Ticks/Treatment

[Alantoo]

I now consider it serious enough threat that I carry Doxy with me wherever I go on holiday.

Do you buy it on line at somewhere like Superdrug or do you just ask your doctor for it?

Alan

 

[purdey24]

I think it will be prescription only.
I personally am very allergic to it and use a different antibiotic.

 

[zambezi]

...threat posed by a tick bite/lymes and the undisputed discomfort it cause

That massively understates the impact Lyme disease can have on some individuals from neural damage to heart impairment. It is non-trivial. Tim Pilbeam of Rifle Shooter fame has catalogued his journey with the disease. Closer to home, the sister of a friend contracted Lyme and it utterly debilitated her and lead to job loss.

I wouldnt take the meds for every bite, only if I get the rash.

Agreed. But I would qualify that: get the rash or recurrent short duration flu-like symptoms at 8 week cycles.

 

[oowee]

Either I am very lucky or there appears to be a big difference between individuals as to how likely they are to be bitten. I am shooting a few deer (about 1 a week) and I am out shooting 3 or four days a week. There are high numbers of ticks but I have only been bitten once in two years. Mate of mine on the other hand is bitten regularly and often. My dog is picking up at least two a month.

I wear protective trousers and I take basic precautions during handling (no sprays) but I can't imagine that this is making a great difference between us. A sample of two is hardly a sample at all but there is something going on making a difference between us.
Maybe its the garlic cloves

 

[Alantoo]

Either I am very lucky or there appears to be a big difference between individuals as to how likely they are to be bitten. I am shooting a few deer (about 1 a week) and I am out shooting 3 or four days a week. There are high numbers of ticks but I have only been bitten once in two years. Mate of mine on the other hand is bitten regularly and often. My dog is picking up at least two a month.

I wear protective trousers and I take basic precautions during handling (no sprays) but I can't imagine that this is making a great difference between us. A sample of two is hardly a sample at all but there is something going on making a difference between us.
Maybe its the garlic cloves

I eat Garlic, and have a wide circle of friends...

I have only ever found one tick latched onto me...wierdly it was on the thin skin covering my shinbone a couple of inches below the knee. I couldn't believe that I couldn't feel it or that my trousers hadn't rubbed it off. Given where I find most of them on the dogs I always thought fleshier areas and the like would be favourite spots for them.

As kids though we used to get tiny little pinprick sized biting things buried in places like under sock tops and knicker elastic...we always called those Harvesters...and they used to itch like hell. I have often wondered if they were actually ticks.

Alan

 

[greville1689]

Just had the results of blood tests for Lyme's which was interesting. There are 2 types of anti-bodies that show up - one about 3-4 weeks after infection, and the other much later. From my tests it would seem that the symptoms I had after a tick bite last month were not Lyme's but rather another virus. However, I tested positive for the later antibodies which means I must have had Lyme's at some stage in the past. Very hard to think when as I have been bitten by ticks many times over the years, both in UK and Europe. I am pretty certain I never had the "bullseye" rash but it may have been somewhere not obvious (back of knee etc).

 

[Fishpond]

Bullseye rash only happens in approx 2/3 of cases so you may not have had it when you were infected but woukd have had symptoms. Doctor should also treat on basis of symptoms as well as presence of antibodies - have a look at the NICE guidance on diagnosis and treatment

Overview | Lyme disease | Guidance | NICE

www.nice.org.uk

Richard

 

[norma 308]

We are in France at the moment, on Saturday my wife found a tick on the back of her neck, this morning all we could see was a small red lump and it was itchy, we went to the local doctor and came away with a perscription for twenty days of antibiotics,

I got bitten a fair bit in Yorkshire went docs and had doxycycline for 21 days but had to stop after 14 as my skin was so sensitive to the sun and irritable hopefully no lymes but I couldn’t even bare a shower in the end