Tick advice needed

[bonnielou]

I am hoping all of the lyme experts on here can share some advice. One of my daughters was getting dressed to go out to celebrate her 30th birthday Saturday night, and her husband was putting on her necklace, and found a tick on her neck. He removed it with a tweezers, and they put it in a bag.

Can this tick be tested for lyme? If so, how? Are there any precautions she should take right now to help ward of the potential misery of long term lyme disease? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Bonnie Lou
RA 02/07,AP 10/07
Minocycline 200mg MWF; Plaquenil 100mg 3 days/week
Fish Oil, Ubiquinol, Turmeric, Vit C (2 grams) , MultiVit, Magnesium, Astaxanthin, D3 (5000), probiotics and a daily dose of yoga!

[BG]

Yes, the tick can be tested. Your daughter should ask her physician first. If he/she can’t or won’t do it and can’t refer her to someone, call around to medical and vet schools and entymology (sp?) departments at universities. You could also call local veterinarians.

Prophylactic treatment would be doxycycline. The dose and duration of treatment depends on the length of time that passes from the time the tick attached to the start of treatment, whether a rash or other symptoms begin appearing, etc.

Was the tick engorged?

Barb

[Krys]

Applying Lugol’s Iodine immediately after the bite helps. I would apply it even after some time has passed, it won’t hurt and will disinfect the area but the bacteria, if the tick was infected, must have already spread. It takes only minutes for it to spread.
http://thyroid.about.com/library/derry/bl2a.htm

Iodine put on a mosquito bite will kill all the bacteria and viruses at the site of a bite within 10-30 seconds making it impossible for any virus or bacteria to multiple and get started –such as in West Nile Fever. Naturally, this applies to tick bites (Lyme’s disease) as well.

I hope your daughter will see her GP and ask for abx. As the tick was attached and removed, any doc will prescribe abx as a preventive measure in this case.
You can send the tick to IGeneX. If I remember correctly, no MD’s rx is necessary.
http://www.igenex.com/lyme_disease.htm mentions that a tick can be sent for testing.
I would just contact IGeneX and ask how to proceed.
Krys

[bonnielou]

Thanks so much for this information; I will have her contact her physician and Igenex.

Bonnie Lou
RA 02/07,AP 10/07
Minocycline 200mg MWF; Plaquenil 100mg 3 days/week
Fish Oil, Ubiquinol, Turmeric, Vit C (2 grams) , MultiVit, Magnesium, Astaxanthin, D3 (5000), probiotics and a daily dose of yoga!

[Maz]

Hi Bonnie,

If this helps, my daughter had a tick bite between her toes and we were unsure of how long it was attached…though time of attachment and transmission of infections is debatable. Conventional wisdom states upwards of 24 to 36 hours, but LLMDs say it can be as little as a few hours, long enough for the tick to become embedded and to start getting a blood meal. My LLMD put my daughter on 2 months of doxy right out of the gate (if memory serves, it was 100mg doxy three times daily)…upon discussing it with him, he agreed that as she shares my genetic make-up, it wasn’t worth the risk her developing any rheumatic or other issues down the road, as a result.

LLMDs argue that incorrect removal can cause the tick to spew gut contents into its victim (no lit matches, no alcohol or any other chemical to try to get the tick to disengage, etc, contrary to common belief). Sounds like your daughter’s hubby did a great job removing it correctly with tweezers (gently placed over its head, careful to avoid the body and twisting it off carefully).

Here is a link on the CALDA site with pics of different ticks for identification purposes and also listing some of the infections each type may potentially pass:

http://lymedisease.org/lyme101/ticks/tick_facts.html

It’s a good idea to put a dampened cotton wool ball into the baggie with the tick to keep it moist in the mail. As Krys mentioned, you’ll find the printable tick testing request form on the IGeneX website, located under the “Forms and Sample Requirements” on the lefthand toolbar – no physician script necessary for tick testing. It’s a worthwhile and much cheaper exercise to test the tick rather than to wait to see if labs show up positive, in the event that a person becomes unwell. Knowing what infections were in a tick can save much time and money later, not to mention what other infections might have been passed, if that is the case. This is particularly valuable info not only in the case of Lyme, but in checking for other potential TBDs (tickborne infections), because none of the tests for these infections are 100% accurate.

Seeing a tick on one’s self is half the battle, because early, adequate treatment can be pretty effective much of the time. Only 50% of folk will see an EM rash, but it’s worth checking around the spot (well up into the hairline) for the next few weeks just to see if any occurs.

Worthy of note is that early prophylactic treatment may abrogate Lyme testing results down the road. This is the big debate about prophylactic treatment with a couple of capsules of doxy, which is the current recommendation for an early tick bite…LLMDs say, (a) this is not enough as it doesn’t take long for the infection to get into the blood stream and to become disseminated and (b) can send the infection running for the hills, deeper into tissues and hiding out, so that the bugs do not stimulate enough antibody for testing.

It’s worth everyone here learning about Lyme prevention, as we’re all at risk of TBDs and the prediction is that this coming year will be particularly bad due to the mild winter we’ve experienced. Hopefully, your daughter’s tick will be infection-free and, even it you find it was harboring something, that it wasn’t on her long enough to transmit any nasties.

[DragonSlayer]

Hi, Bonnie:

Yes, it can be tested for Lyme, but better to identify the species first. A friend of mine, Steve Bennett, is an entomologist and vector control agent, associated with what used to be Nichols Laboratories, and he does identifications and walks likely specimens over for testing, now in Long Beach area. I think any infectious disease specialist or even any physician should have the capability of sending this out to the lab for results, but of course antibiotics should be used soon as possible as prophylaxis, as You cannot be too careful.

My wife found a tick attached after we had been hiking and fortunately, we had Steve with us and he took it with him to analyze, despite the fact that Lyme had only one very weak suspected case (not enough to declare it endemic) in So. California. Naturally he had to “joke” it was full of disease, but of course it was negative.

Good Luck to Your daughter and Yourself,
John

[bonnielou]

This has been so helpful. My daughter has already gotten her prescription from her physician and will start it this evening. Her husband is packing up the tick for mailing. I will keep you posted when there is further news, but I am so grateful to know she has started the steps to protect herself. I can’t thank you all enough.

Bonnie Lou
RA 02/07,AP 10/07
Minocycline 200mg MWF; Plaquenil 100mg 3 days/week
Fish Oil, Ubiquinol, Turmeric, Vit C (2 grams) , MultiVit, Magnesium, Astaxanthin, D3 (5000), probiotics and a daily dose of yoga!

[bonnielou]

Update — Dana got her results back from Igenex yesterday — the tick tested negative for everything! Whew — what a relief. Thanks for the fabulous guidance — it was worth the few hundred dollars to know that this tick was clean, and she does not need to continue with any antibiotics at this point.

Bonnie Lou
RA 02/07,AP 10/07
Minocycline 200mg MWF; Plaquenil 100mg 3 days/week
Fish Oil, Ubiquinol, Turmeric, Vit C (2 grams) , MultiVit, Magnesium, Astaxanthin, D3 (5000), probiotics and a daily dose of yoga!

[Author]

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