Another tic question

[ohmymy111]

Seems the tics are early this year. I just took one off Vern last night. It had a bullseye rash. He had been vaccinated for lymes already this year. Do I need to be concerned?

[kninebirddog]

Mark Get Vern in ASAP ..Don't take a chance

[Chaingang]

Wow!! that is early. I'm not too far from you and I haven't seen any yet. Now their all buried under a few inches of snow, so we have a couple days

Lymes is carried by the deer tick, and they are not usually found around here. Not impossible, just unlikely. They are very small compared to our garden variety tick. I would think you would be ok. Certainly wouldn't hurt to ask the vet though. Had the tick been attached for a while?

Looks like I'll have to get the Frontline on early this year.

[ezzy333]

Unless the tick you found was a tiny Deer Tick there is no concern about Lymes. They are the only ones that carry it. Take the tick off and if the site doesn't clearup in several days you might want to get it checked out. In many areas of the country Lymes is a real rarity at the worse.

Ezzy

[kninebirddog]

ezzy I am going to highly, seriously and respectfully disagree

The test takes to long and Doctors and vets will put the person or dog on antibiotics.whether they do the test or not...and yes time is of the essence
the sooner you get on antibiotics if it is lymes the better the longer you wait is when things can get out of hand

and I am speaking from experience...that is what the doctor put me on when i had a questionable spot and that is exaclty what he explained to me...

So it is not something to wait and see if it goes away.

[big steve46]

When I saw the thread title relating to "tics", I thought there was a discussion of neurological disorders, then I realized it was about ticks! Silly me!

[kninebirddog]

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Conten ... INT&A=1588

Treatment and Its Goals

Which of these dogs get sick and which do not? Does the dog with joint pain, fever, and a positive C6 test need medication? This is where the news is particularly good.

Treatment of Lyme disease utilizes a 2 to 4 week course of doxycycline, a medication that is inexpensive and has limited side effects potential. Amoxicillin is another effective alternative, also inexpensive and with minimal side effects. If Lyme disease is a consideration, many veterinarians simply prescribe the medication. Obvious improvement is seen within 48 hours. Furthermore, most tick-borne infections capable of causing joint pain, fever, and signs similar to Lyme disease generally are all share responsive to doxycycline so a simple course of medication actually covers several types of infection.

[Karen]

take the tick off, and if the redness doesnt go away in a couple days, then you can be concerned.

This was dog dr's response from a thread just a couple below this one.

[Chaingang]

The chances of this being a deer tick where he lives is remote. Not impossible mind you, but I have never seen a deer tick in this area (plenty of the garden variety) and I'm not far away. My regular vet has pretty much acknowledged the same thing. Northern half of Minnesota is much more likely to have the lyme carrying deer tick. If the tick he pulled off is much larger than a pin head then it is not a deer tick.

[Windyhills]

Might be able to help here.

You MAY have some deer ticks in your area Mark.

And deer ticks aren't the only tick that can transmit disease here.

Luckily, to actually transmit they have to be completely attached and feeding for some hours. For lymes, it's many hours.

So if the tick was just crawling on the dog or wasn't attached, there's nothing to worry about. If the tick was attached but you are fairly certain it couldn't have been on for more than a few hours, I wouldn't worry about it unless the irritation around the area gets worse or other symptoms show up. If it might have been attached and feeding for awhile, the incidence of ticks actually carrying disease varies--not all are a problem--so there's still no certainty of a problem cropping up. You could wait and watch or take the dog in, your choice.

If you aren't using a good tick repellent (Frontline is highly favored up here in deer tick central) I would start now. You might want to discuss the lyme vaccine with your vet as well.

If you were using frontline or advantage and have applied it on a month or less schedule, the tick is highly unlikely to have been attached long enough to worry about.

Hope that helps...

[1vizsla]

Also, Dr's reply was to a tick bite that was irritated/red. The concern here is the bull's eye rash not just a tick bite. Won't hurt to have it checked out (except your pocket book ).

Carla

[kninebirddog]

Interesting I was going by what vets and doctors we have gone to while traveling with our dogs trialing when we had anything come up

My vet here in AZ and a vet we went to in Nebraska and Texas plus the Doctor I personally went to for a suspicious bite that I had...all gave meds...Said as I posted just as easy and cost effective to just give the meds if there was any thing suspicious enough relate to the tick bite


and a very good friend of mine had his dog in the mid west who had a tick bite with the trainer ... the trainer scraped the tick off he said when he forat scraped the tick off it seem more red and infected then others so he doctored it a bit then never thought about it after that
that dog ended up almost dying spent a month at the university with ehrlichia over 4000.00 dollars IV and antibiotics and even a transfusion http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_eh ... _dogs.html

that dog has made a long slow recovery and is back trialing...But after that My friend takes ticks much more serious and yes so do I

rather just treat right away

[ezzy333]

Knine,

No one said to not take ticks seriously. And we all know it is important to catch lymes early, but there probably is little difference in catching it now or several days from now. The real problem is waiting a month or two before it is caught is what I have been told. Also, ticks do carry other diseases and always have. But it is the deer tick that carries Lyme and the deer tick and wood tick, which is more common, are easily distinquishable from each other. If this bite was a wood tick, which is probable, then Lymes isn't even a concern.

