• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Anne Miller
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • Jay Angler
stewards:
  • r ransom
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Tereza Okava
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • M Ljin
  • Megan Palmer
  • Kate Downham

thought I'd be cool and make the tick back out

 
Elanor Gardner
pioneer
Posts: 289
Location: Wisconsin Zone 5a
116
cat forest garden chicken building medical herbs wood heat
  • Likes 13
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Today I woke up at my parents house where I am visiting, and before I even get a cup of coffee, I noticed a painful bruise on my left collarbone. I felt and and instantly realized there was something foreign sticking out of the spot. I burst out, "Is this a tick?!??" My mom said,  no its an infection though. I ran to get a magnifying glass and looked in then makeup mirror while using the magnifying glass. There it was, body deeply embedded, with legs trailing alongside. I ran back to my mom and gave her then magnifier and had hers look again. She said, "Oh you have to go to the doctor." I thought instead they I would be cool and dump an alcohol based tincture on it, hoping the fumes would get the thing to back out. Well that did nothing, so in panic mode, I grabbed a tweezers, and pulled out half the tick. Oh no! I could see remains sticking out of me. I went in a second time and plucked out, well, something... Not sure what. I think his was a deer tick, but I am only guessing. Anyway, I am very uncertain thug I got it all. The internet CDC is telling me to leave it, that my body will expel it like a splinter. Any thoughts?
1004260930-2.jpg
[Thumbnail for 1004260930-2.jpg]
 
Anne Miller
master steward
Posts: 19732
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4953
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have heard of using heat to make the tick back out.

I usually just grab the tick and pull it out.  No ill effects later.

I think deer ticks have a white spot on them.
 
John Weiland
master pollinator
Posts: 3031
Location: RRV of da Nort, USA
1001
  • Likes 18
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Elenor.....do you still have the tick body available?.....even if you have to dig it out of the trash?

First, deer ticks these days are nothing to take lightly:  In addition to vectoring Lyme disease, there are other things like Erlichiosis and Powassan virus among potentially others.  My main reason for having you look for the tick, however, is that you appear to be in Wisconsin, yes?  For the past few years and continuing through the present, the Marshfield Clinic down between Eau Claire and Stevens point is running a survey where they not only determine the type of tick that is sent to them, but they diagnose all of the potential human disease agents within that tick.  Please consider doing this....and if you can't find the original tick that was removed from you, please see if any other family members or animals/pets might have a similar deer or wood tick to send in.  This appears to be a very good study and I'm pretty sure you can request the results back from the tick that you submitted.  Hope this may be of help or use to you:  https://www.marshfieldclinic.org/news/news-articles/tick-collection
 
Pete Podurgiel
gardener
Posts: 432
Location: S. New England
304
fungi foraging trees chicken bee wood heat homestead
  • Likes 15
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
When that happens to me, I'll douse it with hydrogen peroxide a time or two and follow-up with some iodine.  

Keep close tabs on it, hopefully the infection improves over the next couple of days.  If not, best to seek medical attention.
 
Judith Browning
Posts: 10816
Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe
4038
4
  • Likes 15
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If it were me, I would try something to draw it out, a bentonite clay poltice maybe?
My usual is to mix in a bit of echinacea tincture with the clay to a make paste.

I've had partially removed ticks before, especially the tiny tiny seed ticks that show up in august and the rest does seem to work it's way out eventually.

BUT....nowadays, it might be more important to have a doc check it out?
Are the diseases more prevalent? more intense? I don't know.

I lived around ticks for forty years and then had one bite that made a bullseye rash...blood work showed antibodies for lymes and that I currently had Rocky mt tick fever.

Maybe you could at least have blood work done?
 
Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
Posts: 14623
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
8306
6
transportation dog forest garden foraging trees books food preservation woodworking wood heat rocket stoves ungarbage
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Ouch! That looks sore, but I can't see any tick remains. I would also suggest something to draw any remains out might be wise though. I sometimes use a bit of antisceptic cream on an adhesive plaster on splinter remains to keep the skin soft for a day or so and help get them out.
I would suggest you check out this thread on ticks and tick removal. It's give you some suggestions for safely removing ticks in future. I have heard before that you can send the tick away for analysis if you are in an area where tic disease are prevalent.
 
Elanor Gardner
pioneer
Posts: 289
Location: Wisconsin Zone 5a
116
cat forest garden chicken building medical herbs wood heat
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thank you for all the great advice. I kept the tick parts. The purple area in me now turned white. I made a draw salve out of bentonite clay, alum, plaintain, beeswax and coconut oil. I put it on still warm and bandaged it off. I will check it out tomorrow.
 
Sonny Root
Posts: 21
Location: Zone 4b Northwest Wisconsin
7
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
It looks bad. I have been waiting for the ticks to come back out here since the weather has turned "normal" again.

I had one of these last year and caught lyme again for the first time in 17 years. I never found the tick, only the bite. I knew I had lymes when symptoms started because I've had it before.

No insurance. The "cheap" doctor wouldn't believe me and told me to go to urgent care. $150 for that advice. Urgent care would have been around $1200.

I started taking 12 year old ammox antibiotic for lack of anything better. That's what they gave me the first time . It was working but also who knows how well and started getting other symptoms. A friend had doxycycline and gave me 14 days worth. The most the doctors here will prescribe first time around. Doxy is the goto prescription these days. Lymes specialists recommend 28 days minimum especially if you get the bullseye. Vets give dogs 28 days minimum around here.

I found Jasecase https://jase.com/products/jase-case and ordered a full case that came with 120 doxy pills. I took them for 28 days and it seemed to have cleared it up. Though some days I wonder what lingering effects there might be that aren't just getting older things.

It's nothing to eff around with as others have said. Cistus Incanus (rock rose) tea is something I always try to remember during tick season. I think it works for me. It tastes good to me too.

I learned that everyone might want to take it more seriously than your general medical pros do in this country. Something strange is going on there.

I'm glad you found it right away. I hope you get rid of it before it can become a bigger issue.
 
Wow! It's so clean! Did you do this tiny ad?
Infographic to consider the best heat - all costs
https://permies.com/w/heat
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic