Best Way to Remove a Tick; What to Do With a Removed Tick; Tricks For Ticks

By Dr. Jack Cornwell, medical director, CareWell Urgent Care

After the brutal winter we had this year, most of us can’t wait to get outside and enjoy the nice weather, but unfortunately, the ticks are just as excited. Because ticks are attracted to damp environments, the wet winter created a breeding ground, making it more important than ever to know what to do should you attract an unwanted hitchhiker while outside this summer.

Here are some tips for protecting yourself.

Dress and Assess

If you’re going to be spending time outdoors – hiking or even just doing yard work – try to cover as much of your skin as possible. Wear long sleeves and pants, and tuck your cuffs into boots or socks to ensure there’s nowhere for a tick to get in.

When you get inside, be diligent. Closely inspect yourself. It may help to have a friend or family member check hard-to-see areas like your back and scalp to make sure there’s nothing that you missed.

Tricks for the Ticks

If you use folk remedies like covering a tick in nail polish or petroleum jelly or try burning it off, you’re just prolonging the time the tick can hang around and infect you. Instead of dropping off immediately, the tick can survive, regurgitate into your bloodstream and give you one of the unpleasant diseases it may carry.

Instead, the best way to remove a tick is to pull it out carefully with tweezers. Grasp it by its head and pull slowly and steadily so that it doesn’t have a chance to leave behind pathogens. If you pull gently and gradually, the tick will let go and you can remove the entire thing. If you pull too aggressively, the head will likely remain stuck.

What to do with the Tick

Patients often wonder if they should bring the tick with them to their doctor or urgent care clinic. Only full ticks can be tested in the lab, so if you are able to remove the entire tick with the head intact, it’s certainly worth bringing it along in a jar or plastic bag.

By bringing the tick with you, a doctor can determine if it’s a deer tick or a dog tick just by looking at it. This is important information, since only deer ticks carry Lyme disease. If it’s a deer tick, the tick can then be sent to a lab to see if it was indeed a carrier. Ticks can carry other potentially dangerous diseases including anaplasmosis, babesiosis and Lyme’s relatively new cousin, Borrelia Miyamotoi, so testing can help pinpoint the infection.

Don’t Fear the Worst

Because ticks usually take two to three days to fully engorge themselves and infect their hosts, most people emerge disease-free, even after a run in with a tick. The earlier you catch the tick, the better off you’ll be. If you find that a tick has attached itself to you, once you remove it, check to see whether it’s flat or engorged. If it’s flat, it usually means the tick hasn’t had ample time to infect your blood. your blood.

Checking daily for ticks also increases the chance that any treatment will be successful. The window for taking prophylactic doxycycline, the medicine that decreases the likelihood that you will develop Lyme disease, closes between 48 and 72 hours and is 80 percent effective. There is no treatment to prevent anaplasmosis or babesiosis, carried by both dog and deer ticks, and Borrelia Miyamotoi. Symptoms of anaplasmosis include fever, headache, chills and muscle aches. Patients with Babesiosis can be asymptomatic, but many experience a gradual onset of fatigue and fever. If you or a family member is experiencing any of these symptoms you should visit your doctor or an urgent care center immediately.

Ultimately, vigilance is the best way to prevent tick-borne illnesses. It’s not realistic to think that you’ll be able to avoid every grassy or woodsy area this spring and summer, but taking the right precautions when you go outside can make all the difference.

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