We found a small deer tick on my 18mo. It's only been a few days but so far, no rash or any flu-like symptoms. Are practitioners recommending antibiotic treatment from any tick-bite (tick was not engorged) or based on clinical symptoms or positive test of tick? Our health dpt won't even send ticks out for testing if they're not engorged. My 7yo has had chronic lyme since he was 5 so I obviously don't want to go through this again - but also don't want to overreact?? I'm planning on calling our pedi tomorrow - but our practice has not been too "lyme-friendly" in the past. Thanks!
Posted by leadmare (Member # 15431) on :
My Dr when I asked said, "I'm supposed to tell you no, but if it were me or my child, darn skippy I'd do it."
Posted by nenet (Member # 13174) on :
You are right to be concerned. Always better safe than sorry with the high risk of Tick-borne diseases - in your area, especially.
Lyme has been observed to enter the CNS of laboratory animals within 24-48 hours. This alone would have me treating myself immediately, not to mention my child.
I would have my child on antibiotics, and tested for co-infections that might be detected early on. Then I would schedule an appt. with a ped LLMD to continue treatment before the original antibiotics were over (if the prescribing doctor did not supply the ILADS guidelines recommended 6-8 weeks of antibiotics).
If your current Docs won't budge, I would look elsewhere for emergency antibiotics, and look for another GP that might consult with an LLMD if possible. I know I have read of some that do this.