Hi, Ann.
I showed your image to one of the doctors where I work (there's about 50 of
them here), and his conclusion is that it looks suspicious enough to justify
a trip to your doctor.
For my own record as a biologist I would like to fill in a bit about ticks
in general. Forgive me if I state things obvious.
The tick is a small mite (remotely related to spiders) that sucks blood from
mammals. There are several species, but I think most of them are 2-4mm long
to begin with. When full of blood, however, they become larger than green
peas; up to 15mm. They climb trees or other vegatation and sit idle in the
canopy until some warm-blooded animal comes around. They sense the body
heat and let themselves drop onto their prey.
The bite itself is less of a nuisance than eg. a mosquito bite. However, the
tick bite can carry a small parasite; a bacteria called Borrelia, which
belongs to the same group of bacteria as eg. syfilis (Spirochaetae).
The percentage of ticks carrying the disease can vary from place to place.
In Norway the range is between 3% and 20%; which means the risk of catching
Borrelia varies from 1:30 to 1:5.
A borrelia infection usually starts with a local swelling up to a couple of
days after the bite. It starts at the bite and usually spread like rings on
a water surface. The bite itself remains red like on your picture. The
swelling will disappear after a while, and in most cases this means that
your body has fought the infection itself.
In some cases, however, the bacteria spread to other organs, notably the
muscles and the meninges (the membranes that encapsulate the brain and
spinal chord). This condition is called "chronic borreliosis" and is quite
serious. If I have got it right, one doesn't know the full extent of
long-term consequences of chronic borreliosis.
Because of the risk of chronic borreliosis, it is common to treat the local
signs of infection too. Borrelia is easily killed with normal antibiotics,
but I don't know how long you have to be on medication. Consulting a doctor
is probably worth the trouble if in doubt.
Hope this helps, and thanks for reading.
Jostein Øksne
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ann Sanfedele [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 8:19 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: OT Lyme tick info wanted
>
>
> I know this is weird guys, but if there is a doctor among
> you or someone who has suffered
> from a deer tick bite and knows for sure what it looks like
> could you look at the
> jpg at this address and let me know if it is likely to be a
> tick bite? I scanned the area of the bite.
> almost 2 weeks ago I was a bit too cavalier when shooting a
> wedding in a Japanese Garden in
> Westchester Country, NY - where lots of these critters
> live. I figured the scan would be of
> some interest to outdoor photogs and knowing the probability
> of this being a lyme tick bite
> would be helpful to others. I just discovered this thin
> and it doesn't hurt - it seems to
> have all the earmarks of tick and i cant sleep so ...
>
> http://users.rcn.com/annsan/mytickmaybe.jpg
>
> annsan
>
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