I’ve been bitten on the leg by a tick. The little bastard had a tenacious grip on my skin and so I pried it off with a pocket knife. The thing was still alive and rather than squish it, I figured I’d kill it but also preserve it. It’s in a small jar into which I poured rubbing alcohol.
Well, I know certain ticks carry Lyme Disease (hence my preserving the tick). Any other health problems that I should be aware of?
Here is some information to torture yourself with. Seriously, don’t get too worked up about it, since most of these aren’t terribly common. Most tick bites go away without incident.
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever springs to mind. But, yeah, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. See a doctor if you notice any symptoms, just in case, but you’re probably fine.
Remember too that the tick that carries Lyme’s is very small. If your tick is roughly the size of this --> :eek: It’s not going to carry Lyme’s disease. I never did find the tick or the bite that gave me Lyme’s a couple of years ago.
There is concern that a tick could have lyme disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, so be on the lookout for any changes in your health over the next few days. To reduce the odds of you getting a disease from ticks,
Actually, lone star ticks (among others) can carry Lyme, too. The one that bit me recently (I’m not sure if it was Lyme, but I was in bad shape) was about 1.5cm. in diameter.
In California (or at least in San Jose), you can take the tick to “Vector Control” which I think is part of Public Health, and they send it to a lab for testing.
Mine came back negative, but I got a suspect rash anyway. However I had already gotten the appropriate prescription, since the tick had been settled in for several days before I realized he was there, so I took the prescription.
I haven’t tried getting tested for spirochetes antibodies since then, so I don’t really know my actual status…oh well.
Did the li’l bloodsucker talk to you? You really want to avoid tick talk.
Amazing.
When I was a kid, ticks were no big deal. I used to run around like a savage, shoeless and shirtless, out in the woods at my grandmother’s house- and I’d be pretty much infested with ticks. Okay, not infested, but I certainly had my share. Never got sick… lucky, I guess?
Yep , I am right there with Lightnin’ . Always had ticks as a kid, and quite a few times as an adult. Don’t freak, just note any weird symptoms that pop up.
Oh, I should have said, the tick that worried me was a small one, different from the dog-ticks (deer ticks?) that we all got plenty of as kids. Deer ticks are a little bigger than a capital O (before they have been feeding), and the suspect kind are about the size of a lower-case o. In type-size 12.