I was bitten by a tic on Friday and this morning I made an appointment at my doctor’s.
They only had an interne available, so I saw her.
I have a septic centre in the bite and it is violently red surrounding it.
The interne said that it was just a typical reaction to the bite and suggested that I wash it twice a day with soap and water and put an ice cube on it to bring down the swelling.
Jim suggested that I should have some antibiotic cream and eventually I got a prescription, but I should not use the cream for 48 hours and wait to see if it got better on its own.
I went to a chemist in Cluny who interpreted the prescription to mean that he could not dispense the cream until 48 hours had passed.
When we got home I rang our pharmacy and the lady said laughed and said that was nonsense.
I went to our usual pharmacy, which is in a totally different direction from Cluny and they were horrified.
They filled the prescription for the cream and gave me antibiotics straight away.
Thank goodness for them, they are always helpful and kind.
so glad you have a pharmacy you can trust 
hope all turns out OK 
But is it a bullseye? If not I wouldn’t subject my body to oral antibiotics and would just use a cream.
Personally I think the intern was most likely taking the currently accepted approach not to overuse antibiotics in the elderly and risk microbial resistance. Despite being immune -suppressed my specialists are very cautious about prescribing them for me.
(We regularly get bitten by tics because of living in a forest.)
Did you get he tic & did it look like a deer tic?
If it’s the typical bullseye rash then antibiotics are indicated, but, as Jane says, if not then antibiotics might not be needed.
No it has an infected centre and is angry red surrounding it.
Our pharmacy has experience in dealing with these and moreover I had a staph a infection previously, which made them more careful.
Take this seriously. It could be Lyme Disease. Can the pharmacy recommend a specialist?
It might also not be Lyme disease. The bullseye is not a 100% definitive sign, just indicative. However only 10 -20% of ticks in France carry Lyme and they need to implant and feed on you for more than a short period to transmit the disease.
This area is a hot spot, and we know several people with it. Also the main Centre is also eastern France in Strasbourg.
Which is not to say that tick bites can’t be nasty without transmitting Lyme. But generally I find spider bites far worse.
Oh my goodness! This is dreadful news. I hope you are quickly on the mend.
Like Sue, when I read your post my mind jumped to Lyme Disease. Might you be able to see an exotic diseases specialist? Apparently there are increasing cases of tick borne Lyme now in France. Something I do hope you haven’t met.
Were it me, I would be sitting in the hospital Emergency Room at this moment!
Lyme disease - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic.
Do let us know you are OK…
Did you show the bite to your own pharmacy? I’d trust a lot of advice from a pharmacy I knew. They know what’s local, so they will know if yours is unusual.
However it might just be the usual run of tic bite, except that I’d suspect some other things you could be taking might increase sensitivity, ie reaction, to all sorts of things including some or all insect bites.
Keep an eye on it (easy to say, I know!) but I doubt even an intern would have forgotten to be suspicious of anything that could be Lyme Disease.
Why?
Do people not think they are catastrophising just a touch? Jane hasn’t even said if the tick was attached and what type of tick it was.
I’m not trying to belittle Lyme at all, it’s horrid. And a septic bite can lead to other nasty things. But a bit of perspective might help. Less than 5% of bites cause anything, and the specialist centre does not recommend prophylactic antibiotic therapy.
Intern was very likely following protocol not to give antibiotics following a bite.
I had the same thing a few weeks ago. It was tender to the touch and my ankle was badly swollen, unless It was elevated. It was three weeks before the swelling and tenderness had completely gone.
Lyme disease has been rampant here in Pennsylvania (USA) for years. It’s not to be messed with. An unattached tick, or one that you’re sure has been attached for less than 24 hours, is no problem once you remove the tick.
But the target sign means the tick has been attached for long enough to transmit Lyme. In that case we take two doxycycline immediately with a full glass of water.
We’ve found attached deer ticks several times in Normandy. We bring our doxycycline along and take it if needed.
The first time I got the target sign (actually multiple targets on both legs) I never saw a tick, so presumably it had already fallen off. I had to take antibiotics for four weeks.
Lyme isn’t the only disease carried by ticks.
Luckily other things like encephalitis are quite rare in France still.
And must be very unlucky to get multiple bullseyes, is that what you mean by a target rash? Or do you just mean a red circle that could be anything. But just to take 2 doxycycline to me risks building up resistance to the antibiotic for very little or no effective action. Where antibiotics are recommended it is generally for 20 days minimum. So I think your approach is a bit nuts,
My family’s woods on their Nashville property is alive with ticks so much so after going in there one time, I refused to return as I got ticks on me, luckily not disease carriers. Now they have huge spider webs everywhere so even more caution as they do bite. Its been the worst season for ticks in Tennessee for many years according to the local news.
Our pharmacy is wonderful, kind caring and knowledgeable.
I know that the bullseye and the rash are not inevitable signs of Lyme but I have had facial cellulitis, which is a staph a infection which develops only on the face and the legs and this bite had a septic centre and was a livid purply red all around and tender surrounding that, so I was more really worried about that as it means hospitalisation and barrier nursing.
The young girl at our surgery didn’t seem at all worried by that, perhaps because she had never had that awful infection.
I am using the antibiotic creme and took a large starter dose of antibiotics last night and the horrible centre has gone and it is not as livid, so I think a success all round.
I can order my two treatments which are specialist prescribed by 'phone and they keep them in their fridge until we go the village to do our shopping.
They have all sorts of extra services as we are very rural
It just knocked it off and it was so small I didn’t realise it was a tick until it started to move.
Not if you have had a staph a infection and have been specifically warned about getting any other type of infection in your face or leg.
A product local to us. Best one ever, and much better than other versions.
En 1994, Denis HEITZ (vétérinaire praticien exerçant à Oyonnax (Ain) est confronté au problème du retrait des tiques sur ses patients à quatre pattes . Il fabrique alors son propre outil pour enlever des tiques « le crochet O’TOM » à partir d’un simple clou.