Tick Bite Prevention and Proactive Treatment
Personal Prevention
LymeDisease.org has some effective strategies for when you're in tick territory:
Use personal tick repellent.
Wear permethrin-treated clothing. Insectshield.com has permethrin treated clothing, tents, hats and dog vests. Insect Shield® Repellent Apparel has been proven and registered to repel mosquitoes, ticks, ants, flies, chiggers, and midges (no-see-ums) and will last for 70 washings. You can also send your own clothes to be treated with Permethrin for $8.50 per piece of clothing which is very cool!
Wear light colored clothing.
Tuck pants into socks and shirts into pants.
Avoid walking through high grass and leaf litter.
Treat your pets with tick-control products, and check them for ticks every few hours while outdoors and when they come indoors.
When you come in from the outdoors, place your clothes directly in the dryer on high heat for 6 minutes to kill ticks.
Shower soon after coming indoors. (Note: This in and of itself will not wash off attached ticks, but it will aid you in spotting them and may wash off crawling ticks.)
Conduct a full body tick check. Use sight and touch to sense for any ticks crawling on or attached to your entire body. Ticks are attracted to warmth and moisture, so make sure you search under your arms, behind your knees, between your legs, inside your belly button, between your buttocks, in your genitals, under your bra, around your waist, around and in your ears, on your head, and between your toes. Use a mirror or another set of eyes to check hard to see places
https://www.lymedisease.org/protect-tick-bite-alexis-chesney/
What To Do If You Get Bit By A Tick?
Use a tick remover if you have one or watch this video to see the correct procedure. Improper removal increases chances of acquiring Tick borne infections. People often come to me after removing the tick and a portion is left in the body. Ideally you would have a tick remover handy in case that time comes when you need it.
Do not burn or use any substance on the tick.
Do not grasp, squeeze or twist body of tick.
Pull Tick straight out.
Use antiseptic on skin
Disenfect tweezers
Wash hands thoroughly.
Apply to the site and call your doctor for an antibiotic prescription. If found early (within 24 hours), zithromax cream can be applied topically to the area and has been found to be very helpful.
Save tick for testing and keep in a small ziploc baggie.
Whether or not you find a tick, stay alert for symptoms of tick-borne illness. A bull’s-eye rash indicates Lyme disease, though not everybody with Lyme gets one. You might have a different rash or none at all. You may develop flu-like symptoms—fever, headache, nausea—or joint pain or dizziness.
To watch a video on how to properly remove a tick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27McsguL2Og
Tick Treatment
Call your doctor and get a prescription for doxycycline ( a broad spectrum antibiotic that is effective against Lyme, Anaplasma, Erlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Mycoplasma and Chlymydia P. For children under 8 years old, amoxicillin is typically used. Treat for 3 weeks. Azithromycin Cream can be used if started within 24 hours and must be purchased at a compounding pharmacy.
I recommend using Ledum 30 or 200c and an herbal product to treat Bartonella and Babesia which are both co-infections that often accompany Lyme disease. I use Byron White or Beyond Balance Herbals for 4 weeks. Beyond Balance herbs are safe enough to be used by young children.
I don't wait for tick testing to get started with treatment. If you get the results of your testing back and your tick was found to be free of infection, you can stop the antibiotics or shorten the duration but I usually recommend the herbals just to play it safe.
Tick Testing
Sonoma County Public Health Division
https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Health/Public-Health/Laboratory/Lyme-Tick-Test/TickReport
Telephone: (707)565-4711
Ticknology
www.ticknology.org
Telephone: (970)305-5587
Tick Report
https://www.tickreport.com/
Telephone: (413)545-1057