posted
Our Daughter who is 5 was recently found with a tick embedded in her (9 days ago). It had been on her for up to 8 hours. We extracted it with tweezers. there was a slight redness the size of a nickel around the bite. I may or may not have squeezed the tick while extracting it. Our daughter has shown no symptoms these last 9 days. Just today we received news from the lab that the tick tested positive for lyme. Having read websites saying that the tick must be feeding for at least 12 - 24 hours can we be sure that we got the tick off in time? Or, does the fact that the tick tested positive mean that we should give her antibiotics as prophylactic? If so, which antibiotic and what dosage? Is it possible that she could show no symptoms at all for the foreseeable future, but still have contracted the disease? Many thanks for any help you can give. Worried Parents
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posted
The tick does not have to be feeding for 12 hours. A lot depends on the "bacterial load" the tick had, your immune system health, if the tick was squeezed any before or during removal - and many others that I can't think of now.
RUN DON'tWALK! You need to get her to a doctor immediately - a "Lyme Literate MD" (LLMD) if at all possible.
And since it's been this long - don't settle for only 2 weeks of treatment or wait ANY length of time to start treatment - especially don't wait for any tests ot come back.
Read about the tests - they are infamous for inaccuracy.
I'm thinking you probably don't have a LLMD since he/she didn't start treatment ASAP. If you can't find a LLMD, print info from this site and take it to him/her. Maybe they will be open to learning.
Esp. download, print and read Dr. Burrascano's 2005 Treatment Guidelines:
-------------------- Pam Live well. Laugh often. Love much. Posts: 53 | From Ohio - south/southeast | Registered: Oct 2005
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Michelle M
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7200
posted
Hi John.
Good for you for being so watchful and careful!
The OLD SCHOOL way of thinking used to be that the tick had to be attached for 24-48 hours.
In fact, most goofy doctors still believe this.
That's because borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes lyme disease, was found primarily in the tick's gut, and it took it about that time to migrate to the host it was attached to.
However, recent studies show a much shorter attachment time (i.e., 6 hours).
Other studies have shown borrelia b. in TICK SALIVA -- demonstrating that it is NOT necessarily confined to their stomachs. Now, it makes sense that ticks use their saliva when they bite you, chewing through your skin, anesthesizing you and attaching.
Thus explaining why so many people who haven't suffered a long attachment period nevertheless have lyme disease.
Don't let your daughter be one of them.
Get her on doxycycline pursuant to Dr. B's guidelines. For as long as recommended by HIM, not by anyone else. It's vitally important, especially with the tick testing positive!
Good luck -- now's the time to act!
Michelle
Posts: 3193 | From Northern California | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
If the tick tested positive that is proof enough in my mind that your daughter has Lyme disease.
The other thing you need to be aware of is that ticks can transmit many other illnesses besides or in addition to Lyme -- Babesia, Bartonella, Anaplasma etc.
Saw that you are from the UK and know that LLMD's are harder to come by over there.
posted
[QUOTE]Originally posted by john lobreglio: Having read websites saying that the tick must be feeding for at least 12 - 24 hours can we be sure that we got the tick off in time?
Ticks don't have watches.
Or, does the fact that the tick tested positive mean that we should give her antibiotics as prophylactic?
YES!!
If so, which antibiotic and what dosage?
Amoxicillin...I don't know the dosage.
Is it possible that she could show no symptoms at all for the foreseeable future, but still have contracted the disease?
posted
I am not a doctor but that is my exact story, found a tick, had a deep red circle around it the size of a quarter, 10 days or so later my life changed for ever. I lived in Norwalk, CT and called the doctor, he told me "If I had everybody in Fairfield county who was bitten by a tick on antibiotics the whole county would be on them". Well, that was my mistake, I really think if I had went on them right away I wouldn't still be sick 14 years later. What is the harm of a course or two of anti-biotics, very little to none in my opinion.
