Check Tick For Lyme Disease

About Ticks And Lyme Disease

Ticks are small crawling bugs in the spider family. They are arachnids, not insects. There are hundreds of different kinds of ticks in the world. Many of them carry bacteria, viruses or other pathogens that cause disease in humans and/or animals.

In the midwestern and eastern United States, Ixodes scapularis or deer tick is the primary vector of Lyme disease. On the West Coast, the spirochete is carried by Ixodes pacificus or western black-legged tick. In the South, lone star ticks can also transmit Lyme disease or a closely related illness.

Ticks have four life stages: egg, larva, nymph and adult. In each stage after hatching, they suck blood from animals like mice, squirrels, birds and deer. Then they drop off, enter a dormant period and molt to enter the next stage.

Ticks dont start out being infected with Lyme. They get it by feeding on an infected animal, often a mouse or other small rodent. Then, they pass it along to the next animal or person they bite.

Testing For Lyme Disease At Home

People can find many at-home Lyme disease tests online.

They typically come with instructions, and most companies require individuals to collect their samples at home and mail it to a lab for testing. The lab then issues the results, and a person can access them via email or through a companys online portal.

People may also be able to speak with a companys medical team to discuss their results and, if applicable, any next steps.

MNT chooses at-home tests that meet the following criteria where possible:

• Laboratories: Where possible, MNT will choose companies that process test samples in

What Are The Limitations To Testing Ticks For Diseases

• If a tick tests positive for an infection, it does not mean that the tick passed the infection to the person it fed on.
• If a tick tests negative for infection, it does not mean that the person it fed on will not get sick. The test may be wrong or there may be another tick that was not found.
• Clinical decisions should not wait until tick results are available.

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What Precautions Can I Take Against Tick Bites

• Avoid wooded, brushy, and grassy areas, especially in May, June, and July.
• Wear light-colored clothing so that you can see ticks that get on you.
• Wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts, and shoes that cover the entire foot.
• Tuck pant legs into socks or shoes, and tuck shirts into pants.
• Wear a hat for extra protection.
• Spray insect repellent containing DEET on clothes and uncovered skin.
• Walk in the center of trails to avoid brush and grass.
• Remove your clothing, and wash and dry them at high temperatures after being outdoors.
• Do a careful body check for ticks after outdoor activities.

Best For A Quick Turnaround: Letsgetchecked Lyme Infection Test

LetsGetCheckeds kit tests for Borellia IgG and IgM antibodies through a fingerprick collection. The website states people should receive the test 57 days after ordering.

The company requires individuals to activate the kit, so they can collect the sample and send it back using the prepaid shipping label. They can then access their results on their online account within 25 days.

In addition, LetsGetCheckeds laboratories have a certification, meaning it is compliant with federal certifications.

Pros and cons

The LetsGetChecked Lyme Infection Test features the following advantages and disadvantages:

The cost for the test is $89, with an additional $6 fee that covers the physicians visit.

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Early Signs And Symptoms

A small, red bump, similar to the bump of a mosquito bite, often appears at the site of a tick bite or tick removal and resolves over a few days. This normal occurrence doesn’t indicate Lyme disease.

However, these signs and symptoms can occur within a month after you’ve been infected:

• Rash. From three to 30 days after an infected tick bite, an expanding red area might appear that sometimes clears in the center, forming a bull’s-eye pattern. The rash expands slowly over days and can spread to 12 inches across. It’s typically not itchy or painful but might feel warm to the touch.

  Erythema migrans is one of the hallmarks of Lyme disease, although not everyone with Lyme disease develops the rash. Some people develop this rash at more than one place on their bodies.

• Other symptoms. Fever, chills, fatigue, body aches, headache, neck stiffness and swollen lymph nodes can accompany the rash.

What Happens If Lyme Disease Goes Untreated

If left untreated, Lyme disease can continue to manifest over a few weeks or months. The rash may reappear, along with the infection symptoms. You may also experience joint pain similar to arthritis. Over time, in rare cases, neurological problems could develop, including:

• Impaired muscle movement
• Weak or numb limbs

When it comes to this tick-borne disease, early detection is important to help prevent the development of chronic Lyme disease. The effects of chronic Lyme disease infection have the potential to negatively affect the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system, and reproductive system.

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Lyme Disease Frequently Asked Questions

If you have not done so already, remove the tick with fine-tipped tweezers.

The chances that you might get Lyme disease from a single tick bite depend on the type of tick, where you acquired it, and how long it was attached to you. Many types of ticks bite people in the U.S., but only blacklegged ticks transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Furthermore, only blacklegged ticks in the highly endemic areas of the northeastern and north central U.S. are commonly infected. Finally, blacklegged ticks need to be attached for at least 24 hours before they can transmit Lyme disease. This is why its so important to remove them promptly and to check your body daily for ticks if you live in an endemic area.

