what to do if you get bitten by a tick

Removing the Tick

You can't get sick from a tick that is itch on y'all but has non yet attached. Ticks must bite yous to spread their germs. If the tick is attached it will be difficult to pull off.

Tick attachment time is important. Removing ticks as soon as possible reduces the take chances of infection. If you or a loved one is bitten, remove the tick promptly. Here's how:

• Grasp the tick's mouthparts against the skin, using pointed tweezers.
• Be patient; the long mouthpart is covered with barbs, so removing it tin can exist difficult and time consuming.
• Pull steadily without twisting until you can ease the tick head direct out of the skin.
• DO NOT pull back sharply; this may tear the mouthparts from the trunk of the tick and leave them embedded in the skin.
• If this happens, don't panic! Embedded mouthparts do non transmit Lyme disease.
• DO NOT squeeze or beat out the torso of the tick; this may force infected trunk fluids from the tick into the peel.
• Practice NOT utilize substances such as petroleum jelly, smash smooth, or a lighted match to the tick while it is attached. They may arouse the tick and force more infected fluid into the pare.
• Once you have removed the tick, wash the wound site and your easily with soap and water, and apply rubbing alcohol or antiseptic to the site.
• If y'all take found a tick on yous, information technology's a sign there may exist others. Do a careful tick check.
• Observe the bite site over the side by side ii weeks for any signs of an expanding red rash or flu-like symptoms. (see below)
• Consult with your PCP well-nigh sending your tick to a lab, such as TickCheck or TickEncounter, to exist tested for pathogens. (run into below)

Tick Testing

Consider the utility of sending the tick for identification and assay of the potential infectious agents of Lyme disease and other tickborne pathogens.

CDC strongly discourages using results from these tick tests when deciding whether to use antibiotics subsequently a tick bite. Positive results can be misleading. Fifty-fifty if a tick contains a pathogen, information technology does not mean that you have been infected past that pathogen. Negative results tin can besides be misleading. Yous might have been bitten unknowingly by a different infected tick.

What to do later removing an attached tick that has bitten y'all.

In general, the CDC does not recomment taking antibiotics prophylactically afterward tick bites to foreclose tickborne diseases. Still, in certain circumstances, a unmarried dose of doxycycline after a tick seize with teeth may lower your risk of Lyme disease. Consider talking to your healthcare provider if you lot live in an area where Lyme illness is mutual to discuss prophylaxic doxycycline and other options.

What to do in the weeks post-obit the tick bite

Recognizing the Rash After a Tick Bite

It is important to understand that a rash is not e'er present or easily recognizable in early Lyme affliction, and this can lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment.

Please refer to our poster of varied Lyme disease rash manifestations equally a helpful identification tool.

When present, it is wise to take a picture of the rash with the date for your medical record, since a rash compatible with erythema migrans rash should prompt urgent evaluation and treatment. Lyme disease is most successfully treated in this first stage.

If you lot take a suspicious rash or your symptoms persist, please seek medical care immediately.

The erythema migrans Lyme affliction rash is:

• Round or oval, enlarges in size over days/weeks, & will not fade in a few days
• Unremarkably greater than 2" inches in diameter, often 6-8"
• Normally uniformly scarlet
• Sometimes but not often, a "bull's centre" rash with a ruby ring surrounding a clear surface area and red eye
• Minimally tender, minimally itchy (much less itchy than toxicant ivy), and sometimes warm
• Often dislocated with spider bites

The incubation menstruum from tick bite to rash is commonly 3-x days only can be 30 days.

The Lyme rash can spread through the bloodstream to other areas of the skin.

Sometimes blisters develop in the center of the rash.

Tick seize with teeth reactions are oftentimes confused with the rash of Lyme disease.

Tick bite reactions:

• Are small cerise bumps, less than 1-ii" in size
• Appear at the site of the bite, often in the groin, chugalug area, arm pits, or behind the knee joint
• Do not expand in size when observed over 24-48 hrs
• May feel warm and tender to the touch
• Can last days, fifty-fifty weeks

Requesting and Receiving Care For the Tick Seize with teeth

If you accept a tick seize with teeth, watch for an expanding ruby-red rash or lesion at the site of the tick seize with teeth or an unexplained feverish, achy, fatiguing illness inside 1 to 4 weeks after the tick seize with teeth. If y'all are concerned about symptoms or a rash, take a picture show of the rash and contact your physician.

Bitten by a tick and have a rash?

Call our RASH HOTLINE at 410-870-5963 for a rash evaluation appointment.

Diagnosing Lyme Disease:

• Lyme illness is a clinical diagnosis made by a doctor or nurse by examining the patient.
• Acute Lyme disease is not a laboratory diagnosis; a negative Lyme blood test does non exclude Lyme affliction in the first few weeks of the illness.
• Many with Lyme affliction take a flu-similar illness and NO rash.
• Fever, aches, and sharp and astringent fatigue can be the principal symptoms of astute Lyme.
• Lyme disease is different from a respiratory "common cold".
• A runny nose and prominent cough are NOT symptoms of Lyme disease.
• Blood tests practise not accurately diagnose Lyme affliction in the commencement few weeks of infection, so being vigilant about looking for symptoms is a more reliable mode to identify an early example of Lyme affliction.

If you accept boosted questions, please contact your Master Care Physician or health care provider to discuss.

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The Johns Hopkins Lyme Affliction Research Heart is focused on patient-based research in all manifestations of Lyme disease. Our goal is to translate our pioneering research into improved patient care, education, and health outcomes.

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Source: https://www.hopkinslyme.org/lyme-education/what-to-do-after-a-tick-bite/

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