Ticks - Given it is said the best cure is prevention, what tick......?
- Thread starter Silverclaws2
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After teaching First Aid for 20 years, including +F and Outdoor First Aid, attending many trainer courses and being a service provider for a few very well known outdoor organisations. I now bow to the superior knowledge of a few here. No more posts on First Aid from myself, wasting my time.
What to Do After a Tick Bite
Steps to take after a tick bite including removing a tick and watching for signs and symptoms.
www.cdc.gov
What to Do After a Tick Bite : Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center
There are three key steps to do after a tick bite. First, remove the tick. Second, learn to recognize the rash. Third, request care from your physician.
www.hopkinslyme.org
CDC seems fine with rubbing alcohol for a tick bite, as does the Johns Hopkins Medicine Lyme Disease Research Center.
It's all about risk and triage again, isn't it? If you don't have access to clean water, soap, antiseptic cream or saline, use an alcohol wipe and it'll be no problem for such a tiny cut. Priority is to prevent infection. Superficial damage like a tick bite won't be adversely impacted by alcohol to the point that it outweighs the benefit of sterilising the site of the bite.
Edited to add: Forgot to mention that rubbing alcohol can also sooth the itchiness caused by insect bites, which is another layer of infection prevention due to less scratching.
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As a Lyme patient i received a book from my specialist doctor. (I had several complaints over 7 years before Lyme was diagnosed.)
Great Egret is fun the Netherlands. Their health system is more available than ours in UK.
i forgot, there is a vaccin for TBE, in Sweden you can get that almost everywhere. It will not prevent you from getting Lyme, but only TBE!
I take it you are unfamiliar with how difficult it is to get medical care in the UK for a great many of us to have had to resort to our own devices
A week or so ago I bent my legs up in bed to watch a bit on the iPad before sleep and the back of my knee really hurt. There was a fairly big and fairly dead tick in there and clearly I’d rubbed and probably crushed the thing. My knee was hot and though I couldn’t see properly, I was pretty sure it was all infected.
Well, due to a van trip away, everything I needed was in the FAK that I hadn’t brought in yet so I got dressed and had to go and get it all, plus the little mirror that gets used in there.
The site was pretty rough, red, pus, with the tick almost buried under swollen tissue. I hooked the bugger out and used what I had, alcohol wipes I have hundreds of for cleaning up knife blades etc, but the real useful stuff is Betadyne. That iodine is an excellent antiseptic. Again, not recommended for use on live flesh, but it keeps infection at bay in the tropics, road rash in Thailand is particularly aggressive for infection and it’s sold in the little yellow bottles everywhere. A week later and it’s all healed just fine. You just use whatever you have really, I’ve pulled them out with a bent plastic bag twisty with the plastic scraped off.
Didn’t go for antibiotics or a Lymes test just kept it clean and changed the Mepore plaster daily. Estimates for Lymes carrying ticks are 2.5-5% and carried by deer ticks, the black legged ones. Despite that, it’s definitely the worst bite I’ve had, and I’ve brought home 17 deer ticks when working in what we didn’t know was the deer overnight area where we sat and ate lunch. Sure as hell got tested after that episode.
I don’t know of a deterrent for them, I find only Deet, Citronella and the burning coils work for mosquitos, I thought covering up and daily checking was the tick prevention?
Well, due to a van trip away, everything I needed was in the FAK that I hadn’t brought in yet so I got dressed and had to go and get it all, plus the little mirror that gets used in there.
The site was pretty rough, red, pus, with the tick almost buried under swollen tissue. I hooked the bugger out and used what I had, alcohol wipes I have hundreds of for cleaning up knife blades etc, but the real useful stuff is Betadyne. That iodine is an excellent antiseptic. Again, not recommended for use on live flesh, but it keeps infection at bay in the tropics, road rash in Thailand is particularly aggressive for infection and it’s sold in the little yellow bottles everywhere. A week later and it’s all healed just fine. You just use whatever you have really, I’ve pulled them out with a bent plastic bag twisty with the plastic scraped off.
Didn’t go for antibiotics or a Lymes test just kept it clean and changed the Mepore plaster daily. Estimates for Lymes carrying ticks are 2.5-5% and carried by deer ticks, the black legged ones. Despite that, it’s definitely the worst bite I’ve had, and I’ve brought home 17 deer ticks when working in what we didn’t know was the deer overnight area where we sat and ate lunch. Sure as hell got tested after that episode.
I don’t know of a deterrent for them, I find only Deet, Citronella and the burning coils work for mosquitos, I thought covering up and daily checking was the tick prevention?
I am absolutely more than capable of resorting to my own devices, far more than you are, and have had to on several occasions.
So you would not go to a MIU or A&E with a nasty wound, you would get out your Rambo knife and stitch it up yourself after dousing it with Alcohol. After playing rugby for 28 years, working outdoors all my life, serving as an Infanteer, loving sharp things, cutting and hand splitting logs etc, I am only to aware of the wait you may have to endure. I have no idea how many X-rays I have had, broken bones and dozens of stitches. But it has never been difficult to get medical attention.
Please don’t patronise me, it isn’t big.
I've been lucky so far, not to have been bitten. But, I've found plenty wandering up my legs, so I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
So, what would a decent but basic out and about tick removal kit look like? Something relatively compact you could keep in a pocket when out walking the dog.
• Tweezers/tick card (is one better?)
• Alcohol wipes
• Magnifying lens
• Mirror
Anything else?
So, what would a decent but basic out and about tick removal kit look like? Something relatively compact you could keep in a pocket when out walking the dog.
• Tweezers/tick card (is one better?)
