Found tick on 2 year old :(

[Toposlonoshlep]

Hi wise mamas,

Went hiking for mother's day....Bathed my two year-old that evening and checked body for ticks (we were hiking through some brush for a while)...Didn't see any...

Now, tonight, while I was making dinner, he pulled on his ear and told me his ear hurts. I folded the top down and discovered a tick. I was able to pull it out quite easily with tweezers, head and all. It kicked and protested when I put some olive oil on it. It didn't look enlarged to me at all, so I am thinking it wasn't attached that long. 

However, if he was to get bitten when we got to the hiking trail (around 8am on Mothers Day), It has been more than 24 hours.

Do I need to take him to the ped? Should I bring the tick? Do I need to just watch for symptoms of Lyme? What to do?

Thanks for any help!

[sosurreal09]

I am fairly sure the ped can test for Lyme disease, so I vote ped.

[treegardner]

To be on the safe side I would go in.

 

[JordanKX]

REALLY? I've found 3 ticks on my kiddo so far this year. Ticks are just a reality of living in the sticks, or at least I've always thought. really? Go to the Ped? ooh, now I'm scared.

[love4bob]

Ya, I wouldn't go to the ped... I would flush the tick down the toilet and move on. I grew up living around woods, and ticks were just a reality. Unless the bite became inflamed or something, I wouldn't do anything.

[1blueheron]

If you live in an area with Lyme (see map here)  I would definitely consider a call to the pediatrician.  I believe they can test the tick (and it may be your local ag extension that can test it rather than a ped).  You may also be able to find someone who can positively identify whether or not it was a deer tick.  Blood tests on a person aren't necessarily accurate right away.  Personally, I would assume that any illness or rash that follows this is Lyme and would run the risk of an unnecessary course of abx because chronic Lyme in a kid would be tragic.

This is a good website if you have questions about symptoms.

(And for those of you without Lyme ticks in your woods, you are lucky!  I wish we could be so cavalier about ticks.  If it was just the yuck factor I wouldn't bat an eye at them.)

[Toposlonoshlep]

Well, the tick came from upstate NY, which would render it likely to be a carrier of Lyme. Unfortunately, my friend who was over last night flushed the tick, so I no longer have it. 

I suppose I will watch for signs of infection and be ready to take him in for abx...

I don't think I'm comfortable with "just in case" abx.

Originally Posted by 1blueheron 

If you live in an area with Lyme (see map here)  I would definitely consider a call to the pediatrician.  I believe they can test the tick (and it may be your local ag extension that can test it rather than a ped).  You may also be able to find someone who can positively identify whether or not it was a deer tick.  Blood tests on a person aren't necessarily accurate right away.  Personally, I would assume that any illness or rash that follows this is Lyme and would run the risk of an unnecessary course of abx because chronic Lyme in a kid would be tragic.

This is a good website if you have questions about symptoms.

(And for those of you without Lyme ticks in your woods, you are lucky!  I wish we could be so cavalier about ticks.  If it was just the yuck factor I wouldn't bat an eye at them.)

[sosurreal09]

Yeah we def have lyme in MA I don't mess with ticks

[1blueheron]

Ya, I personally wouldn't do abx just because of the bite, but I'd push for them at the slightest sign of rash/fever/whatever.  But then practically every house in our neighborhood has at least one family member that has had Lyme, and at this time of year i find at least one tick a day on DD (yesterday one was crawling on her face, ugh).  We do a complete clothes change and bath after every trip outside during spring and fall.  It's a pain but we literally have ticks crawling up our screen doors this time of year.

Good luck and I hope your LO stays well.

[Mama Metis]

Wait a second. The first thing to determine is - was it a deer tick or a dog tick? A dog tick is the more common type. It is larger and does not carry Lyme's disease. A deer tick, which can carry Lyme's, is very tiny - no larger than the head of a pin. If it was a deer tick, keep an eye out for a rash at the bite site. While not everybody gets the classic bull's eye rash, it's pretty unlikely that he'd get Lyme's with no rash at all. Good luck!

[eli's mama]

Ticks are a fact of life for me too.  We live in the woods and I regularly pull ticks off my dog, myself and my kids.  of course best case is that they don't bite, but if they do we remove them and dab with tea tree oil on the spot.  If you caught it before it was engorged and managed to pull it out without bursting it you likely have nothing to worry about and there isn't much a ped would do anyway.  watch for a rash, any rash anywhere.  My ped disregarded the rash ds2 had because it didn't fit the "typical" lyme rash, it didn't last more than 12 hours etc.  Turns out it was lyme after all.  But, that tick had been on for hours and was engorged and wasn't properly removed. My vet told me Lyme (and other diseases) is transmitted when the tick finishes feeding and "burps" a little, which forces some fluid back into the host.  That is also why if you squeeze too hard it can force the tick to "burp" and transmit disease before it finishes feeding.

[1blueheron]

Originally Posted by Mama Metis 

Wait a second. The first thing to determine is - was it a deer tick or a dog tick? A dog tick is the more common type. It is larger and does not carry Lyme's disease. A deer tick, which can carry Lyme's, is very tiny - no larger than the head of a pin. If it was a deer tick, keep an eye out for a rash at the bite site. While not everybody gets the classic bull's eye rash, it's pretty unlikely that he'd get Lyme's with no rash at all. Good luck!

