So You've Been Bitten by a Tick

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Finding a tick on your skin is always worrying because all it takes is one bite and a small amount of saliva for it to transmit disease-causing pathogens (like Lyme disease) to you, its host. ... Here's everything else experts suggest to quickly and safely deal with a tick bite, what to do with a tick once you've removed it and when to get in touch with your doctor.

Posted by retort at 01:40 PM | 38 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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It's a good idea to get in touch with your provider after removing a tick. Guidelines from leading expert groups recommend prophylactic antibiotic treatment, usually a single dose of oral doxycycline taken within 72 hours, for adults and children who identify a tick bite considered high risk for Lyme disease.

Comments

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My wife contracted Alpha-gal syndrome from a tick bite about 20 years ago. Causes an allergic reaction when eating meat from mammals. Symptoms would come on several hours after eating. She'd have hives and sever abdominal pain and said it felt like her throat was closing up. Allergy tests found nothing but at the time it's not something they tested for because the condition was still undiscovered. We figure out what was causing her reactions through trial an error. It was quite the challenge to figure out because I'm vegetarian so it was somewhat rare for her to eat meat unless we got something out of the house or she made something special for herself.

#1 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2026-04-26 02:47 PM | Reply

Lyme Disease ... Hold my beer....

The big issue are ticks which make you allergic to meat.

When a tick bites, it can transfer alpha-gal from its saliva into a person's blood. The body's natural defenses, or immune system, can identify alpha-gal as a threat and trigger an allergic reaction. Symptoms occur after people eat red meat or are exposed to other products made from mammals. Because of this, AGS is also known as red meat allergy or tick bite meat allergy.
www.cdc.gov

#2 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-04-26 03:12 PM | Reply

Apparently you're allergic to facts, you ------- dumbass.

#3 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-04-26 04:17 PM | Reply

My mother got lymes from a tick in NC. Her insurance company refused to cover it saying that "North Carolina is too far south for Lymes disease".

Mine is currently making me wait months and jump through hoops to get an MRI.

Singly payer healthcare NOW democrats. Get some balls.

#4 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2026-04-26 04:52 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

I effing hate ticks. Like a lot. Never used to have them up here but they have come north in the last 10 or so years.

#5 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-04-26 05:21 PM | Reply

#4 - enough to make one understand why someone might gun down a health insurance ceo

#6 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2026-04-26 07:27 PM | Reply | Funny: 1 | Newsworthy 1

Patrick Warburton.

#7 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-04-26 10:17 PM | Reply

www.cdc.gov

#8 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-04-26 11:05 PM | Reply

Alpha-gal and Lyme were engineered in a lab.

#9 | Posted by visitor_ at 2026-04-26 11:37 PM | Reply

Ween - Tick

#10 | Posted by qcp at 2026-04-27 11:05 AM | Reply

A former neighbor was our county's first confirmed case of Lyme disease. Messed him up big time. Made him a near cripple. His smoking habit probably didn't help. Really bad. Take this seriously ...

#11 | Posted by catdog at 2026-04-27 12:35 PM | Reply

>Never used to have them up here but they have come north in the last 10 or so years.

Thank your idol FJB

#12 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-04-27 11:18 PM | Reply

Daddysfist's child-raping idol just kneecapped science.

www.nature.com

#13 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-04-27 11:44 PM | Reply

^shouldn't you b working on your manifesto instead of -----------?

#14 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-04-27 11:46 PM | Reply

Are you and your fellow nazis plotting your next insurrection?

#15 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-04-27 11:49 PM | Reply

Alpha-gal and Lyme were engineered in a lab.

#9 | Posted by visitor_

No, they weren't you stupid f*^&.

#16 | Posted by jpw at 2026-04-28 12:54 AM | Reply

"Thank your idol FJB"

Huh?!?

How did FJB get the flora and fauna to cooperate? How did he entice birds to nest northward? How did he get permafrost to thaw?

Nobody who believes GCC is fake has ever explained.

#17 | Posted by Danforth at 2026-04-28 09:30 AM | Reply

"My wife contracted Alpha-gal syndrome from a tick bite about 20 years ago."

Was she a Beta-gal before that?

#18 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-04-28 11:19 AM | Reply

JPW you were wrong on Covid and you're on wrong bio-engineered tick born disease.

#19 | Posted by visitor_ at 2026-04-28 12:51 PM | Reply

"you were wrong on Covid"

What's that even mean?
What's it mean to be "wrong on COVID?"

#20 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 12:57 PM | Reply

Never used to have them up here but they have come north in the last 10 or so years.

When America sends its Ticks, they're not sending their best. [ ... ] They're sending Ticks that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good Ticks".

