I’ve had several tick bites over the years with no problems. About 90 days ago I was bitten on the back and now have a pea-sized spot, dark red, hard, slightly raised, and sensitive to touch like a pimple. No infection and no lyme symptoms. Anybody had similar circumstances after a tick bite, and how long does it last?
Tennessee
Sounds like an abcess from the tick’s head maybe still under the skin. Off to the doc with ya.
Bushwhack
I would probably use some kind of ointment that dries out your skin but definetly see a doctor first. It might help the doctor if you remember what this tick looked like. Red/black big/small etc…
Me and a freind did a hike. At the end of the day we would check each other’s backs for ticks. I don’t know why but I had none, while he had like 7!
A simple stab in their back with a knife took care of them
Novaximus
Ten,
I would definitely go get it looked at. It may be nothing but I wouldn’t mess with tick bites. I had Lyme disease a few summers ago…it was awful. I was bitten by a tick in June and did not have symptoms until late August…being a nurse I thought I could manage the bite when it happened…I was wrong and suffered many effects for a few months. The worst that could happen is that you will be put on antibiotics just in case. Feel better!
grapejelly
By Harpers Raindog got sick, he’d been bitten on one of his, um, boyz. Nice 104* fever for a week. He loved being the topic of pre-med discussion. “Look at the size of that one!” as the filed by and looked at his groin. We added a Uni- to his trail name now. They think it was a dog tick, the standard big brown ones and a varient of Spotted Fever without the spots. We’ve seen dogs get nasty sick from tick bites, we can only guess at all the types of bugs they carry.
Bushwhack
New one going around in jersey.Two young girls in burlington county developed tick paralysis.They lost control of their limbs.Temp,with quick recovery with antibiotics
Onlyone
Hey grapejelly, I’ve always heard that the classic sign of lyme is a bullseye shaped red ring around the bite location. Did you have that? I haven’t, and that’s why I said no lyme symptoms. Thanks.
Tennessee
but everyone doesn’t get the rash. If you don’t get the rash
it’s harder to diagnose. Gotta get a blood test then.
Stumpknocker got sick last spring, but didn’t get the rash. He
spent like two weeks in a motel until a doctor finally narrowed
it down to Lyme, which was confirmed by a blood test.
Penicillin or tetracycline derivatives take care of it in
about a month.
I got Lyme, myself, last summer in CT. The rash appeared in
10 days, and I went on doxycycline for 30 days. No big deal,
but left untreated Lyme will cause ALOT health of problems.
Scamp
Scamp
but everyone doesn’t get the rash. If you don’t get the rash
it’s harder to diagnose. Gotta get a blood test then.
Stumpknocker got sick last spring, but didn’t get the rash. He
spent like two weeks in a motel until a doctor finally narrowed
it down to Lyme, which was confirmed by a blood test.
Penicillin or tetracycline derivatives take care of it in
about a month.
I got Lyme, myself, last summer in CT. The rash appeared in
10 days, and I went on doxycycline for 30 days. No big deal,
but left untreated Lyme will cause ALOT health of problems.
Scamp
Scamp
Tennessee-I never had the classic bull’s eye rash…I’ve read that nearly 20% of LD cases never present with the rash at all. I’m not even sure where I got the bite…I was hiking in Vermont and on the beach in Nantucket in the same week. The first symptom I had was Bell’s palsey which is a paralysis of the facial muscles due to inflammation on a cranial nerve from the infection. The whole right side of my face wouldn’t move for 3 weeks. I couldn’t even blink my right eye…then I got very swollen knees ( I couldn’t bend them) and pins and needles down my arms. These are late signs of LD and if I had been smart and gone to see a Dr. I would have been on antibiotics earlier and may have avoided all of that. All the symptoms went away eventually after 2 months of medication but I missed my favorite part of hiking season…early September in the whites. Anyway, I don’t mean to sound like an alarmist but after my experience I would tell anyone to at least get it looked at.
grapejelly
Yes, ticks carry all kinds of things. Get it checked by the doc. It’s cheap insurance. He’ll probably just clean out the wound.
Gravity Man
Gravity Man
gravity man is right, I suppose that I will break down and go to one of the walk-in clinics. I don’t have “sick” symptoms but had a sore throat & swollen glands a month or so after the bite, and joints have been a little achy, but when you’re forty-seven and backpack on weekends that’s to be expected. I suppose the doc will just clean the wound, maybe some antibiotics, but the downside risk isn’t worth fooling with. Thanks for the feedback, you talked me into it.
Tennessee