If you develop illness within a few weeks of a tick bite, see your health care provider right away. Common symptoms of Lyme disease include a rash, fever, body aches, facial paralysis, and arthritis. Ticks can also transmit other diseases, so its important to be alert for any illness that follows a tick bite.

References:

Moody KD, Barthold SW, 1991. Relative infectivity of Borrelia burgdorferi in Lewis rats by various routes of inoculation.Am J Trop Med Hyg 44: 135-9.

There are no reports of Lyme disease being spread to infants through breast milk. If you are diagnosed with Lyme disease and are also breastfeeding, make sure that your doctor knows this so that he or she can prescribe an antibiotic thats safe for use when breastfeeding.

Lyme Disease In Pets Symptoms And Treatment

Pets infected with Lyme disease may not show any signs for 2-5 months. After that time, typical symptoms include:

Recurrent lameness also is possible, and the involved extremity may be tender. Inflammation of the joint can last from days to weeks, and may migrate from one extremity to another.

Horses with Lyme disease can develop lameness, joint pain, neurologic disease, eye problems and dermatitis.

Symptomatically, Lyme disease can be difficult to distinguish from anaplasmosis because the signs of the diseases are very similar, and they occur in essentially the same areas of the country. Lyme disease is diagnosed through a blood test that shows whether an animal has been exposed to the bacterium.

Antibiotics usually provide effective treatment for Lyme disease. However, its important to follow your veterinarians advice regarding follow-up care after your pet has been diagnosed with and treated for the disease.

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If My Dog Tests Positive Does He Need To Be Treated

The decision to treat Lyme disease is somewhat controversial since many infected dogs show no signs of illness. Factors that would support treatment include:

a moderate to high value of QC6 signs of illness compatible with Lyme disease at the time of testing a history of illness compatible with Lyme disease within the past year the presence of abnormal levels of protein in the urine.

Who Gets Lyme Disease And At What Time Of Year

Lyme disease is transmitted via the bite of infected ticks, which attach to any part of the body, but often to moist or hairy areas such as the groin, armpits, and scalp.

While everyone is susceptible to tick bites, campers, hikers, and people who work in gardens and other leafy outdoor venues are at the greatest risk of tick bites. As many a suburban gardener can attest, with the expansion of the suburbs and a push to conserve wooded areas, deer and mice populations are thriving, too, providing ample blood meals for ticks. For lyme disease to be transmitted, a tick needs to feed on the host for 24-48 hours.

In the majority of cases, tick bites are reported in the summer months when ticks are most active and people spend more time outdoors. But this can extend into the warmer months of early autumn, too, or even late winter if temperatures are unusually high. Similarly, a mild winter can allow ticks, much like other insects, to thrive and emerge earlier than usual.

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When To Get A Tick Tested

You should strongly consider having your tick tested if:

• The tick was attached to your body, not simply crawling around
• You live in or have visited a place where there are infected ticks

Lyme disease has been reported in 49 US states and 65 countries around the world. Infected ticks have been found in 42 of 58 California counties. See here for a CDC map showing geographic reporting of Lyme disease.

In addition, tick testing may be especially important if there is skepticism about the presence of Lyme disease in your community.

If you are showing symptoms call your doctor immediately. Take the tick with you and ask your doctor about a tick test. Keep in mind that symptoms may take weeks or longer to appear. It may also take several weeks to get back the results of a tick test.

Note: tick testing is not a substitute for clinical diagnosis. Tick testing provides information about whether and/or what pathogens the tick may be carrying and about potential risk to the individual bitten by the tick, but it is not an assessment of human infection. You should consult your doctor for medical advice or treatment.

Tick Identification And Testing Services

MDPH does not offer tick identification or tick testing. While testing ticks can provide useful information, there are some notable issues:

• Positive or negative results from a tick or ticks attached to a person do not provide definitive evidence that that you were exposed or not exposed
• Most people diagnosed with a tick-borne disease are not aware that they have been bitten by a tick and the tick you do find may not be the only tick that bit you
• It is possible to be bitten by a tick carrying a disease and not be infected with that disease, depending on many factors, including how long the tick was attached to you

If you choose to have a tick tested, it is important to keep in mind the following:

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What The Results Mean

The results of photo identification will include the type of tick along with information about the species. The results from the Laboratory will provide you with confirmation of the type of tick if it could not be identified by photo, and if applicable, the results of testing for the Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi.