#21 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-04-28 01:03 PM | Reply

JPW you were wrong on Covid and you're on wrong bio-engineered tick born disease.

#19 | Posted by visitor_

How so?

#22 | Posted by jpw at 2026-04-28 01:21 PM | Reply

What do you believe you correct about? Lab leak? Gain of function? Mask effectiveness? Mortality in those under 65 year old with out co-morbidity? Vaccine effectiveness? Need for lock downs? Effectiveness of lock downs? Air born transmission? Use of ventilators?

#23 | Posted by visitor_ at 2026-04-28 01:27 PM | Reply

You're making the claim, what was I wrong about?

BTW Lyme disease was known/described in the early 20th century and the bacteria has been isolated from mummies.

So no, it's not a lab created disease.

#24 | Posted by jpw at 2026-04-28 01:35 PM | Reply

Use of ventilators?
#23 | Posted by visitor_

You are the one who put people on ventilators.
You made the choice to do that.
Not JPW.

#25 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 01:43 PM | Reply

"Mortality in those under 65 year old with out co-morbidity?"

What about it?

Individuals with age L.T. 65 account for 4.5-11.2% of all COVID-19 deaths in European countries and Canada, 8.3-22.7% in the US locations, and were the majority in India and Mexico.
www.sciencedirect.com

#26 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 01:47 PM | Reply

Highlights

People

#27 | Posted by visitor_ at 2026-04-28 02:05 PM | Reply

Highlights
People < 65 years old have 16"100 fold lower risk of COVID-19 deaths than older people. Age risk gradients are less steep in India and Mexico. Absolute risks of COVID-19 in the population are low for people < 65 years old. COVID-19 deaths occur sparsely in people

#28 | Posted by visitor_ at 2026-04-28 02:07 PM | Reply

"Absolute risks of COVID-19 in the population are low for people < 65 years old."

And that might be actionable information, if they didn't live in the same world with people 65 and over.

#29 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 03:07 PM | Reply

BTW Lyme disease was known/described in the early 20th century and the bacteria has been isolated from mummies.
#24 | Posted by jpw

Then it was released from the Top Secret Mummy Lab!
#67 | Posted by visitor_

#30 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 03:19 PM | Reply

#29 Depends on the actions. Shutting down the economy and dumping an experimental, barely tested, vaccine into the veins of newborns no.

#31 | Posted by visitor_ at 2026-04-28 04:16 PM | Reply

"Shutting down the economy"

Why did Trump do that?
And why aren't you blaming Trump for doing that?

#32 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 04:18 PM | Reply

Hello?
What's your answer, Visitor_

Why did Trump shut down the economuy?
Why did Trump okay ventilators?
Why did you vote for Trump?

#33 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 04:38 PM | Reply

Shutting down the economy and dumping an experimental, barely tested, vaccine into the veins of newborns no.

#31 | Posted by visitor_

LOL you're accusing others of being wrong then dump this s*&^ on the thread?

It wasn't experimental considering it went through trials.

The trials fully tested it to the extent every other vaccine would be tested with the exception of the longevity of the response (impractical given the situation).

It's never injected intravenously.

#34 | Posted by jpw at 2026-04-28 04:42 PM | Reply

"vaccine into the veins of newborns no."

Ha good catch JPW.

Visitor_ is a Certified Nursing Assistant, and he doesn't know the difference between intramuscular and intravenous.

#35 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 05:03 PM | Reply

Is it really a healthcare worker?

#36 | Posted by jpw at 2026-04-28 05:30 PM | Reply

Yep. He keeps mentioning ventilators because he killed a lot of people with ventilators and desperately wants it to be Somebody Else's Fault.

He'll never, ever blame Trump for anything that happened under Trump's leadership. Especially COVID.

#37 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-28 05:44 PM | Reply

"It wasn't experimental considering it went through trials.
The trials fully tested it to the extent every other vaccine would be tested with the exception of the longevity of the response (impractical given the situation)."

There's a difference between saying overreactions and missteps are understandable and inevitable in a situation like that, and outright justifying them. Your continual dismissal of any criticisms of how Covid was responded to often comes across as the latter.

The new vaccines were not tested for long term safety. Lots of corners were cut. But yet no one is supposed to question that even though Operation Warp Speed mostly happened under the first Trump admin?

From what I saw, elderly people were able to tolerate the side effects of the vaccine much better compared to people around my own age. Which begs the question whether it was necessary to provoke such a strong response in some people's bodies to the point where they couldn't work or drive or even walk sometimes. But I guess according to you no one can question that even five years later.

#38 | Posted by sentinel at 2026-04-28 07:36 PM | Reply