transmits a lot of the dieseses.

I loathe them. I pull at least three a day off each cat. The cats are only allowed in the house in the winter when the ground has frozen over now, poor things.

Ds has only had one actual embedded tick on him but lots crawling. We have to check him twice a day. I think something like 65% of ticks where we are are infected with lymes alone and that was last year, I'm sure this year it will have gone up.

BummyMummy, where do you live?

An island off the coast of Maine.

Which sounds idyllic. However.,,,

Bummy Yuck, do they drop of trees and long grasses? I find that the frontline stops our cats from getting them or they just drop off easily. When we brush them.

You can send your ticks off to the tick surveillance people on www.gov.uk somewhere and a couple of weeks later they send you a letter saying what type it is. I got bored after my first three this year, picked up at the allotment. Had to pull one off from under my bra strap in the loos of a very very posh central London restaurant. Not easy or classy.

People say they don't drop from the trees but I'm not so sure.

They are mostly in long grass and leaf litter. Gone are the days of the kids running through leaf piles in the Autumn!

Well all seems well so far, no imminent death symptoms.

All I'm really worried about was that it was very much dead and squashed (flat) yet still attached when I spotted it so I'm hoping it didn't have a chance to throw up into my foot too much.

Bummy Yes I also wondered if it happened more after a shower, maybe the ticks like damp areas. For one to fall between my boobs I was fully clothed with a bra and t shirt on (and I wasn't lying down in the garden!) seems strange. I read somewhere that one has to wear slippery clothing,like wellies or a mac with a hood so the little shits can't 'cling' on.

Lady if you've got T tree, use it, I killed mine effectively with it. It's a natural AB.

Don't use it on an attached tick though. Then it'll be more likely to regurgitate it's stomach in to you. They're best to come out alive.

Yes I didn't know at the time. (though as I said all was well) We have one of those 'pull out' things now we use on our cats. I spray myself with an anti insect spray before going in the garden now.

Where are you?

Are ticks getting bad in the UK now?!

We're 50% in rural France and I've only seen them in Fr. In Britain they do have them but I've never come across them.

I wasn't being blase at all just pointing out how many times dh has had it and that when treated early success rates in clearing it up completely are very good. More people I know than not have had lymes in the last five years here.

Obviously I'm not being blase as I'm saying I don't let my cats in the house and I check my son twice a day. I don't see how that isn't taking it seriously enough.

Sorry missed your previous post ppeat.

I don't know about the slippery clothes, the little bastards seem to find their way on to dh constantly even when he's wearing full rain gear.

As to going for anti biotics as a precaution they've not been doing that here for a while for fears of over prescription. If you have the rash or symptoms they'll give you doxycycline but not before. And that's with paying through the nose.

They are trying not to over prescribe ABs here too Bummy sometimes they don't work anyway. That's why I love T tree it is a natural antibiotic that was saving lives in Australia for thousands of years.