TICK BITE :(

Hello! Our 6 1/2 month old had a tick on him today. We live in upstate new york and find ticks all of the time. This month we have yet to give Gunny his tick and flea drops. Today, I found a tick bite on his ear. It was attached, and red at the site. Gunny was a champ, and I was able to get the tick off of him. The tick did bite him, and seemed dead when I pulled him off. His head looks to be attached and it looks like I got all of him off our baby. I am rushing to the store to buy another dose of the tick meds, but I am terrified our little guy will have lyme. Help! any suggestions, thoughts, or experiences??

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on March 9, 2012 at 3:17pm

Generally the tick has to be attached for a period of time to transmit lyme. I have seen that time period range from 9-36 hours (big difference I know), so as long as it wasn't attached overnight your boy is probably safe. If you are nervous you can take the tick to the health department to have it tested for lyme and you can take your dog to the vet for a round of doxy to treat possible infection. Call your vet and see what they recommend. You can treat lyme with antibiotics if you catch it early.

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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on March 9, 2012 at 6:28pm

For the future, you might want to consider asking your Veterinarian about getting the lyme vaccine for Gunny. I live in upstate NY, too, and our Veterinarian has started recommending the vaccine to all of her patients because of how common tick bites are becoming up here. Three years ago it wasn't much of a problem, but it seems to be getting worse as the years go by.

As with some vaccines, there is a debate about the effectiveness of the vaccine as well as possible side effects. Do a bit of research and speak with your Veterinarian if it seems like something that you'd be comfortable with. :)

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on March 9, 2012 at 7:49pm

As Melissa said, ticks have to be on a dog or human many hours to be a potential problem, so if you found it within the day, you should be fine, plus not all ticks are carriers of Lyme disease. Not worth panicking. I am lucky because we have no ticks where I live, but we travel to Virginia for long periods so I did some research on Lyme Disease Vaccine. I have decided against it for my own dogs, and will simply use a good flea/tick preventive such as Frontline Plus, or other similar products. There is a good article about it here:

http://www.1800petmeds.com/education/lyme-disease-treatment-dog-cat...