Agreed re distinction between deer ticks and others, however I don't think you can rely on absence of a rash.  DH got it w/o a rash.  Uncommon but not unusual.  

[sunnygir1]

Don't hurry to the doctor!  There is nothing they can do.  My clinic won't test immediately after a bite because it won't show up.  Watch for symptoms, especially a rash anywhere on the body and fever.  And know that the test is not always accurate, so if you think your lo has it and the test is negative, you can still push for the antibiotics.  I am pretty much against the use of pharmaceutical drugs unless it is absolutely necessary, but I would not hesitate to start antibiotics for myself or my children if I suspected Lyme.  It can be really awful, and it's best to treat it right away.

We have a lot of Lyme in the area where I live.  We found 2 ticks biting dd yesterday, after a long weekend outside.  I check myself and my kids daily, but sometimes they get missed.  I do as Elil's mom said and immediately put tea tree oil on the bite when I remove the tick.

I'm not sure if you do regular visits to tick-y areas, but if you have a dog, putting a systemic flea and tick killer on them can really help with the ticks getting on the people in the house.  I know, it's poison and probably not very good for the dog, and I would not put it on myself or my children, but with half of my family suffering from Lyme and its complications, our dogs have to have it if they want to live in our home.

When you go out, it really helps to tuck your pants into your socks because the ticks will crawl up the inside of your clothing.  Also, tuck in your shirt and wear a hat.  When you get home, strip down, put the clothes rigth into the washer and wash them, check your shoes and your bodies for ticks.  Check again in a couple hours -- they are sneaky.

Hope that helps.  Don't worry, just be vigilant and think positively!  Your lo probably didn't get Lyme from that tick.

[apple o' my eye]

I have lyme disease and my hubby just got a tick this weekend. I saved the tick for testing ( a better test than testing the person ) and called my Lyme Doc on Monday. He said it takes 2 weeks to test the tick and the results aren't always right. He prescribed 3 weeks of minocycline (antibiotic) without question.

This isn't something to mess around with. You know there is lyme in your area, the ticks also carry co-infections which can be equally debilitating. I would go to a lyme friendly doc, if your ped blows you off find a more lyme friendly doc and don't mess around. A short course of antibiotics could be the difference between a life of problems or not.

California Lyme Disease Association is a really good resource for info and feel free to PM me if you want more info. Not to freak you out or overwhelm you, but I wouldn't mess around & I have personal reason to feel strongly about this.

[belltree]

Do you know what kind of tick it was? Not every kind of tick carries lyme disease. There are labs that do tests on the tick for certain diseases (in case you haven't flushed them), but that's also pretty pricey. It still won't tell you if your child has lyme disease though.

[Mama Metis]

Sure, but did he not have a rash, or not *notice* a rash? Since she knows the exact site of the bite, it's pretty likely she'll see a rash. (Of course, better not to take any chances.)

Originally Posted by 1blueheron 

Agreed re distinction between deer ticks and others, however I don't think you can rely on absence of a rash.  DH got it w/o a rash.  Uncommon but not unusual.  

Again though, don't even begin to worry if it wasn't a small tick like this,

[Adaline'sMama]

I've probably pulled ten off of DD and 50 off myself so far. I like to use Burts Bees bug spray, but sometimes I forget, or just dont want to be oily. Ticks are just a part of life out here. I check both of us multiple times a day. Deer ticks carry lyme, and they are pretty easy to identify. I either crush them in half with my fingernails or flush them. If we are outside, I crush them in half because I want it to die, but Im not walking all the way to the toilet for it to happen.

[Toposlonoshlep]

Hmmm......people definitely have different approaches to ticks....

The point about dog vs. deer tick is a good one, but when I google both, neither one looks exactly like what I pulled off. The closest, unfortunately, has been the male black-footed deer tick. It looked like this guy almost exactly, even the size. It was bigger than a pinhead for sure, and was all black (which is why it is confusing for me. the pictures have the deer tick with a brown butt and the dog tick all patterned). 

It was on the cartilage of his ear, on the back side......Would I notice a rash on his ear? It is a little red and I still see the  mark where it dug in. But no "bulls eye" as of yet. Not sure I would see a bullseye in that spot.....All the more confusing...

My biggest reassurance is that it wasn't engorged and it came out rather easily. Also, he was saying that it hurt, so I think it stayed on his jacket from our hike and bit him yesterday evening. I think what "hurt" him was the actual bite. When I took it off, before my friend flushed it, it was very active and rather thin, so I don't think it had much of a chance to suck....I didn't have any tea tree oil handy (friend's house), so I dabbed it with some Neosporin.....

Still, scary stuff.

If anyone has any more insight, it is always appreciated. Thanks to all who replied!

I think I will wait and see. I don't want to give him the abx if I don't have to, and I don't think the Lyme would show up in his blood for almost a month, so no point taking him in now. 

[Toposlonoshlep]

Also, it says that it is the size of a poppy seed, but this was a bit bigger. Is it just me or is the tick in the link I provided above bigger than what they say a deer tick should be? Also, all of the ticks I see are kind of brown. This one was certainly black....

So confusing...

[Toposlonoshlep]

Aaaand, also I am confused about the engorgement thing. Why did it attach to the cartalage of his ear? Is that why it wasn't engorged? Maybe it was attached for 24 hours but just couldn't get any blood out of his ear? How long does it take for a tick to become engorged?