KidStuff

Tick-Tock And Tick’s Clock Is Ticking

By Paul M. Marz, M.D.
Spring is here and the sap is running. On roads and trails, guess who is waiting for you and your kids? Good old Mr. Tick. New England is quite a beautiful place to live as you well know, but it is also home to our dreaded deer tick. There are other ticks out there, but we are most interested in the Ixodes species of deer tick. As the only known carrier of Lyme Disease, this tiny species is the only one we need to be wary of.

So, first off, you know that fields and forests are the natural home for this insect. They especially like to blend into the forest at the margins of fields. They cling to the grass and hop on you or your dog as you travel the trails.

After your hike, always inspect yourself, your kids and the dogs for ticks. You can easily see them crawling around. I like to use any sticky tape to catch them. I wrap a few inches around my hand and just pat the kid or the dog until all the little critters get stuck to the tape. Any tick that is walking around has not fed and is not a danger.

Hours after your trip it’s bath time, or lapdog time. If you should find a tick then, it will have attached to the host so we will now discuss removal. (As a sidelight, the tick is basically a bug. All bugs have a head and a body. The Lyme bacteria live in the body of the tick, not the head. So all you need to do is remove the body and the risk is gone. Remember that the tick is small and just blindly grabbing with a pair of tweezers may cause problems. If you squeeze too hard, you can inject the stuff in the tick’s body right through the tick’s head and into your body.     

We recommend a gentle approach. Add a few drops of a soft or liquid soap on a cotton ball. Put this on the tick and gently rub in counterclockwise for about 30 seconds. Repeat as needed and this will cause the tick to back itself out…intact.

Don’t worry if you go for the tweezer attack and happen to leave the head in place. There is no danger in leaving this part of the tick behind. Lyme bacteria live in the body of the tick and as long as that is removed, you are golden. Apply a topical antibiotic cream and you are done. Any bits of tick left will be cleaned up by your body and removed like all those tiny splinters you collect in your skin, just not worth the trouble to remove.

So now you have the tick in your hand. Is it Ixodes Species? Go to the Internet and check out this site: http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/images/dph/cdc/tick_id_card.jpg. Compare your tic to the pictures and see if you have a tick to worry about.

How long do you have to remove the tick?  Actually, about four days when the risk of infection starts.

Since the rate of Lyme Disease infection in Massachusetts is about six for every 10,000 people physicians rarely will treat just a tick bite.

I would only treat if all the following are true:
The tick was from the Ixodes family
And
The tick was on for more than 36 hours (and must be engorged)
And
We are less than 72 hours from tick removal
And
The patient is not allergic to the medicine

Once the tick is off and the site has received a thin coat of any kind of antibiotic cream (Neosporin, Bacitracin, etc.), you are good to go.

Remember to wear protective clothing, use tick repellent and avoid areas with known abundance of ticks.

Now refill those water bottles and get back outside.

(Dr. Marz, a board-certified pediatrician, is supervising physician for the Town of Barnstable school system. He practices with Bass River Pediatrics in South Yarmouth.)