The results can be shared with your health-care provider if you are concerned about a bite from the tick, but are not needed to diagnose or treat tick-borne illnesses in people or pets. Most tick bites do not result in illness. If you are bitten by a tick, consult with your health care provider right away if you develop symptoms within 30 days of the bite. If you are concerned about a tick bite to your pet, consult with your veterinarian.

Read about tick-borne diseases for information about symptoms of Lyme disease, diagnosis and treatment in humans.

Lyme Disease Or Stari

An erythema migrans-like rash has also been described in humans following bites of the lone star tick. This condition has been named Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness . Although the rash may be accompanied by systemic symptoms, disseminated or severe disease has not been reported. Because the cause of STARI is unknown, diagnostic blood tests are not available. It is not known whether antibiotic treatment is necessary or beneficial for patients with STARI. Nevertheless, because STARI resembles early Lyme disease, physicians often treat patients with the same antibiotics recommended for Lyme disease.

Lone star ticks can be found from central Texas and Oklahoma eastward across the southern states and along the Atlantic Coast as far north as Maine.

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What Are The Complications Of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease affects people differently. Relapse and incomplete treatment responses happen. Relapse and incomplete treatment responses happen. Complications of untreated early-stage disease include:

• Frequent hospitalizations to manage the disease

Some of these complications result in chronic, debilitating conditions.

Some people may develop post-Lyme disease syndrome . A condition also known as chronic Lyme disease includes PLDS, but also other syndromes. Usually, these are characterized by persistent musculoskeletal and peripheral nerve pain, fatigue, and memory impairment.

How To Safely Remove A Tick

Not all ticks carry Lyme disease, and some ticks carry other diseases. To avoid infecting yourself, never crush a tick with your fingers. For more information on the safe removal, disposal and identification of ticks visit CDC.gov/ticks.

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Can Other Bugs Give Me Lyme

Researchers have found spirochetes in mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects. But it has not been proven that they can transmit the infection.

A tick is uniquely suited to carry and spread Lyme disease. Spirochetes have co-evolved with ticks over millions of years. Tick saliva contains immune suppressors that help disseminate the bacteria throughout the hosts body. And, because ticks feed on many different animals, they can spread the disease widely.

Investigation Of Suspected Lyme Disease

Erythema migrans is a clinical diagnosis and does not require confirmation by laboratory testing. Lyme disease is not a notifiable disease so there is no statutory requirement to notify clinically suspected cases to the local Health Protection Team.

The 2018 NICE Lyme disease guideline provides detailed advice about when a diagnosis of Lyme disease should be suspected and about which tests to use and when.

The NICE Lyme disease guideline also contains a useful summary diagram of the routine serological testing recommendations for Lyme disease.

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Lyme Disease Vs Ringworm

It can be easy to confuse the Lyme disease rash with rashes caused by other conditions, like ringworm. If you take a closer look, a ringworm rash has a circular appearance and raised edges.

Along with a rash, you may experience other infection symptoms like a fever, body aches, swollen lymph nodes, and/or physical fatigue .

Which Ticks Should I Worry About

Nymphal ticks cause most cases of Lyme disease. Because nymphs are as small as poppy seeds and their bite is painless, people often dont realize they have been bitten. Adult ticks can also infect humans, but are easier to spot and remove.

Not all ticks are infected. Because tick studies have only been done in a relatively few places, in most of the US, tick infection rates are unknown. Even in places where ticks generally do not carry Lyme, there may be hotspots of infection depending on local conditions. The tick infection rate may also change from year to year, even in one location.

To get a better idea of which tick-borne diseases have been found in your area, check this site.

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The Igenex Lyme Immunoblot Solves These Problems

IGeneX has developed a serological test that increases specificity without sacrificing sensitivity that has changed how to test for Lyme disease. It uses specifically created recombinant proteins from multiple species and strains of Lyme borreliae and reduces inconsistencies in reading and interpreting the test bands.

More species detected The Lyme ImmunoBlot tests for more species of Lyme borreliae than the traditional ELISA and Western blot tests, reducing the risks of false negatives due to the inability to detect antibodies to a certain strain or species of Lb. The test includes all Borrelia-specific antigens relevant in North America and Europe, not just B. burgdorferi B31 or 297.

The result is a single test that replaces at least 8 Western blots.

More accurate testing The ImmunoBlot uses specific recombinant proteins that are sprayed in precise amounts onto specific locations on the membrane strip, allowing for greater control of the quantity and location of the antigens. This makes reading the bands much more accurate and consistent.

Earlier detection The ImmunoBlot can detect infections at multiple stages of illness, letting you catch infections earlier.

The IgM and IgG ImmunoBlots superior specificity and sensitivity make them the best Lyme disease test available.

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