Have you ever been bitten by a tick? - Updates

Just wondering… found a small, 8 legged critter clinging to my leg in the shower today… :fearful:

Yes, frequently. I recommend getting these (below) …available in our local french pharmacy and I believe quite widely. Get them out asap, drench with betadine or similar and go to GP if any signs of a bulls eye rash, or a rash that persists. I don’t know how true it is, but locally everyone here says it takes 18-24 hours for the tick to transfer disease so as long as you get them out promptly your risk is low. I choose to believe that as our area is so tick infested that otherwise I would be in a permanent state of anxiety.

https://www.otom.com/en/

Originallly invented by a vet local to us here in the 90’s and manufactured locally - which is a point of local pride.

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I’ve never been bitten by a tick and have only ever seen 3 in all my life…2 of them since I’ve lived in Brittany…I’m pretty vigilant when it comes to checking the Collies after a walk as I don’t use any chemical flea/tick control on them…One was trying to attach itself under my boy’s chin and I got it off in a bit of tissue paper and set fire to it with a lighter…the other I saw it crawling on his ear…flicked it off and stamped on it…geranium essential oil is a good deterrent…What did you do with it Stella…??? x :slight_smile:

I put it in a little plastic box to show to the Pharmacist tomorrow/soon… and I am keeping an eye out for the bull’s-eye rash… no sign of anything nasty so far… but I am checking all my clothing and me !!! regularly… ugh…

So glad it def was not a flea/bed-bug or anything like that (I would have died of shame)… :relieved::neutral_face:

They are horrid…but if you could still identify it as and 8 legged something or other then it doesn’t sound like it had attached…they bury their heads to feed and their bodies swell up like a small grape until they’re fit to burst and then they drop off…They don’t jump and can only crawl from a blade of grass or undergrowth onto a passerby…most are incapable of transmitting disease…but I admit that on seeing one the first reaction is one of outright horror (!) rather than trying to fathom out which species it is…a repellant spray can be made up of rose geranium oil…witch hazel and distilled water…x :slight_smile:

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Didn’t know what they looked like until I followed Jane’s link, and Helen’s graphic description means I’ll probably never leave the house again😉

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I tried rose geranium oil on our dog as a repellant. He was not impressed! I think it affronted his manly pride. However the ticks weren’t impressed either, so we ended up having to use commercial products… maybe it works better if you are not covered with long hair.

Jim found a tick whi ch must have come from the dog.
She is medicated against ticks and we have the little gizmo to twist them off.
There have been quite a lot of them this year.

Thanks you all your replies and info… hope I never see another of these little horrors…
I might get the twisting gizmo… just in case…

:neutral_face::relaxed:

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At least covered in long hair there’s plenty of time to spot them…they climb on and then make their way towards the face and ears where there is not so much hair…yuk…x :slight_smile:

In Africa they were very common on our dogs and sometimes on ourselves. We used to fry them with the end of a lighted cigarette, a tried and tested bush remedy. Same therapy for fresh-water leeches, mini bourdons noirs. :yum:

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Essential Oils worked in this chap’s case…

We bought ours from the vet.

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Hmmmm…or convenient piece of publicity given that France has been condemned for it’s useless diagnosis and treatment of Lyme?

My Pilates neighbour is a women with Lyme who was unable to get treatment in France. So she travels to Strasbourg. Part of the treatment she now gets is essential oils, but that’s not the total treatment. There’s a campaign locally to get funding for a special Lyme centre as it is a big problem here

Isn’t Strasbourg in France any more??!!

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Well, it is certainly publicity … good publicity… the professional cyclist has got his career back again… yippee… and essential oils seem to have played an important part in his recovery.

The cyclist says that he doubted his illness was anything to do with the tick bite he had received a few years before… but, it was his Doctor who took matters further and identified the problem… thankfully.

Good News… and I’ll be picking up whatever Essential Oils… just in case… :relaxed::relaxed:

Duh! Silly me, she goes to a German town that starts with S…surely can’t be Stuttgart as that’s too far…I’ll have to ask her again at next class.

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it can be transferred much quicker than that. the risks increase the longer its on and obviously the quicker you get treatment the safer. the rings are not so common as it does not appear everywhere your bitten.

i get bitten quite frequently in my line of work and so do farmers and I do not persoally know a single person with any illness from them.

@Stella if your unsure how long it was attached get your doc to give you a check up.

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apple cider vinegar is the best. in a spray bottle and in the water bowl. makes the blood taste foul.

Well I guess that there are areas where the ticks are less likely to carry Lyme disease, so the risk is lower even if you are bitten. Sadly round here it is common, and we personally know several people who have got Lyme. Also there have been cases of tick borne encephalitis in Alsace and Switzerland (which is only 50 miles from us) so this disease is also getting a bit close for comfort. So we stick to nexgard as we want to minimise the risk to our pooch - we can pick 20 to 30 ticks off him after a walk if it’s a bad period.