GAACK! Black flies are out Wicked!

[HawkinsHollow]

Thing is, tests for Lyme aren't accurate for at least a four weeks, if not longer.
However, once it's embedded, it takes ridiculous amounts of antibiotics to treat... but a quick run of antibiotics taken within 72h of the bite seem to keep it from sticking.

I got a tick in March, near the top of my thigh - surprised the heck out of me because work pants etc but I realized I'd had a cat on my lap when I was sitting just in boxers...
anyways the next day I had swollen lymph nodes right in the region of the bite so I got on antibiotics, something obviously was bothering the immune system.

Strange thing, a month later I got another tick, up on my shoulder, and while I didn't get any obvious lymph reaction from that I developed a hair-trigger motion sickness within a few hours. I couldn't walk around the house without feeling nauseous and I suddenly had a terrible sense of balance, but felt fine if I was lying down. More antibiotics and slept for most of four days, what else are you going to do when everything triggers it. Took two weeks to get mostly back to normal; not sure what happened (it wasn't BPPV, I have that and know how to "fix" it and this was completely different and didn't respond at all to the epley).

Man that is scary!!! I hate taking antibiotics. From the map it looks like your area has a pretty low incidence of Lyme Disease. My area definitely does and for that I am grateful.

I haven't gotten a tick bite in a year or 2 (knock on wood). I am rather hairy, so that is an advantage. I can feel one the second it starts crawling on me. Will wake my up from a dead sleep. My tick bites get really itchy.

 

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Man that is scary!!! I hate taking antibiotics. From the map it looks like your area has a pretty low incidence of Lyme Disease. My area definitely does and for that I am grateful.

I haven't gotten a tick bite in a year or 2 (knock on wood). I am rather hairy, so that is an advantage. I can feel one the second it starts crawling on me. Will wake my up from a dead sleep. My tick bites get really itchy.

Part of the "low incidence" is a lack of belief that Lyme even exists here in the medical world. People definitely get it, but it's sometimes years before they get properly diagnosed. There are doctors who will flat-out deny that there's lyme in California.

 

[ponytug]

Thing is, tests for Lyme aren't accurate for at least a four weeks, if not longer.
However, once it's embedded, it takes ridiculous amounts of antibiotics to treat... but a quick run of antibiotics taken within 72h of the bite seem to keep it from sticking.

I got a tick in March, near the top of my thigh - surprised the heck out of me because work pants etc but I realized I'd had a cat on my lap when I was sitting just in boxers...
anyways the next day I had swollen lymph nodes right in the region of the bite so I got on antibiotics, something obviously was bothering the immune system.

Strange thing, a month later I got another tick, up on my shoulder, and while I didn't get any obvious lymph reaction from that I developed a hair-trigger motion sickness within a few hours. I couldn't walk around the house without feeling nauseous and I suddenly had a terrible sense of balance, but felt fine if I was lying down. More antibiotics and slept for most of four days, what else are you going to do when everything triggers it. Took two weeks to get mostly back to normal; not sure what happened (it wasn't BPPV, I have that and know how to "fix" it and this was completely different and didn't respond at all to the epley).

That's a not an atypical tick reaction. Some folks develop an aversion to red meat, usually permanently.

Part of the "low incidence" is a lack of belief that Lyme even exists here in the medical world. People definitely get it, but it's sometimes years before they get properly diagnosed. There are doctors who will flat-out deny that there's lyme in California.

X10!

The doctors around here seem to think Lyme disease doesn't exist locally, based on blood draws from urban populations. To me that is a drunk searching for keys under the streetlight scenario. Personally, I can't count the number of "Bull's eye" responses to tick bites that I have had around here. The local vets are on a very different page to the doctors as the vets see positive Lyme tests routinely in dogs.

I'm going to go with Lyme disease is not only in California, but prevalent based on what I know.

I would point out that there are a number of tick borne diseases in the US, so there really aren't "safe" tick bites. About Ticks and Tickborne Disease
Red meat allergy from tick bites. (Alpha-gal syndrome)

The bad thing about some of the tick borne diseases is that the killed organism leaves behind cells and antigens that aren't cleared from the body well, or at all, and those dead cells continuously aggravate the immune system. So prompt treatment is a must to reduce the probability of long term chronic disease symptoms.

All the best,

Peter

 

[mjonesnh]

That's a not an atypical tick reaction. Some folks develop an aversion to red meat, usually permanently.

That is a bite from a Lonestar tick I believe. Ex-daughter-in-law was bitten in 2019. Couldn't eat beef or pork for 3-4 years. Slowly got over it till a steak or pork chops didn't bother her last year.

 

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That's a not an atypical tick reaction. Some folks develop an aversion to red meat, usually permanently.

Glad I only got the balance / motion sickness bit then. I can use a walking stick, but live without a ribeye?

 

[Jstpssng]

Is that what they are doing now? Every time you get a tick bite you have to take antibiotics as a prophylactic to lyme disease? That seems a little extreme.

We have a lot of nasty bugs here in the south, but black flies are not one of them. After reading this post I am VERY glad about that. They sound like dreadful creatures.

I sent the tick out for testing, and it was determined to carry Lyme's. I knew it had been on me for 24 hours, so opted for antibiotics.

 

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I sent the tick out for testing, and it was determined to carry Lyme's. I knew it had been on me for 24 hours, so opted for antibiotics.

They did that briefly around here but the last time I told the doc that I had kept the tick they were like "hmmmm yeah I don't know where we'd get that tested, we'll just Rx the a-b" ...

The antibiotics cost them a couple bucks probably. Testing the tick, probably a hundred or so.

 

[otlski]

I don't know how true or correlated all this is but local lore is that early on, the epicenter of Lyme disease in the world was in Old Lyme Connecticut. Old Lyme is just across from Plum Island in Long Island Sound. Plum Island was a US government biological research facility.

 

[CalG]

OK! OK!

I take back my mention of loathing black flies.

My wife just pulled the SECOND embedded wood tick off me today. (I couldn't reach back there ;-)
The first was a "regular sized" dog tick. This second one was no bigger than a fleck pf pepper. Itches like crazy, and I dosed it up with neosporen pain relief ointment. It must have some topical sensation suppression. I'll need to wait a bit for it to kick in.

I was out "in the brush" moving stone for a new retaining wall today. They must have jumped me!

Dang creatures!

 

[Jstpssng]

OK! OK!

I take back my mention of loathing black flies.

My wife just pulled the SECOND embedded wood tick off me today. (I couldn't reach back there ;-)
The first was a "regular sized" dog tick. This second one was no bigger than a fleck pf pepper. Itches like crazy, and I dosed it up with neosporen pain relief ointment. It must have some topical sensation suppression. I'll need to wait a bit for it to kick in.

I was out "in the brush" moving stone for a new retaining wall today. They must have jumped me!

Dang creatures!

Sounds like a deer tick.

That's the one I send out for testing.