Deer Tick Bites and Treatment

How Serious are Deer Tick Bites?

Deer ticks should be considered dangerous to humans and pets because they transmit Lyme disease. Deer ticks feed only two to three times during their lives, once when they molt from the larval to the nymph stage, once from nymph to adult and once more, if female, to lay their eggs. While deer ticks can contract the Lyme disease bacteria from an infected host at any of these feedings, they can only transmit the disease after contracting it, or during the second and/or third feeding.

In order for deer ticks to transmit Lyme disease, they usually must stay attached for 36 to 48 hours or more, which is why checking for and removing ticks quickly matters. Lyme disease can be debilitating but rarely fatal. Lyme disease is often misdiagnosed as the flu because the initial stages of Lyme disease resemble the flu, with body aches and pains, fever, headaches and fatigue.

Removing a Tick and Watching for Symptoms

A blacklegged tick bite is usually painless, so many people only find the tick while bathing or dressing. After removal, a small red bump like a mosquito bite is a normal reaction and usually fades within a few days.

How to remove an attached tick:

• Grasp the tick with fine-tipped tweezers as close to the skin as possible.
• Pull straight up with steady, even pressure. Do not twist or jerk.
• If the mouthparts stay in the skin and will not come out easily, leave them and let the skin heal.
• Clean the bite and your hands with soap and water or rubbing alcohol.
• Skip heat, nail polish and petroleum jelly. They only delay removal.

Note the date and where on the body the bite happened. Some people keep the tick in a sealed bag or taped to paper in case it needs to be identified later.

When to call a doctor: if, in the days to weeks after a bite, you develop a rash that expands outward from the bite (sometimes, but not always, shaped like a bull’s-eye), fever, chills, fatigue, headache, or muscle and joint aches. Besides Lyme disease, blacklegged ticks can spread other infections such as anaplasmosis and babesiosis, and early treatment matters for each of them.

Pets: dogs can get Lyme disease and anaplasmosis from these ticks. Signs include limping, fever, tiredness and poor appetite. Ask your vet about tick prevention and testing. For keeping ticks off your property, see how to get rid of deer ticks.