Maureen, "I wish I'd seen your doctor when I had my tick bite. I am always heartened to hear of prudent reluctance when it comes to the dispensing of antibiotics." I was very glad to get the 200mg dose of doxycycline in response to my tick bite, which was an engorged female deer tick that had obviously been attached for some time, based on the inflamed nature of the bite area. I was afraid the doxycycline might be too late. I hope to repeat that preventive treatment for any high-risk deer tick bite. Incidentally, apparently I "dodged the bullet" on that one, because the bite site remains clear of any secondary reddening. My tick was an exact match for an actual-sized picture of an engorged female deer tick on the Maine Tick Identification Card. We actually placed the tick on a printout of the picture, and the match was uncanny. Then I called my doctor. "I ended up in the Emergency room, after a botched attempt to remove the little bugger (tick removal + one mega dose of doxycycline runs about $180.00--if anyone cares to know)." You had an unusually bad and expensive experience. My 200mg dose of doxycycline cost me just $1.75 at Wal-Mart. My phone consult with my doctor cost me nothing and they faxed the prescription to Wal-Mart. So we drove straight to Wal-Mart. I took my dose right at Wal-Mart as soon as I got possession of it. We had removed the tick with tweezers ourselves and put it in a bottle for identification. It's OK to gently pull the tick for several minutes, if necessary, to give it time to voluntarily release its mouth parts. Just make sure the tweezers gently grip the head or thorax area of the tick in front of the abdomen. You don't want to hurt the tick. And you don't want to squeeze the tick's abdomen, because that would be just using the tick as a syringe to inject its body contents into you. If I get any more deer tick bites I plan to repeat the single doxycycline preventative dose. A study has shown it is effective in a high percentage of cases in preventing a Lyme infection. When it comes to Lyme, prevention is definitely better than cure. And you take a lot less doxycycline in the long run. MM

You are welcome. I just called the doctor to see if I could get a new prescription. I have been on Doxycicline for 2 weeks and the Lyme's is still causing me trouble. I haven't been able to do much other than dead head flowers for almost 3 weeks.

The reason that the Lyme bacteria are only transmitted by ticks after prolonged feeding times (my most recent source says 36 hrs) is that they needs to change their cell surface proteins in order to become infectious. They reside in the tick's stomach. When the tick begins to feed, and ingests warm blood, it triggers a change in the bacteria and causes them to manufacture new proteins and swap them for some of the existing ones on their surfaces. This is a process that takes some time, and when they're ready, they migrate to the tick's salivary glands, from which they can be injected into their new victim. Without this protein change, they're not infectious, which is why, for instance, you can't get Lyme disease by eating an infected tick. I know that deer and horse flies feed on deer, and probably ingest Lyme-containing blood, but I'm not sure if they can transmit it effectively, because they feed so very briefly (ticks stay attached for several days). Don't forget--it's not always the tick you see that gives you Lyme disease, and the bullseye rash doesn't always appear at the bite site--it can develop elsewhere. As for white-footed mice, they are the definitive hosts for Lyme disease, and are fed upon by first stage ticks (larvae). Deer ticks can transmit the disease in both the nymph and adult stages, but more effectively by the latter. @IpmMan: The reason doctors use antibiotics prophylactically in cases of known or suspected tick exposure is because the Lyme bacteria can be eradicated from the body only in the first few weeks after exposure. After that, they hole up in the lymph nodes and become permanent residents and cause a variety of disease syndromes. In fact, the best time to treat Lyme disease is BEFORE the blood test is positive, in those early weeks. The disease is responsive to antibiotics at any stage, but can only be eradicated early on. Once it reaches the more chronic form, bacterial numbers can be decreased with treatment, but not wiped out. I hope this answers a few questions.

This is really timely for me for personal reasons. Not to belabor my personal medical problems, but the last month or so I've had strange pains in my right hand. They started out as seemingly nerve-related (coldness, itchiness and pain upon pressure in the finger-tips) and then moved to joint pain, with severe pain in the knuckle joints and loss of motion. It seemed to move from one finger to the next. The doctors have not ruled out carpal tunnel yet, but seem perplexed by the symptoms. Fast forward two weeks. I wake up feeling absolutely lousy, sleep for way longer than is normal for me, and have two bloodshot eyes. Figure it's allergies. Start to feel better, but my eyes are still wacky, so I went to the eye doctor thinking I had an infection. He took one look at my eyes (not an examination, mind you, just a quick look), sees the splint on my wrist and asks what's wrong, and says, "I think you have Lyme disease". What a surprise to me! I'm hoping it's not, since I still haven't seen any evidence of a tick on me. So after seeing two doctors, (a GP and an orthopedic hand specialist) my eye doctor, of all people, wrote a prescription for a Lyme test. Hopefully I'll know by the end of the week. I have a friend who is suffering greatly from this disease. The doctors think she may have contracted it when we were teenagers, meaning she may have had it for 25 years - perhaps before it was even widely known. I believe she was diagnosed about 10 or 15 years ago. It saddens me to see what she goes through. Thanks, everyone, and especially Claire, for all the info and research here, and the link. It's all very helpful and informative. :) Dee