WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE BIT BY A TICK

PREVENTION:

For pets, a monthly or annual shot/medication exists to prevent Lyme disease, which is a really good idea if you ever take your dog to rural areas. For humans, wearing repellent, tucking your pants into your socks, wearing light colours to easily spot them, and then doing a tick check when you get home is the best preventative measure. They can hide in armpits, behind knees, behind ears, and in the hair. Nymphs/baby ticks can be as small as a poppyseed.

FINDING A TICK: 

1. Proper removal is key, with tweezers, grabbing only its head (not its body). Do not use fingers, or burn the tick off, or use vaseline. Follow the instructions below being careful not to twist or squeeze the body. Wash the area and apply a mixture of charcoal, andographis and benonite clay, like a paste (if you can find these 3 things at a health food store) ASAP. THIS has been proven to prevent the bacteria from spreading, as the mixture pulls the bacteria out of the surface.

If a piece of the tick stays in, apply polysporin and go to a doctor for removal. This requires immediate antibiotics.

2. Keep the tick in your freezer until you're ready to send it. If you don't want to send it for whatever reason, just keep it for 9 months to ensure no symptoms appear. If they do show up, mail the tick to Geneticks to see what bacteria you're dealing with, this will give you a better idea of what you need to take (if any). It may come back with nothing if you're lucky.

You should also take a photo of the tick and send it to etick.ca, This helps the AB government to passively monitor the distribution and types of ticks in the province. This is the only monitoring of ticks that is done, so it's important to share the information. Etick.ca will identify the tick and give you information about the kinds of pathogens that particular tick carries.

 FOLLOW-UP

Wait for your results from Geneticks, or wait for any symptoms to show up, or simply get a short course of antibiotics from your doctor as a preventative measure.

Don't wait for a positive Elisa Lyme test. This test is notoriously false and doesn't pick up on different strains of bacteria. It is not a reliable test. Request antibiotics while you wait for the results from Genetics. OR Wait for the results from Geneticks before starting Antibiotics (if they're warranted, ie. the tick was positive for Lyme).  

Doctors tend to prefer a single dose of Doxycyline as prevention, although the studies show it won't prevent long-term illness. Most doctors know very little about tick-borne illness, so feel free to share what you've learned here. 

IDEALLY, YOU WANT 3 WEEKS OF DOXYCYCLINE WITHIN A FEW DAYS OF THE TICK BITE. CHILDREN: DETAILS BELOW. I printed this document out and brought it to my Doctor and she was so thankful for the information (some Doctors may not be so welcoming).

MEDICAL SKEPTICISM

In my experience,  professionals were incredibly skeptical and unhelpful. Joint pain is too vague a symptom for them to treat. Joint pain combined with a tick bite helped me get 2 weeks of antibiotics, but even then I was told I was on my own when the symptoms returned at the end of the treatment.

 Medical Doctors are told Lyme Disease is over-diagnosed and treat all tick-borne illnesses with a level of disinterest I've never encountered before. Take your health into your own hands, and ensure you're protecting yourself, with or without their help.

THE BACTERIA

Every tick carries something different, it's not just Lyme that you should be worried about. (In my case, a tick was attached for only 6 hours and I tested positive 9 months later for Rickettsia and the Lyme bacteria through Elispot testing). Doctors often refuse to treat if the tick was on for less than 24 hours, and refuse to treat with antibiotics for various reasons. 

Calgary Lyme Specialist Ralph Hawkins recommends 3 weeks minimum of 100 mg 2x/day of Doxycyline after a tick bite. Ensure you treat promptly and effectively to avoid long-term or returning illness.

 

SYMPTOMS

They vary because each tick is different and carries different combinations of bacterias. Some common early symptoms are: swollen lymph nodes, joint pain, rashes, headache, fatigue, brain fog. Track them all, keep a list with dates, you may need it later.

ANTIBIOTICS

1. Calgary Lyme specialist Ralph Hawkins recommends for adults 100mg of doxycycline 2x/day for at least 20, ideally 28 days. For children, his recommendations differ, see the photo above or contact me for a copy of it. 

2. If a tick bite is left untreated for 30 days, and the tick was carrying Lyme disease or another pathogen, you may lose the ability to treat the illness.


Thanks for reading, and spread the word! No tick is a good tick. They're natures dirty needles and they've been around forever. They say even my pal Otzi the iceman had Lyme Disease, and that was thousands of years ago. Today I'm thankful for the invention of antibiotics.