From experience, the vets advice, and the post by Dog Dr, I will stick by my statement and strongly suggest that the tick should be identified and removed, and the site watched for a couple of days and them decide what needs to be done. You can even keep the tick for identification if there is any question as to what it is.

Ezzy

[WildRose]

Seems the tics are early this year. I just took one off Vern last night. It had a bullseye rash. He had been vaccinated for lymes already this year. Do I need to be concerned?

The bullseye rash appears only when lyme is present. If that's actually what you are seeing then obviously you have a problem.

If you still have the tick, bring the tick and the dog to the Vet to confirm the diagnosis.

Do not wait, the Bullseye rash doesn not remain very long. The tick may have been on the dog for just a day or two, or a full week, there's no way to tell. If it's lyme disease the dog needs to be started on antibiotics as soon as possible. The longer you delay the more likelihood of long term problems. CR

[Windyhills]

I don't believe I've ever seen the "bullseye rash" described as a symptom of dog lyme disease--humans are another story. And we have both infected in very high numbers in this area. I've seen dogs and people react to tick bites with raised welts and rashes with no lymes disease; and in people, have known many who contracted lymes (and a few with anaplasmosis) with no bullseye rash.

The vaccination helps but is not fool proof.

The symptoms can show up pretty fast--lameness, tenderness of limbs or joints, general malaise in an otherwise active dog, the dog stops eating--anything like that would be worth bringing the dog in. Pretty simple to treat with antibiotics.

[WildRose]

I don't believe I've ever seen the "bullseye rash" described as a symptom of dog lyme disease--humans are another story. And we have both infected in very high numbers in this area.

I can't say that I know it's the same in dogs as humans or not.

I do know this. I've seen thousands of tick bites on dogs. I have never seen the same raised whelt and bullseye rash on a dog that I've seen on humans. I don't however live in an area where lyme is a problem.

I do know that the quicker antibiotic treatment begins after infection, the quicker it's cleared up and the fewer long term mutisystemic problems are likely to appear.

It is a very serious disease in dogs so it's not worth screwing around or debating on the internet when proper diagnosis and treatment by a vet is relatively easy and inexpensive whereas treating after the dog becomes syptomatic is a much more expensive proposition and the long term systemic effects can be permanently debilitating even if treatment is successful. Futher the longer the the dog remains infected the lower the likelihood that the dog will ever be cured. CR

[ohmymy111]

I will be taking Vern in to start a course of treatment. I have pulled probably a 100 ticks off of him in the last several years, only two have ever produced a rash like this, this one, and one was last year, and the Vet treated him for Lymes, even thought the test came up negative. The Lymes test won't show positive until about 6 weeks afetr the dog has contracted it, but the vet confirmed it was a deer tick, so we didn't mess around waiting. I was very surprised to find the tick, and was just lucky to do so. I knew ticks were out already, as I found one crawling on me two days earlier

[High Voltage]

A couple of years ago my vet told me they were finding out that deer ticks were not the only ones that carried lymes. I have not done any research into it.

[Windyhills]

Yes, it's possible other tick species can transmit lymes--as well as other tick borne diseases.

Mark I would say if you have pulled 100 ticks off your dog in the last few years you really must start using tick repellant! Applied correctly they work very well. When combined with the vaccine, your worries can be greatly minimized.

Charlie being in tick and tick-borne disease central here for both dogs and people, if everyone ran to the vet or doctor when they pull a tick off the dog or themselves, we'd be in trouble pretty quick as we don't have enough of either to cover that demand. Just taking a pragmatic view based on a lot of experience with the things and the diseases. There's a great deal of fear and misinformation that isn't always justified until you run down the list of questions about the situation. I'm highly confident most vets in this area would say the same thing. But most will be glad to take your money if you insist, as well!

[ezzy333]

I have found a tick on our dogs here in Northern IL two or three times a year but take them to our farm in SE Iowa and we have taken 70 or 80 off in a day. I have no idea how anyhing warm blooded lives over there. Its very difficult to be out in the field without getting bit by 4 or 5 no matter what you do to keep them off.

Ezzy