Reply to Pulled a tick off my DH this morning. What does he need to do now?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Doctors generally with not prophylactically treat for Lyme. You generally must exhibit symptoms or a positive test first.

PP who claims to study this for work seems uninformed about testing. An immediate blood test is VERY likely to come back negative even if there was an exposure to Lyme. Lyme has a long incubation period and a blood test can turn up negative for weeks after a bite. He could test now, but he will very likely need to test again if and when symptoms develop, anyway.

80% of people get the classic bulls-eye rash, so it's unlikely he won't be one of them. But even if he has Lyme and doesn't get the characteristic rash, there is no need to panic like PP is doing -- if he develops symptoms, have him get another blood test and get on doxy. My mother had Lyme without the characteristic rash (but knew she'd had a tick bite) and was treated with doxycycline starting about 4 weeks after exposure (and some really severe symptoms in her case) and was 100% fine after treatment began.

Of course, the absolute best thing to do is to keep the tick in a plastic ziplock bag and mail it to a lab for testing (I have used U Mass's excellent lab in the past) because then you know for certain whether the tick was infected or not. Keep it in mind for next time.

Tick checks after spending time in the outdoors, particularly in the May-July timeframe, are also a great next step for your family.

One last thing: is it possible it was a dog tick instead of a deer tick (since it was "pea sized" -- deer ticks are smaller, especially at this time of year when it's likely a nymph is biting)? Dog ticks don't carry Lyme. If the legs went down the sides of the tick when it was engorged, it was probably a dog tick, if the legs were all near the mouth, it was probably a deer tick (hard to say without saving the tick, sometimes).[/quote]

OP here.  Thank you so much for the responses.  I feel like the legs were kind of evenly distributed around the body, but I can't be sure.  It didn't even occur to me to save the damn thing.  At least I will know for the future.  We do have a big hairy golden retriever, does that increase the chances that it could be a dog tick?  I have to admit we have not been as diligent as we should be with Frontline, but I put it on her today and will be on top of it from now on![/quote]

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