Found this mark on the body of my son this evening. It is near the ribs.
Does this look like a tick bite?
It could be. Was he anywhere today that is likely to have tics about?
He was rock climbing in the mountains the whole day.
The wider, slightly red patch looks a bit suss. I would get it checked. I had a similar reaction 3 years ago but was negative for lyme disease.
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I suspect he may have lyme disease. Why do these things always happen Saturday evening when the doctors are closed?
Isn‘t there a permanence you can go to? If you are near an airport, they have doctors as well
Good luck!
It doesn’t develop that fast. What’s the symptoms?
Not even close, tick bites have a ring and are much redder. Probably some other insect from outer space and now he is going to turn into a alien.
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The problem is we don’t know when he got it. He said he feels cold, but anyway he’s asleep in bed now so will see how he feels tomorrow.
I would get it checked. There’s a bite with a red patch around it and some symptoms.
Whenever my kids have had tick bites, the tick has always remained attached to the skin and we’ve had to use tick tweezers to remove it.
Checking Google, the tick needs to be attached for 36-48 hours for the bacteria causing Lyme’s disease to be transmitted.
To be honest, I sometimes feel cold in the evening after a strenuous day in the mountains!
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We had a similar case in the family. I assume the bite was a few days ago, not today. Has he been in the forest or in the park during the week?
Our doctor sent our family member to the emergency, because she had no more appointments on that day. In the emergency they prescribed antibiotics.
We have never seen a tick and it was a visible part of the leg and the person takes a shower every day. And the illness was transmitted anyway.
He’s always playing in the forests. I assume if it was a tick bite, it would have taken place days ago.
I would take hin to emergency as soon as he wakes up. The sooner he starts to take the antibiotics, the higher the chances are that the illness is cured. Timing is very important in this case.
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It’s worthwhile getting the vaccination if he’s regularly out in the forest / rolling in grass. It’s for tick-borne encephalitis. It’s a couple of doses and lasts for 10 years. I don’t think there’s a vax for Lyme disease, though.
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No, there is no vaccination. In some countries they recommend to take a single dose of antibiotics as soon as you discover the tick bite, but not in Switzerland. And in your case, like in ours we have never seen the tick.
FSME vaccination is recommended for everybody (except for Geneve and Tessin, I think). It doesn’t matter if you go to the forest or not.
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As others have said, it does not look like a tick bite, which always, IME, leave an open wound.
The localised swelling is more in line with a histamine reaction to a mossie bite or similar, which would normally also make it quite itchy and painful if scratched.
There’s a spread out discoloured patch (just inside the red line) which is quite faint but there nonetheless. It’s similar to what I had with a tick bite which prompted the blood test.
First DON’TPANIC! The wound isn’t displaying the classic bullseye associated with Lyme’s disease. But you need to have it checked out at the permanence tomorrow. Antibiotics will be prescribed and make sure he takes the full course of treatments even if he is beginning to feel better.
My wife was bitten a couple of years ago and didn’t go until the bullseye appeared. Regardless the antibiotics killed it.
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