Posts: 121 | From Memphis, TN | Registered: Dec 2004
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AZURE WISH
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 804
posted
This is not medical advise just an opinion from someone who has had lyme quite awhile.
Please get her treated. Make sure that the dosage is high enough, it is the "right" abx and she is on them for long enough.
Dr. b's guidelines are a good place to start.
Many people took awhile to develop symtpoms or coped with their symptoms and then eventually became disabled.
This disease does not kill the infected person often but if left untreated it can kill their life. Many have lost homes, jobs, families... and more.
I can't stress enough how devasting this disease can be if it goes untreated. So if she is treated NOW and she has it, you save her from sufferring this. If you treat and she didn't have it, all she lost was the time it took to take the medication.
riversinger
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 4851
posted
I am posting the advice of Dr. Charles Ray Jones, who has treated over 8,000 chlidren with Lyme disease. He says it all. We don't usually post doctor's names here, but Dr. Jones has given permission to use his name.
quote:Dr. Charles Ray Jones recommends the following for children who are bitten by a tick in a Lyme endemic area (2005):
"The best way to prevent Lyme disease is to treat Ixodes scapularis tick attachments in a Lyme endemic area with 30 days of oral antibiotics."
He also states.. "The duration of Ixodes scapularis attachment should not be a factor because it does not take long for a small Ixodes scapularis tick or nymph to attach, feed and inoculate organisms in the soft, thin, very vascular skin of a child.
It does not take long for Borrelia burgdorferi to diseminate from the skin, circulate briefly in the blood and lymphatics then become intracellular throughout the body but especially the joints, heart, eyes, muscles, lungs, bladder, GI tract and nervous system especially the brain.
A careful history must be taken to determine if a child has low-grade fever, headaches, and mild stiff neck at the time of an EM rash or Ixodes scapularis tick attachment because these are early signs of CNS seeding indicating early-disseminated Lyme disease with brain involvement.
Children with Ixodes scapularis tick attachments in the head-neck area, under the arms and in the belly button in very young children seems to have a more rapid dissemination of Borrelia burdorferi spirochetes from the skin to the brain than those with Ixodes scapularis tick attachments elsewhere. [CNS symptoms occur very early.]"
mlkeen
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1260
posted
Yes! Your daughter may seem fine for weeks, months or years, but needs to be treated now!
My son had a bite we didn't know about and developed a bulls eye rash at some point. He was treated for a month and seemed fine. He started to go down hill 8 months later and ended up very sick, out of school, and treated for 3 years. We are hoping he is well now.
I had only contact with a tick- ( I had been living the city life in Sydney Australia prior to coming to the US)
I didn't have to remove it- just knocked it from behind my ear while running fingers through my hair- there was an "ouch" so maybe a millisecond of contact-
The tick tested positive- I didn't get treated until after it crossed the blood brain barrier- about 6 weeks in my case- and I am still battling it-
If I were in your position, I would take no chances-
You are so lucky to have seen the tick-!
I hope that it works out for you- Best- Sarah
Posts: 119 | From new york, NY, USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in Oregon. She went to Idaho to visit her Grandma, where the health dept. claims there is no reported cases of LYME Disease.
Her Mom found the tick on the little girl's back and had it removed by the local pharmacist. The Mom called a local Duck, he said no worries, there is no way she could get sick from a simple tick bite.
Fifteen years later after MANY mysterious things gone wrong with her health, and so many tests we lost count, along with so many Ducks and Duck specialists, her life has basically come to a painful miserable standstill. Had I only known what I know now.
So please, for your precious Daughter's sake, RUN as fast as you can to a Dr. and DEMAND and BEG or do whatever you have to do and get that child on Amoxicillin ASAP. Actually, the fist medication my 3 year old Granddaughter was on was Zithromax 1/4 tsp a day for months. She was born with LYME.
-------------------- ICEY Posts: 468 | From Las Vegas NV | Registered: Jun 2005
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