• Alcohol wipes
• Magnifying lens
• Mirror
Anything else?
I hear of this so much on the news these days but I can just rock in to my Pharmacists and get medical care or advice. I can call 111 and get directed somewhere and oftern booked in ahead of getting there. Then again I can also get into see, i repeat that actually SEE, my GP in perhaps a day or two if needed or get a telephone consult next day or day after. I think that was better than when I was a kid in the 70s!!!!!
Is this issue you have due to living down south or some other populous areas?? I live north Lancs / south cumbria area and before that the Preston - Blackburn areas. Never had an issue seeing a GP
Of course is the GP the right place to go? UK has Pharmacists that are very highly trained and professional. They can do a lot of advice and at least put your mind to rest about a lot of things. All while taking the pressure off your GP surgery. Many can do basic health checks like blood pressure, cholesterol checks and some I think can take blood samples too. Plus they are licenced to prescribe medicines for a certain number of conditions. My only wish is they were like French Pharmacists so I could forage for mushrooms in full knowledge I could get a knowledgable second decision on whether my haul was safe. (Just bringing the bushcraft into the conversation a bit more!!
)
These are good, I just carry this in a pocket/wallet. They have a little magnifying lens built in as well: https://amzn.eu/d/iQBaFwo
Mirror, antiseptic wipes and tweezers in my IFAK for anything the card doesn’t solve, and for bedtime checks. I also carry the tweezers/tick remover set thing for use on my dog. This is the one I have on my IFAK: https://amzn.eu/d/cs0OgbO
I used to get those plastic fork things in two or even three sizes. I Heard they were safer for removing ticks than tweezers. Since then we were without a set and bought a Lifesystems stainless steel, fine tipped tick tweezers. Not unlike the one I think was in the second link above.
What is your opinion, and opinions of others here too, on tick tweezers vs tick fork, prong, hook things??
I was interested to read in the second link about hook, fork one for larger ones and fine tip tweezers for nymphs and smaller ticks. I must admit we once had trouble getting a very small tick off with even the smaller fork remover once and fortunately I remembered I had the tweezers which we used on about the 5th attempt and that worked.
I am sure that we would always make whatever we had to use work for us with a tick, but if you "distress" the tick it can empty its guts. Perhaps not so much an issue with the smaller ticks (might not have much in their guts to disgorge) but I still feel it is possibly safer to have two methods, at least, to remove ticks. As always if you only have a tick card, like the first link above, then you will make that work.
Having typed this I think I will buy a couple more tick tweezers and hooked fork sets to put a fork and tweezer in common kits and locations. One set in the car, one in the house FAK and one set somewhere else in the hosue as a back up for when someone does not put the house FAK set back (Grrrr!).
This is all I carry that’s specific to ticks.
The chain running through the snap shackle is permanently attached at the ends to my wallet and my car key so it is always with me.
For the rest, if I’m out with a first aid kit then I’ll apply a bromine antiseptic that I apply to everything. If not it can wait till I get home.
If I can get an appointment with my doctor or if I go to the pharmacist (which is very much quicker) they will just tell me to keep an eye on it and come back if it gets worse.
Not all ticks are infected by any means.
pee ess
Don’t remove it indoors. You might spend a chunk of your life trying to see where it dropped.
You can make a tick key just by filing a notch in a plastic teaspoon.
The chain running through the snap shackle is permanently attached at the ends to my wallet and my car key so it is always with me.
For the rest, if I’m out with a first aid kit then I’ll apply a bromine antiseptic that I apply to everything. If not it can wait till I get home.
If I can get an appointment with my doctor or if I go to the pharmacist (which is very much quicker) they will just tell me to keep an eye on it and come back if it gets worse.
Not all ticks are infected by any means.
pee ess
Don’t remove it indoors. You might spend a chunk of your life trying to see where it dropped.
You can make a tick key just by filing a notch in a plastic teaspoon.
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The last UK Pharmacist I rocked up at for advice on a difficult wound told me to see a doctor, for myself to tell that pharmacist, beyond the fact that Pharmacists are supposed to be able to advise on skin injuries, the reason I was consulting the pharmacist was because I couldn't get an appointment to see a doctor within three weeks, in the end it took five weeks. That is what I am dealing with in my Devonian part of the world, these folk are just not accessible.I hear of this so much on the news these days but I can just rock in to my Pharmacists and get medical care or advice. I can call 111 and get directed somewhere and oftern booked in ahead of getting there. Then again I can also get into see, i repeat that actually SEE, my GP in perhaps a day or two if needed or get a telephone consult next day or day after. I think that was better than when I was a kid in the 70s!!!!!
Is this issue you have due to living down south or some other populous areas?? I live north Lancs / south cumbria area and before that the Preston - Blackburn areas. Never had an issue seeing a GP
Of course is the GP the right place to go? UK has Pharmacists that are very highly trained and professional. They can do a lot of advice and at least put your mind to rest about a lot of things. All while taking the pressure off your GP surgery. Many can do basic health checks like blood pressure, cholesterol checks and some I think can take blood samples too. Plus they are licenced to prescribe medicines for a certain number of conditions. My only wish is they were like French Pharmacists so I could forage for mushrooms in full knowledge I could get a knowledgable second decision on whether my haul was safe. (Just bringing the bushcraft into the conversation a bit more!!
you triggered me to look for British info and i found this for example: British journal of general practice
and this lymediseaseaction and the advice is not very different from the Netherlands. I wasn't aware the health system in the UK was so much different then ours...
Please don't be like that, I'm genuinely asking the question because I don't have any such training and don't know the answer.
And please don't patronise me for what we're describing here is experience in that we both have had different experiences to learn different stuff.
