Tips for Prevention, Removal, and When to Seek Care
In recent years Vermont has seen an increase in deer ticks, carriers of Lyme disease and other illness. With tick season now in full swing, see below our tips for tick prevention and removal, identification of symptoms of tick-borne illness, and advice on when to call your health-care provider.
• Key to avoiding risk of infection is prevention. Avoid tall grass, wear long-sleeve shirts and long pants that are light in color so you can see the ticks, perform tick checks—as soon as you come inside—and remove any you find.
“In general, for a tick to transmit, it has to be lodged on your body for 48 hours, potentially 72 hours,” says Gifford Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joshua White. “If you went on a hike yesterday and found a tick today, it’s not going to give you Lyme.”
• Tick repellents also may be used, along with taking other preventative measures.
“I generally recommend repellents,” says Dr. White. “DEET has some level of toxicity, but using it every now and then is not a bad idea. However, I do not recommend supplanting tick checks with repellents. You should still do thorough tick checks.”
• Shower and wash hair immediately after spending time outdoors. Ticks tend not to embed themselves right away. They roam across the body to find a good spot, so you may have time to wash them away.
• It is important to check closely for ticks from head to toe. Ticks are tiny at the stage during which they transmit Lyme disease—only a little larger than 1/16 of an inch—and they will explore a body to find an ideal location.
• Be especially vigilant if you have pets. While you’re cuddling on the couch, ticks may jump off your furry family members, who are protected with flea and tick medication, and jump onto you.
• Ticks that have not embedded may be easily removed from skin and destroyed. If embedded, you can use small tweezers or a Ticked Off™ tool to grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and slowly and steadily pull the tick from your skin. If you can’t remove the tick yourself, seek the help of a health care provider.
“If you feel like you can get the whole tick off relatively easy, go ahead,” says Dr. White. “If you fail, or if it mostly comes off but the head is still there, you may risk a skin infection, but not Lyme. If you don’t think you can get it, say it’s in a weird spot, come in and get it taken off by a provider.”
• If infected, the classic symptom of Lyme disease is erythema migrans, a single bull’s eye-shaped lesion, which may appear a few days to a month after the tick bite. However, Dr. White says those infected often never see a rash, and that we should be more concerned if we have a lingering fever without a clear cause.
“Lyme really can mimic anything. Be most aware of having a fever without a clear source, and it’s not going away. You should be seen by a health care provider. The rash is rare; most people don’t get the rash.”
“If you have questions, talk to your doctor, go to Urgent Care, come to the Emergency Department. Providers in Vermont are very familiar with ticks and will order a tick panel [to test for tick-borne disease].”
• The good news is that Lyme disease is curable. Children 8 years old and younger may be treated with amoxicillin or, if allergic to amoxicillin, cefuroxime. Older children and adults may be treated with doxycycline or amoxicillin, or cefuroxime if allergic to amoxicillin.
For more information about ticks and tick-borne illness, visit healthvermont.gov/disease-control/tickborne-diseases.
