What do I do for a tick?

[Anonymous]

I’m traveling and just found a tick on my young son. It’s about 2-3 mm and looks grey. It’s head is buried in him and I don’t have any forceps to pull it out with. I’ll check with the front desk.

Anything I should know or watch for?

[Anonymous]

In a pinch I have pulled them out with my fingers and then dabbed the area with alcohol. You want to make sure you don't leave the head in, so I definitely prefer using tweezers but I wouldn't wait around forever for them!

[Anonymous]

I had two ticks last year after a hike. I did a call with a doctor, and he advised me to pull them out with tweezers and disinfect the area with rubbing alcohol. He also prescribed me a single dose antibiotic.

[Anonymous]

Go buy some tweezers. How old is your son? If he’s 8+ you can do a dose of antibiotics as a prevention for Lyme. Call dr ASAP or go to urgent care.

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone!

DS is 6. His cousin got Lyme disease at age 3.

Our hotel had some plastic forceps which did the trick. No one had alcohol but they’re swimming in a well-chlorinated pool right now.

I don’t know why my first aid kit wasn’t in the car. I usually keep a well-stocked kit for travel emergencies.

We’ll be seeing a retired physician at a family reunion this afternoon so I’ll ask him to look at the area. I’m looking into doing a telemedicine appointment as well for antibiotics mentioned by a pp.

Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Just pulled one off of me a few days ago. Got a single dose of antibiotics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you everyone!

DS is 6. His cousin got Lyme disease at age 3.

Our hotel had some plastic forceps which did the trick. No one had alcohol but they’re swimming in a well-chlorinated pool right now.

I don’t know why my first aid kit wasn’t in the car. I usually keep a well-stocked kit for travel emergencies.

We’ll be seeing a retired physician at a family reunion this afternoon so I’ll ask him to look at the area. I’m looking into doing a telemedicine appointment as well for antibiotics mentioned by a pp.

Thank you!!

I guess you aren’t that concerned. Plastic forceps? And no topical antibiotics? Just a pool?! Just wow. No stores around for essentials?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you everyone!

DS is 6. His cousin got Lyme disease at age 3.

Our hotel had some plastic forceps which did the trick. No one had alcohol but they’re swimming in a well-chlorinated pool right now.

I don’t know why my first aid kit wasn’t in the car. I usually keep a well-stocked kit for travel emergencies.

We’ll be seeing a retired physician at a family reunion this afternoon so I’ll ask him to look at the area. I’m looking into doing a telemedicine appointment as well for antibiotics mentioned by a pp.

Thank you!!

They have to be taken immediately. Also, not recommended for under age 8.

[Anonymous]

You can repurpose a Polly pocket house, just make sure there’s a little real water in there.

[Anonymous]

A lot of doctors aren't up to speed yet, but it's best to ask for a prophylactic course of antibiotics, OP. My husband, who is a doctor, gave himself such a course when he had a tick attached a few years ago after a trail hike.

[Anonymous]

The under 8 thing isn’t true anymore. My then 6 year old got a single dose of prophylaxis antibiotics. It was fine.

[Anonymous]

Call the pediatrician! They will know whether to prescribe for a child that young. When this happened with my kid, the doctor asked if we had saved the tic. Apparently, it’s possible to test them somehow for Lyme?

[Anonymous]

I second the prophylactic antibiotics. You can also send the tick to a lab (assuming you kept it) to have it tested for Lyme. There are a few, but here’s one: https://web.uri.edu/tickencounter/testing/. We did this twice- once for a tick on our dog (negative) and once for a tick on my DD (positive). My DD never showed symptoms of Lyme, but the test made me glad we did the antibiotics. The test can also tell you how engorged the tick is, and it didn’t look like my DD’s on for very long, which also gave me peace of mind.

[Anonymous]

OP is too busy going to the pool to bother with antibiotics. Unreal. As soon as you saw the tick you should have gone to urgent care for the antibiotics.

[Anonymous]

Prophylactic antibiotics (single dose) are not recommend, they don’t get rid of the infection and mask possible symptoms. You also don’t know what kind of tick it is and don’t want to take antibiotics for nothing. I recently had ticks and sent them in and they weren’t the kind to transmit Lyme. I don’t understand why people run to urgent care and ask for antibiotics, this is not an emergency.