Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 09:13:52 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Sherry Peruzzi Subject: Re: Tick-related MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Rick Sussman wrote: >Last summer my youngest daughter , who was already on antibiotics for >something or other, developed a bullseye ring on her thigh. We had her checked at the DR's and they said it was likely a deer tick bite, and the mark lasted quite a while. So beware, even while taking antibiotics and you get bitten, a bullseye CAN show up (or not). > It's important to understand that not all antibiotics work for Lyme disease (or for any particular pathogenic bacteria). The most common bacterial illnesses are caused by a variety of Streptococci ("strep"), and are treated with amoxicillin (the pink liquid well known to every parent of a small child). The Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes that cause Lyme disease doesn't respond to amoxicillin -- it requires doxycycline, which is normally prescribed only for some relatively uncommon diseases. So even if you're already on an antibiotic when you get a tick bite, the likelihood is high that it won't be the right antibiotic -- which is equivalent to not being on any antibiotic at all. And a deer tick bite by itself does not cause a bullseye rash -- the rash is a symptom of Lyme disease. Rick, you didn't make clear whether your daughter was put on doxycycline after the rash showed up. If not, take her to another doctor for a second opinion as soon as possible. It takes several months for the severe symptoms (arthritis, neurological problems, etc.) of Lyme disease to show up, and patients usually appear completely well in the interim. While early Lyme disease is easily cured with a 10 to 20 day course of doxycycline, once it has advanced it can be very difficult to treat. Sherry bookworms =at= comcast =dot= net (address munged to foil spammers) ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================