Hello Everyone,

My wife has had this for about 4 days now. She is allergic to mosquitoes and usually gets giant welts, but this looks different. The red circle is about 1/2" wide. It itches, and is not painful. I am still thinking mosquito, but just in case Figured the sig forum might know better.

Thank you!

Looks like the bullseye rash from a tick bite. Get to a doc.


o5

quote:

Originally posted by orion5:
Looks like the bullseye rash from a tick bite. Get to a doc.


o5

That's what I was thinking too. I would get that checked out ASAP.

My step daughter's friend had a similar looking bite.
Turned out to indeed be a deer tick bite.
Suggest going to ER ASAP.
Let us know how you do.

Lyme disease is not something to mess with, test isn't that great so usually just gets treated with antibiotics, take them all as directed.

Would a tick just bite and leave? She said she definitely has not seen one in forever, probably our camping trip a few months back. It is on her leg, so easily noticeable if something was attached.

4 days? Get to the Doc asap. Suspect Tick with Lyme association.

quote:

4 days? Get to the Doc asap. Suspect Tick with Lyme association.

Yes. I would suggest local ER since they see more of this thing. LL bullseye rash.

Deer ticks, which carry Lyme, are very small, much smaller than the common Wood Tick. So they can engorge, drop off and not be noticed. The titer to test for Lyme is simple (a small blood sample) and the results are known pretty much right away.

If it's positive, she'll start a course of antibiotics. Once you have it you are never rid of it completely, but it can be very well controlled.

No need to panic. Many people with Lyme never see the bite and don't go to a doc until the symptoms are just awful. So you are ahead of the curve. She'll be fine.

Tick or spider. Either way, with the redness and swelling, I'd see a doc soon.

quote:

Originally posted by justjoe:
If it's positive, she'll start a course of antibiotics. Once you have it you are never rid of it completely, but it can be very well controlled.

Not sure what you mean by "you are never rid of it." Complete hogwash if you mean the disease, true if you mean the titer (antibodies).

The best course of action is see a doc early and many of them will immediately prescribe (make a differential diagnosis) off the bullseye rash. To be safe, docs normally prescribe doxycycline typically 100 mg x 2/day for an adult over 30 days. Meanwhile they'll perform an ELISA and sometimes a Western Blot with the blood sample to check for the Ab expression. Whatever the prescribed amount, make sure she takes the full prescription, no stoppages; unless she's exhibiting an adverse side effect, of course. Borrellia burgdorferi, the pathogenic bacteria, exhibits the unique trait of taking up residence in the lymph nodes early on where it affects premature B-cells, making it a tough SOB to kill.

My spider bites have always been very small "watery" blister like places that are slow to heal...the small blisters pop up quickly but like I said, seem to hang around awhile before clearing up...that possibly looks like a tick bite to me...my known spider bites didn't look like that...but I'm not a doc...

It could be a really bad asshole mosquito bite that resulted in a bad bite spot...I've had some that were way worse than others...does it itch?...4 days is a long while to have a mosquito bite though.

Get it checked out by a doc. Deer ticks are very small and hard to see.

About 15 years ago, someone, I worked with had Lyme disease get misdiagnosed. By the time they found out what it really was the damage was done. He was walking with a cane because of back issues. He was in his later 20's at the time.

Play it safe.

Please let us know what the diagnosis is. And good luck!

Possibly an Asian Needle Ant sting, especially if there is a raised dot in the center with fluid in it.

That is hard to distinguish, the only way to be certain was if there was a tick.

I had a spider bite on my right hip years ago, it turned nasty. I actually thought cancer ad returned.

In either case, spider or tick, antibiotics are needed.

Thanks everyone for your help! The wife called her normal doctor this morning who was not able to see her, so she went to one of the emergency clinics versus going to an ER. The doctor that saw her was not sure if it was a spider or a tick bite, but was certain it was "some kind of bite". The doctor was really not much help, and prescribed antibiotics which we picked up at Costco for $8. If she experiences any pain or it doesn't go away in 5-7 days, come back.

Thanks again, love the forum we were going to just ride it out and see what happened, haha.

If I remember right you can't really test for Lyme disease for a few weeks. Best to play it safe with the meds.

I don't know what the LoneStar tick bite looks like but be very careful eating meat. You live in a state that they are abundant. A friend of mine had real difficulty breathing and went into anaphylactic shock when she starting eating meat after being bitten by that tick. She can no longer enjoy a good ribeye.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
If I remember right you can't really test for Lyme disease for a few weeks. Best to play it safe with the meds.

Recent infections are often determined by IGM level; the first antibody produced to fight an infection so an increase above the norm baseline is indicative of such. Symptoms and other diagnostics are used to determine potential cause, qpcr being one that can identify the bacterium at very low concentrations early on.