Tick Prevention

I wanted to share a tip with you on getting rid of the tick you find crawling on yourself. My husband taught me this. When you see the tick or have pulled it off, get a piece of Scotch tape and apply it to the tick. You can then place the tick into the trash without fear of dropping it onto your floor. It will also get rid of the need to flush the tick down the toilet, and thus save water.

Now here is the post on ticks I did almost a year ago with a small addition.

Having been outside more lately, as the weather has gotten so much nicer I have also noticed more ticks. I believe that prevention in medicine is to the act of doing something (change diet, not smoke, use condoms, etc) to avoid the need for treatment of a disease (heart disease, emphysema, HIV). So I would encourage all or you to take the proper steps to prevent Lyme's Disease and avoid the need for treatment. The "preventive" steps to take are to either avoided the tick-invested area or used a DEET or permethrin-based tick repellent and then doing a body check for ticks that same evening.

• According to the Center for Disease Control it takes 36-48 hrs for transmission of B.burgdorferi or B. microti to occur from an attached tick and not all ticks are infected. Therefore, a tick bite does not necessarily mean a person will get infected. Prompt removal of the attached tick will reduce the chance of infection.
• Tick paralysis is rare. One reason the condition is so unusual is that the tick must be attached for five days before symptoms develop. So do a daily tick check of yourself and your children if you live or visit an area that has ticks. (reference below) [This section added as well as the references.]

I walk my dogs daily in the woods nearby. My dogs are protected with Frontline. I use Deep-Woods Off and often wish I could use Frontline. That would be so much simpler, apply once monthly. Don't forget the sunscreen and wide-brimmed hat.

Protect yourself, then get outside and enjoy life!

REFERENCE

Six Case Studies in Potentially Life-Threatening Weakness; Emergency Medicine, May 2008, pp 25-30; Scott C Sherman MD