3 yo with an embedded tick head in her arm

Thank you all very much for your advice and concern. It has greatly been appreciated. We have decided to just let it come out on its own. Our reasons are if the tick was carrying Lyme or RMSF then it would already be present in our dd. She had not had a bath the night before as I have been ill myself so the tick had been there over 24 hours. The main thing that I though I had a chance of preventing by removing the head is infection. Since there has been no sign of that I feel that we are better off leaving it be instead of risking infection by cutting on her, or picking up some other terrible illness from the doctor's office. My dh's aunt just went in the hospital for a simple procedure. She was about to be released when she caught pneumonia and almost died. I guess between having no money, no insurance, and risking further damage and illness, we have decided we are taking less of a chance by leaving it be since the chance of the illness being present is very slim in this part of the country. I am keeping a good eye on her. So far she has been very energetic as usual. Thank you all very much!!!

Wyld thang,
That is horrible!! I have heard of such, but I hope to never experience it.

Just sawing,
I will try that! We have a syringe and baby oil. Woohoo!

bluetick,
Vets are cool! We have two real nice guys here and they charge WAY less than human docs.

neal68,
We will have to get those if we get any extra funds cuz we have lots of ticks here in the south.

mtfarmchick,
I am glad your had a wise doc and were able to get over it quickly!

6e,
How long, in your experience, does it take before they come out on their own?

EVERYONE,
I am saving this thread in my favorites just in case she starts acting funny or develop a rash. You all have given me much to watch for and your caring is very kind!! Thanks again!!

actually you should scrape it loose using the edge of a credit or licemse type of card. this will remove head and all, thats according to the books, another method is to apply finger nail polish as to smother the tick, and it will back out on its own, rather quickly. I personally have done both, and both work. Once removing the tick, keep it (sandwich bag, film canister) for testing later if in fact the child does show illness.

Lyme's can take some time to establish symptoms - was reading an article by an outdoorsman (at the Health Dept), and I believe in this case it was about 3 months before the writer had symptoms.

Everytime he has a tick bitten in, he removes it, tapes it to an index card and dates it. (then it can be checked if needed) Says most people forget that "oh yeah, I had a tick bite a few months back" and Dr's can go off on the wrong diagnosis, losing valuable time. Many of the impacts of Lymes cannot be repaired if it goes too long without proper treatment. Writer also reiterated that the red bullseye symptom does not happen with every case of Lyme's.

You might try putting her in a bath with epsom salts. I use to do this when my kids were little and had an embedded splinter. It usually drew it to the surface where it was easy to remove.
Also, we've had great success with using a drop or two of tea tree oil to get a tick to back out. It also has antibiotic properties to help avoid infection at the wound site.

In this article it says that nail polish, etc. doesn't work. I do know that works for chiggers. http://www.lpch.org/healthLibrary/Pa.../TickBite.html

I would try to get the head out ASAP. On our dogs, we used to use Vasaline all over the tick to suffocate it. This work fairly well. Or old used motor oil.

Scraping it with a credit card should work, or you might need a needle to sort of dig it out.

Or you might try modern medicine and get to a doctor.

You need to get that tick head out ASAP.

We always make it a point to take lots of pictures of our children during the happier times so that, when we don't take them to the doctor when they need it, we'll have something to remember.

I'd suggest you take her to the doctor. The tic head can be removed quickly and painlessly. Your child is probably feeling pain since the chitin of the head is an irritant and can cause laceration and blood infection whether it carries lymes or not. Also keep in mind that if she gets really sick and it's discovered you didn't take her for medical attention when you knew she needed it you could conceivably be charged with child neglect.

Sorry, but this just doesn't seem like even a far fetched possibility.

Ticks are a part of country living. An every day occurance for many. We pull the ticks off, and often leave the head. They get red, we itch them, then they go away. I sure wouldn't take my 3 yo to the doctor for a tick bite. Just silly. Maybe if you got a city jury who doesn't know about bugs and country life, but not a small town jury. I think you did the right thing and didn't overreact.

Not too far fetched at all. We have plenty of country folks here and if the child gets really sick and needs to see a doctor they are required to report it as neglect.

Though I doubt they would take the child they may well investigate. IF God forbid the little one gets sick. However, leaving the head in is a danger.

I wouldn't leave the imbeded head of a tick in my DOG let alone a CHILD!

Margie

Are you serious? Lyme disease is nothing to fool around with, even if there is a possibility of it you need to take that child to a doctor and get the blood test. Lyme disease IS a "terrible illness."

There is also rocky mountain spotted fever, and a variety of diseases that are tick borne, never mind the risk for staph and infection by leaving it in.

I dont understand your reasoning that "if the tick had it, then she already has the disease", even MORE reason to go to the doctor, to get TESTS for it and treatment, do you think those things just go away? Thats like saying "she probably already has cancer so why bother going to a doctor". I dont get it.

I honestly don't understand why people ask for advice and then dont follow any of it. Like she said, Id not leave a tick head in my dog, let alone my child.

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It is very difficult to get accurately tested for Lyme. Only a few labs in the country are reliable. A doctor may not even test unless she shows symptoms. Antibodies may not even show up until many weeks after infection.

(I have actually been researching this since my dr. wants me tested for Lyme)

Here is an interesting article: http://scienceline.org/2007/07/30/as...ter-lymetests/

Hubby recently had a tick on his back. Unfortunately, he did not tell me until after he had pulled off the tick and left the head behind. He went to the walk in and the doctor cut out the head and put hubby on an antibiotic for 10 days. If it were me, I would take the child to the walk in and have the tick removed. I would worry about infection making a bigger scar.
Linda

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mommagoose_99
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If I went to the Dr's everytime I had an attached tick, I'd be in there almost every day. What's the Dr. gonna do when I'm there? Take my blood and analyze it with a test that's accurate only 50% of the time?

Mamasue, you did exactly what I would have done. Wait to see if any any signs or symptoms appear. If they do, then go to the Dr.

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But this is just a very small child and the head has been in there for a while now.

Why take chances?

What kind of "chance" do you think the parents are taking? The tick's head will work itself out of the skin naturally and the only thing the Dr will do is prescribe an antibiotic. And, as we all know, antibiotics are so overprescribed now that bacteria are becoming immune to them.

IMHO, you cannot put a child on antibiotics everytime a tick is simply found attached to a child.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

Get it out, clean and irrigate properly?

Well, I suppose if you bring your child into the Drs office for a professional cleaning and irrigation every time it skins its knee or elbow, then you might as well do it with a tick head, too.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

Some of the replies on this thread are just making me shake my head.

My dad mistakenly ran over me with a wagon-load of straw when I was 12 and I didn't go to the doctor. If that happened nowadays, some of you would be crying "child abuse" and "negligent parenting". UGH!

Country people have country issues and don't consider them to be particularly big deals. Bugs, spiders, livestock, farm implements and snakes are part of life and we deal with them with what some might consider apathy. We are cautious, but not afraid. If we lived in fear, we might as well pack it all up and move to town and live in a sterlized environment where none of the scary stuff could touch us. Of course, then our immune systems would be wimpy and we'd probably get sick all of the time.

Sorry that I'm rambling, but it just annoys me to no end that so many people think that the doctor is the authority on everything and that the masses can't and shouldn't think for themselves.