Summer time means ticks are active now and the Deer tick can transmit Lyme disease.
Dr. Steven Nichols from Aspirus Family Physicians says you can lower your chance of getting bit by avoiding tall grass, wearing long sleeves and pants, using insect repellent with 10-20 percent DEET and checking for ticks after being outdoors....
“You always want to make sure you check yourself thoroughly, looking in the skin folds and so forth. Take a shower within a few hours after getting out of the woods. You also might probably take any clothing you wore out there and put them into the dryer on high heat for 10-30 minutes. That will kill the ticks and any ticks that are in your clothing.”
Oneida County Public Health Nurse Dawn Klink says besides Lyme disease, there are a number of other tick-borne diseases that have similar reactions. She says Lyme disease can show itself as a bulls-eye rash.
Klink says fever is a likely symptom of these tick-borne illnesses along with muscle soreness, aches, headache, joint pain...
".....later symptoms you can get arthritis, you can get a type of Bell's Palsy, that can be from a tick bite. You can have problems with your hear valves. But if you remove a tick from yourself and a couple of days later you start to feel sick, you should call your doctor and go in and have a tick panel done..."
If you suffer a tick bite, Dr. Nichols recommends grabbing the tick as close to the head as you can and pull straight up gently with a fine set of tweezers. If you see a bull’s-eye-shaped rash, then you’ll want to see your physician and start talking about treatment with an antibiotic.
