Tick bites = Bad news

[BigonaBianchi]

...My sister in law called to say one of the younger dogs had to be put down. She had been weeing blood and suffered renal failure as a result of being bitten by a tick and contracting malaria. Apparently this is also dangerous in humans who suffer bites.
This dog lived in Germany.

 

[wafflycat]

Tick bites are nasty. Ticks carry various diseases in the UK including Lyme disease (and a couple of other nasties) which is *nasty* can last years and in some rare cases, be fatal. One of the reasons why, when rambling, even in the summer, I wear long trousers. Plus, I use Frontline on the felines as it kills off ticks as well as fleas.

 

[peanut]

yes ticks can carry some very nasty diseases like Lymes disease that effect humans and horses badly too . Deer carry them apparently.
I saw a big tick climbing up my cats head a few weeks ago . I thought at first it was a spider. it was making its way slowly up to the ears which are full of blood and nice and hot in cats.

Pulled it off and crushed it .Went to find my camera when I got back it had gone

 

[BigonaBianchi]

This dog had been fully treated and frontlined prior to the bite

 

[inaperfectworld]

no chance of getting them cycling on roads in france or germany is there?

 

[Nigeyy]

I've had a tick sucking blood from me -and to be honest, it doesn't hurt. The real danger is the disease aspect of it (where I live it's the deer ticks that carry lymes disease). A few of my neighbours have caught Lymes because of ticks, but fortunately found them early on.

The most amazing thing about a tick is there apparent super strength and resilience to being crushed. Really nasty little blighters -at first I thought it was a large piece of dirt (been out mtbing) and couldn't believe how much force I applied to brush it off and it didn't budge.

Saw a dead tick pulled from one of my son's friends from behind his ear -it had engorged itself to about 2-3cm (yes, cm) in width, amazing.

yes ticks can carry some very nasty diseases like Lymes disease that effect humans and horses badly too . Deer carry them apparently.
I saw a big tick climbing up my cats head a few weeks ago . I thought at first it was a spider. it was making its way slowly up to the ears which are full of blood and nice and hot in cats.

Pulled it off and crushed it .Went to find my camera when I got back it had gone

 

[samid]

The most amazing thing about a tick is there apparent super strength and resilience to being crushed. Really nasty little blighters -at first I thought it was a large piece of dirt (been out mtbing) and couldn't believe how much force I applied to brush it off and it didn't budge.

To remove a tick, put some oil on it and wait a minute or so, then remove with tweezers. If you just pull it out without oiling it first, parts of it can remain inside the skin. As far as I understand, oil prevents them from breathing and then they release their hold to get some air and can be removed more easily. Not sure about the details but it works.

 

[summerdays]

My son got one last year ... luckily a sister noticed something crawling in his hair. (It wasn't very big so I assume he had picked it up that day - and the only place he had been that day was school - in a city).

When I phoned NHS direct - they were very insistant we didn't put anything on it or burn it or any of the other suggestions I had heardas otherwise means "apparently" it may leave in its jaw or regurgitate its stomach contents both leading to infections.

Instead we had to use a pair of tweezers and put it under the mouth peice and pull gently - and it would let go eventually. This took at least 20 minutes to pull off the creature.

 

[Dayvo]

They're prevalent in Sweden: can be lethal if humans become infected, but the death rate is very very low indeed. After a day out in the countryside, golf course, park, picnicking, rolling on the grass etc., it pays to have a check.

I found one in my pubes once!

 

[Crackle]

Sorry to hear about the dog BTFB. I'd like to know more if possible as we got our dog a pet passport this year and one of the places we intend to go is Germany. Previously I'd not heard of anything different in Germany to the UK. Spain and France are different with things like Heartworm and processionary caterpillars (look 'em up)

Used to get ticks on the dog a lot when we lived in the highlands.He was regulalry searched for ticks, especially after being in wet grass. I had one and the kids did too. We had a special tick removing tool, which clamps beneath the head of the tick. You then twist and pull the whole thing out head and all. Worked very well, tweezers don't.

Lymes disease was on the increase in the Highlands but generally it was easily treatable and quite rare to develop compared to the amount of tick bites recieved. It was generally only estate workers who developed Lymes symptoms after lots of exposure.

 

[Bodhbh]

They're a pain, even with long trousers they can get on the socks and crawl up the legs, so best to tuck the trousers in the socks. Can also outlive washing cycles. I didn't tuck my trousers in and got completely covered in them walking on Cape Wrath last year.

Chance of infection from Lyme disease is minimal especially if you remove them within 24hrs, but I did notice a couple of weeks after been eaten alive a lump swelled up on my shoulder about the size of a golf ball and stayed for a month or so. Googling it at least, sounds like it was a lymph node swelling up which happens sometimes after bites or when your body is fighting an infection.

 

[ASC1951]

It's easy to get scared about ticks in general and Lyme's disease in particular, especially with Lyme's disease being hard to diagnose and potentially horrible if untreated.

The UK risks for walkers are IME very small for ticks and miniscule for Lyme's disease. I have tramped through open countryside and all sorts of grassland and bracken for half a century in bare legs and never encountered a tick. [I have always drunk from streams, too, with no ill effect, which walkers nowadays seem to put only one step away from running across the M1 with your eyes shut.]

 

[byegad]

IIRC ticks are a problem, in the UK, in areas with Red Deer populations. I use Deet if I'm touring in these areas of GB also if I'm not sure about an area I use it. At home, County Durham, we don't have them so I don't use Deet unless it's the harvest bug season. Thes are little black flies and they swarm in their millions at that time of the year. Not a health threat but they make you itch!

 

[Gerry Attrick]

no chance of getting them cycling on roads in france or germany is there?

Don't think any manufacturers produce a small enough frame

 

[wafflycat]

IIRC ticks are a problem, in the UK, in areas with Red Deer populations. I use Deet if I'm touring in these areas of GB also if I'm not sure about an area I use it. At home, County Durham, we don't have them so I don't use Deet unless it's the harvest bug season. Thes are little black flies and they swarm in their millions at that time of the year. Not a health threat but they make you itch!

Indeed - such as where I live! All sorts of deer hereabouts. Darned things can show up in the garden (the deer), to be chased off by six-pound, one-eyed, almost fangless, aged black feline who *knows* she can fell a deer once she gets her gums around its jugular...