Tick on Toddler

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Basil12

Well-Known Member
Wonder if anyone with any experience can offer some advice or has previous knowledge.

My wife removed a small tick from our toddlers neck one week ago. It was removed very quickly after first seen and was only on for an hour tops I would say until seen.

All of it was removed and there were no adverse effects. The bit site healed well, was never angry and never developed into a bulls eye or rash of any kind. She has never shown any signs or symptoms since.

This was one week ago. As toddlers do she has picked up a wee viral bug and has been running a temp of 38, which has responded well to calpol. This is in last 48hrs. Understandably my wife and I are para about it being lymes or anything else.

Seen by the GP today and she’s not overly concerned and her own personal opinion it’s unlikely to be Lymes and she wouldn’t give antibiotics. We are also not keen for a 21 day dose as well but obviously concerned. But she’s given us the prescription none the less, so ball is in our court.

Just wondering if anyone has experience or can offer any advice re this?

Many thanks
 
It takes at least 24 hrs for transmission - due to a complex process of gene expression in the Lyme bacteria relating to transmission. The exception would be a tick that was already feeding - which is why one should be careful when skinning deer.

However, I've done a bit of research and the paper below casts doubt on what I have just said. It appears there is no safe time, but the sooner the tick is removed the better and it is likely that removal within 12 hours will be fine. I'd double check with your pharmacist on the antibiotics - doxycycline is a tetracycline and you can get damage to teeth enamel with use.

Lyme borreliosis: a review of data on transmission time after tick attachment​

 
Basil12 said:
Thanks for the reply mate, it wasn’t on for long at all. Link not working though?
Click to expand...
I believe it to be this one:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Lyme borreliosis: a review of data on transmission time after tick attachment

Lyme borreliosis is increasing rapidly in many parts of the world and is the most commonly occurring vector-borne disease in Europe and the USA. The disease is transmitted by ticks of the genus Ixodes. They require a blood meal at each stage of their ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

K.H
 
We had the same with one of our twins. Slightly older as he was 4 at the time, my wife went mental and threatened to burn anything shooting related including my truck to kill the source.

He had a slight temp the day after removal but as Calpol (the saviour of all parents) dropped it with one dose we all (she) clamed down and that was the end of that.

Child was slightly miffed as he had named it Terry the tick and wanted to keep it as a pet.
 
Been there when I was 26, tick has to be on for minimum of 24hrs bud. Probably picked up something in crèche. I’d be para too, but if only on for an hour, then you’ll be sound.
 
SikaSeeker said:
Been there when I was 26, tick has to be on for minimum of 24hrs bud. Probably picked up something in crèche. I’d be para too, but if only on for an hour, then you’ll be sound.
Click to expand...
I suggest a read of Buchan's attached paper, you won't have to read more than a couple of minutes to change your opinion on tick time on body.
 
Had the same situation with mine, no issues no rash bullseye etc been fine ever since.
At the time I was very concerned and paranoid about it all.
 
I was at a Lyme Disease presentation this week. It was very interesting and mentioned that the attachment to transmission of borreliosis was previously thought to be 24 to 48hrs, now it is deemed to be zero hours and to never assume no transmission.

Lyme disease does not necessarily appear as a bulls eye and may be a rash or no obvious indication at all; it is the symtoms that are all important.

The test would also appear to be suspect and even a negative result does not mean no apparent transmission. It is an antibody test and as a result these antibodies may not be present until the immune system properly kicks in, this is different in everyone and the degree of infection, and this maybe circa 4 weeks after the bite. So having the test to early may indicate no infection.

The RCGP toolkit is good LD guidance. Lyme disease toolkit | RCGP Learning

With GPs, most unfortunately have nil experience of Lyme infection (other than the EM ring/rash ) or are working to previous NICE guidelines. The guidelines that they should be using are NICE guidelines [NG95] 2018 (updated Oct 2018) Recommendations | Lyme disease | Guidance | NICE

Hope that this helps
 
Last edited:
Buchan said:
It takes at least 24 hrs for transmission - due to a complex process of gene expression in the Lyme bacteria relating to transmission. The exception would be a tick that was already feeding - which is why one should be careful when skinning deer.

However, I've done a bit of research and the paper below casts doubt on what I have just said. It appears there is no safe time, but the sooner the tick is removed the better and it is likely that removal within 12 hours will be fine. I'd double check with your pharmacist on the antibiotics - doxycycline is a tetracycline and you can get damage to teeth enamel with use.

Lyme borreliosis: a review of data on transmission time after tick attachment​

Click to expand...
1st line is amoxicillin in young children, which doesn't have those issues.
I wonder what the GP prescribed.
 
I shouldn' t worry about what hasn't happened . Lots of us pull tics and dont run off to the Doctors . Call the Dr when there are symptoms suggesting its not right .
Dont know how many times i have been got but i have had a good few removed sometimes a number of them at one time . Dogs get them pretty frequent
 
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