My poor DD2 has Lymes disease

[Ripeberry]

My DD2 was playing in the long grass by the side of our house about 3 weeks ago and the next day when she came back from playschool she was complaining of a sore spot near her bellybutton.
At first i thought it was an old scab, until it MOVED.
It was a tiny speck of a thing and it was a horrible tick.
Managed to get it off using tweezers near it's head and bathed the area in TCP and forgot about it.
Whilst we were camping, she has started to get a very angry red rash about the site of the bite and there is a white ring around the original bite.
Rang NHS direct when we got back today and they said, just contact your GP and get some anti-biotics and said that if she has no fever or sickness then can carry on as normal.
She has been full of energy and it does not seem to be affecting her that much.
Just a reminder, if any of you go walking in long grass or in woodland, please wear long trousers and tuck them into your socks.
Any strange rashes should be investigated as Lymes disease seems to be much worse for adults.

your poor DD2, very unlucky. Didn't even know you could get Lymes disease in this country. was only aware of it being a possibility in certain areas of austria/eastern europe.

Oh no!

Yes, TC, Lyme Disease is indeed a possibility in the UK so please watch out, wear gaiters, too, over your boots if you don't fancy tucking your trousers into your socks or want to wear shorts.

Hope your DD2 is okay, Ripe.

Oh no!

Yes, TC, Lyme Disease is indeed a possibility in the UK so please watch out, wear gaiters, too, over your boots if you don't fancy tucking your trousers into your socks or want to wear shorts.

Hope your DD2 is okay, Ripe.

thanks expat.

oh how horrible.

My SIL has it. She has been untreated for six months while doctors are arguing which antibiotic to give, she is very poorly.

Thanks for the reminder.

lucky you nabbed it quite early. Hope dd stays happy and healthy.

I got Lyme's disease (in the Czech Republic, but I've also heard it's getting more common in the UK) and didn't have a rash. Apparently it doesn't always show up. In my case I had a temperature about a week after being bitten by a tick, so went to the doctor and tested positive for Lyme antibodies. It cleared up fine with antibiotics.

I hope she's better soon - and that your SIL is also OK, QS.

DS2 had a tick when we were on hols in Ardnamurchan 2 years ago.

Luckily DP managed to remove all of it, mouthparts intact, but horrid horrid creature all bloated bleurgggh.

Dr checked it out and was fine, but we were lucky.

Poor DD, Ripeberry, make sure you get to a Dr just to be safe, eh ?

One of my best friends had an acute arthritis caused by a tick bite she hadn't even noticed. They think it was Lyme's she ended up in hospital for three weeks as she collapsed and couldn't walk. She is still not well nearly a year on though very much better - it is a horrible thing.

That sounds sensible - the only thing is that you would indeed have to hot-foot it, because the longer they're attached the more chance you have of getting Lyme, if the tick's infected. In my case it was there for a day before I noticed.

And once again, be on the lookout for general signs of unwellness (wooziness/temperature etc.) - don't rely on there being a rash.

(A high temperature could also be tick-born encephalitis, which is rarer and I don't think occurs in the UK.)

It's tick-borne encephalitis which is a problem in parts of Europe, Lyme Disease is everywhere now and rocketing in the UK because of the last couple of wet summers and the decision to leave some grassed areas in parks unmown for ecological reasons.
Dh had it last Autumn but was treated promptly. Our GPs did not demur as soon as they saw the bite site and knew exactly what to prescribe.
Thank goodness you caught it early ripeberry and thanks for the reminder to keep checking for tick bites.

i found a tick behind ds1's ear when he was about 3yo. i took it out with tweezers v close to the skin, kept it in a glass, drowned in alcohol and cleaned the bite with antiseptic.
he was fine, it never got red or sore, but it scared the life out of me for a second there. id only even heard of the bloody things about a week before that.

hope your dd is well soon, ripeberry.

i found a tick on my ds when he was 10 weeks old, had no idea how it got there but suspected a cat. i removed it myslef and was lucky he had fat little legs so the tick had not actually started to gorge on blood. i panicked and called helpline and i was lucky that there was no after effects at all.
i always thought lymes disease was caught by ticks who bit deer as they carry the disease.
now i am obsessed with grass and watch ds like a hawk when he has been on it and check him thoroughly! he is going to end up as neurotic as me!
glad you caught it soon as it can cause alot of problems, people can end up in a wheelchair becasue of it. nasty things.

Blimey I have never even heard of this. And DS1 spends all summer scuffling through vegetation channelling David Attenborough. Oh dear, another thing to worry about!

how's your DD doing now Ripeberry? THanks very much for drawing the possibility of Lymes disease in the UK to our attention.

dd3 had a tick on her nose when she was about 10 weeks

yukky

I know lymes is on the increase

hope your poor dd feels better soon

I got Lymes Disease in France two years ago, have no idea how I got it, but it was treated promptly and to be honest the antibiotics made me feel worse than the illness, although my leg was so sore where I had been bitten. To this day I still have the red bullseye ring, it looks like a nasty bruise on my leg.

The doctor did tell me it was from a tick that feeds on deer and apparently it's very small. I never saw the tick on me, just had a really nasty spot which I thought was an infected ingrown hair until about three weeks later when I could hardly walk or bear anything to touch my leg.

Don't know if it helps or not, but in the summer when the DS' have been playing outside in shorts and T-shirts I always stick a bit of Dettol in their bath on a night in case they've got any nasties on their bodies.

Hope your DD is feeling better soon.

It's a pity humans can't use Frontline. I think it's a cyanide base. I found a tick on one of our dogs. She's been to the vet and seems ok. I thought Lymes disease was still quite rare in this country.

Dd got a tick bite when on a school trip to Wales. Our gp was very laid back about it, and fortunately it didn't develop into anything.

Hope your dd feels better soon.

Thank you for all your replies.
My DD2 seems all right in herself, she does not have a fever but at the moment there is hand, mouth and foot disease doing the rounds at pre-school...so something else to think about!
She does complain about anything touching the rash, so i'm dressing her in clothes without waistbands.
Just have to wait for the anti-biotics to work.

I think if my DD got a tick I'd be inclined to get her tested regardless, esp. knowing how rampant it is here in the Czech Republic - a third of ticks are infected in some areas.The increase has been fairly dramatic over the past ten years.

I think it's important to add, that there is a certain way to remove the tick successfully and if you aren't sure, seek medical help as if you don't do it right and part of the tick breaks off in situ, it can be much, much worse if you don't realise it's still partially in there.

Apparently you're supposed to avoid squeezing it, too, as that squeezes more nasties out into the wound. That's also why they no longer recommend smothering it in cream/oil, since that also makes the tick eject more nasties in its death throes...

I've found the stat now - about 25% of cases have no rash.